Wednesday, 22 IX 2010
Time to high five all the monkeys and run like a little girl from the snakes jeje. It's jungle time!
There are two large national parks in the Orient called Cuyabeno and Yasuni. To explore them you need to devote quite a few days and a larger amount of money due to their hard access. Would be cool but there isn't time for everything and I need something quick to lick that selva.
That is why I chose Tena. Also, Hugo have a friend, Jorge, that possibly could help me with finding an individual guide and stuff. Sounded good so I loaded up on a bus that went with a siesta speed and it took 5:45h ($6) where a car needs only about 3:30h.
I went to see Jorge and so it happened his son, Jonathan, had to pick up his dirt bike from Puyo with another friend that owns a hotel. Why not, I'll get to see Puyo at least a bit. It took about an hour to get there but the roads are surrounded with the green beauty.
As it turned out Jonathan has a motocross race coming up and has a same style bike like I did :( My hands were shaking a bit as I watched him jump and slide in and out of turns lol. To my surprise he handed me the helmet afterwards YEAH!!! Dirt clouded my eyes and it was ON hehe. Ate some woops, caught some air and I was in heaven...
To my disappointment the hotel wasn't cheap and on top of that outside of town. We came back in the evening so I had no choice but to pay $17.50 (and I could have only paid about $8) since he said he'll make some calls in the morning to find a guide.
Thursday, 23 IX 2010
Luis, the owner, did not show up in the morning. Through the nice guy (Fidel) in the reception and some phone calls back and forth we headed out to Puerto Misahualli (45min - .80 cents). Fidel was accompanying me to make sure I'll meet my guide. As it turned out he just took me to one of the tour agencies there. Thanx for coming Fidel but nothing was arranged and I could have done it all by myself. Lesson learned.
The agency was called Teorumi (www.teorumi.com) and I took a 3 day package which cost me $130 with everything included. It's a low tourist season and I just missed one group in the morning so spending the night in one of the communities was out.
Armed with rubber boots I headed out at noon in a motorized canoe to the cabanas Shiripuno near by. After lunch (served on a palm leaf) and an hour siesta, my guide, Martha, showed up and we headed out for a hike in the secondary jungle that took about 3h.
It turned out to be pretty fun. She showed me different plants and what they're good for health wise. I learned how to make a fish trap out of palm leaves and a trap for a rat or other small bestia.
What I really enjoyed is eating all the fruits straight from the trees. I had a papaya, grapefruit, some other citric fruits, palmito, but the best was cacao. You suck on the seeds to get the gooey sweet layer off. After that you dry the seeds for three days on the sun and they're ready to make chocolate! Oh yeah, I made some good ass chocolate hehe. First you cook them without anything in a pot until they brown so you can peel them. Once that is done you grind it into powder, add some sugar and milk if desired and grind it once more. After that just add warm water and chonchito here I come jeje. I was eating it by the spoonfuls LOL Martha had to stop me to leave some for after dinner :) it was soooooooo gooooooooooood...
Full, I wobbled to the Napo river where I was handed a shallow wooden bowl and told to start washing rocks and dirt. Hmmmmmm ok, maybe they're on to something. Once the bowl was almost empty all what was left was GOLD! I'm rich!!! Not really lol cuz it was only gold dust hehe. One of the indigenous ladies gave me a rich smile though (see pic).
It was almost dark so all was left in store for today was dinner.
The whole complex was very primitive without electricity or hot water (not that you needed it in a hot and sweaty jungle). I took a refreshing shower just in time for clouds to form out of nothing in seconds and open up on you with full force. Slipping and sliding on the muddy trails I went to a diner hut where I had a delicious romantic candle light dinner. Too bad I was only having it with some hens that took refuge from the rain and watched me eating one of their own. I was watching them just in case they wanted to lunch a revenge attack.
It gets dark here a bit after 6pm so it was still pretty early. I went to the top level of my huge cabana to swing in the hammock listening to the rain, thunders and look into the horizon. Muy chevere!!! The only thing was that I was ALL alone somewhere in the jungle. Lightning would blind and illuminate everything on and off. I was just hoping not to see something that wasn't there a moment ago. Jungle horror movie moments were playing back in my head trying to psyche me out but all and all I really enjoyed the moment.
Friday, 24 IX 2010
Na sniadanie dostalem miedzy innymi omlet. Taki jak kiedys za mlodu jadalismy. Pamietasz Mateusz? Te duze i pulchne ktore przewaznie jadalismy z wisniami hehe mniam!
Nelson, my guide for today, took me with the canoe for about 30 min down the river where we were going to explore primary jungle. Also, that's where I was going to spend the second night in the cabanas by the river and not inside the jungle unfortunately.
Nelson with confidence started marching down the narrow trail and almost squished a snake! The snake jumped towards me and then into the bushes. It wasn't big, only about 3ft long but the head was proportionally huge. As it turned out it was a venomous one but lucky for us it was trying to swallow a frog and hence the huge head. The rest of the 4h jungle hike went by peacefully with only a bat that was hiding in a tree and wanted to say hello. I learned how to make a basket from yet another type of palm. I was able to play Tarzan and enjoy the not so distant views of the dense vegetation.
A French couple, Emilie and Marc, joined us at the cabanas for lunch at 1:30pm. It shouldn't have surprised me that we had a siesta planned until dinner. It wasn't to my liking but couldn't do anything about it or go anywhere for that matter.
After dinner when it was nice and dark we headed out for a night strole to spot the bugs, insects and alike. We weren't able to see too much because the moon came out quickly and it was in full force. Jungle creatures don't like it as they don't like the sun. What we saw was pretty cool though.
Saturday, 25 IX 2010
The canoe ride was about an hour to get to the Amazonico animal reserve. There are quite a few animal species that were rescued from or found abandoned by people. You can find variety of parrots, toucans, monkeys, even ocelots and other jungle bestias. To my dismay my guide was Jacek, a polish volunteer. This place is based only on volunteer work. You can pay $125/month to work with all the animals for free (minimum 2 months). I was told it's hard work but rewarding. You have to watch the crazy cappuccino monkeys that want to tear you apart any chance they'll get. There was one that totally lost it. It bit off his tail!!! It would jump on the fence shaking it violently or throw rocks, mud, wood and even trying to pee on you. Don't be fooled by their size. On the same crazy note there was one peculiar small parrot (about foot tall). It would grab the fence with his beak and try to grab you with his feet (see pic). Estan locos! Jacek said that sometimes it's quite a battle and retreat is the best option.
Homer: "Ok boy, I will go into the bushes and once I'll scare the animals out you catch them."
Bart: "Right dad."
Homer: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
LOL
Hmmmmm so where was I?
We floated a bit further down the river to see a small museum of traps used back in the day and practice our aim with a blow stick. We also ate lunch there directly from a palm leaf - chevere. Since the river banks were high there was a zip line set up to act like a Tarzan hehe. I did it quite a few times with different flip dismounts into the river. The most fun was to zip down upside-down with the holder stick behind the knees.
Instead of getting into the canoe we floated for a while in the inflatable tubes letting the current do its job. At the same instant as the sun was shining clouds came with a chilly wind. It took us about an hour and a half to get back up the river. This wind sure did not help my little cold that WAS on the way out.
From Puerto Misahualli I took a bus back to Tena arriving around 4pm. Not to waste time looking for a fancy or the cheapest hotel I just took one right next to the bus terminal ($8/night) since I will be going from there the next morning. Having some daylight left I headed out to centro. Nothing special. I walked around, ate a chicken on a stick with some sides ($1.50) and got back before it was dark. During my walk I've noticed a poster advertising a rock band concert tonight in some Gallera Disco. Why not? Might be fun. The poster stated 8pm so I got there about 15 min after just to find out it's not till 9pm. Ecuatorians know how to take everything despacito jeje. From one bad comes another good. Right outside the club I recognized one of the volunteers from Amazonico with a friend. To kill time we went by the riverfront to have a cerveza and chat a bit. Good times. Upon returning to the club ($5 cover with one drink included) past 9pm still nothing was happening so why not another Pilsner. People finally started to trickle in and some more friends of the two volunteers came by. With the music bumpn' loud conversations were pointless so dancing it was. The band was called Eso es Eso and they finally started playing at midnight! Only a 4 hour slide, tranquilito. They played pretty cool. I danced the night away and got back to the hotel around 3am.
If you take chances with a positive attitude something chevere is bound to happen :)
Sunday, 26 IX 2010
Somehow I managed to wake up to catch a bus at 8am to Cavernas Jumandy. It´s an underground cave system that is located about 45min away from Tena in the direction of Quito. There was no reason not to stop by and check it out.
Entrance was $3 and you had a pool and some water slides to disposition in front. To hire a guide it's $1/person or $5 if there is less then 5 persons. On the bus over I've met three happy lawyers (Ulysses, Mercedes, Monica) from Quito and joined their group. It is a wet one so I rented rubber boots ($1) and wore my swim trunks. Cave is pretty cool. There is one side corridor that splits into two more which dead end. The main one has only one exit. Knowing that you really don't need a guide and can wonder around freely with many bats that are hanging above your head to keep you company. You have to swim across at one point, you can lower yourself into the darkness of a 5 meter water filled chimney or get massages from small waterfalls.
In the afternoon we caught a bus back to Quito that went with a speed of a tortuga, yet again...
Monday, 27 IX 2010
Mindo is a very tranquil small village surrounded by the hills of a rainforest. It gives out a relaxing vibe with time standing still.
Thinking it's only for one night I left my tent and other things in Quito to have a light load. That was a mistake cuz that would be a nice place to finally roll out my tent. After dropping my backpack at La Casa de Cecylia ($6/night) I took a stroll to Mariposarium ($3 www.mariposasdemindo.com) which took 30min. It's not too big but a nice place to visit and relax a bit with the butterflies flying all around you or many humming birds in the garden right outside.
I had about 3.5h of daylight left so I decided to check out Casa Amarilla (www.yellowhousetrails.com). It is a privately owned forrest where you can spot tons of different kinds of birds ($6/two day entrance). There is a main road and 5 trails with one mirador. It is super nice to walk the narrow trails surrounded by the rainforest's vegetation. Make sure you like to eat spiderwebs with occasional spider or their pray as they set up across the trail. If you have time you can go through all of them but they don't differ much. At least hit trails 1-3 with a mirador located on the last one overlooking Mindo. The weather went south once again and it was drizzling on and off. Not many drops would get through the trees but because of that I only saw two birds. I didn't really take the time to stop and look for them either as I wanted to get through all the trails. I was told it takes two days to explore the forest and I plowed through it in 2:30h to beat the darkness. If you're gonna watch the birds then allow yourself a day.
If you'd like to camp, the mirador is the spot. There is a small wooden gazebo that can fit a small, freestanding tent and you'll have killer views. It took me (without a pack) 45min to get there through the trails (road = faster) instead of a claimed 1:30h. The owners will allow you to camp but don´t tell them you´re gonna set up there and do it when it´s almost dark.
Tuesday, 28 IX 2010
I headed out before 8am to the Tarabita de Montaña which should take 1:30h but it only took 50min. It is a metal basket that takes you across the canyon for 530 meters ($5) to enter Santuario de Cascadas. It is the only way to get over to the other side to see 7 waterfalls. Allow yourself at least 4h to visit all of them with occasional dip and rest. It is very pleasant to walk the trails and step over the stones to get close or right into the waterfalls. They are not too big, except Reina, but they have their charm and it's worth seeing them all. The weather wasn't too hot. Good for hiking but I opted out of swimming. The best ones to do it in are cascadas Los Colibries and Nambillo. I was walking fast as I had to catch a bus back to Quito at 3pm (last one for the day).
On the way back to town I stopped by to do zip lining. This one had 13 cables ($10) and they said it'll take an hour to do it. Pressed for time and having only about 30min it didn't look good. Since I was solo they decided to try if I walk fast. Cool, it's on. After walking for the past 5h non stop it was a strain to be hiking up between cables but it was well worth it! Zipping across the canyon, high above the trees, exposed to the wind is what I was craving. The never satisfied need for speed and flying!!! Really cool thing was when on one of the lines I was doing the butterfly, where I was totally upside-down in an X position. Other cool one was a supeman position (self explanatory). The rush was there and I wanted more!!! hehe It took only 25min and I was on my way to catch the bus. I made it and went back to Quito.
Water fall shots look awesome. If I can remember u don't want to pee while in the water. Some sort of parasite can travel ip your manhood. Lol. Have a safe and wonderful trip dzik.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're having an amazing time, and great pictures. Travel safely :)
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