THE JUNGLE """"""""""""

Hey all,

I know I have not updated in a while but I have been really super busy and I actually have not even had time to write in my Travel Journal for over a week, so this will be my first entry of my trip to the Jungle. We left last Wednesday (July 11) for our 5 day travels throughout the Jungle. The first day we traveled thru the ORIENTE, which the region of land next to the Sierra, where Cuenca is located. Its kind of like the Midwest, Northeast, etc. in the US. The scenery was amazing, we were literally driving over waterfalls on our way through the Humid and Hot climate, which wasa huge change from Cuenca. There was so much plant life that covered all the mountains surrounding our bus. The bus ride, just by itslef was amazing and I felt like were in a totally different country traveling throughout the ORIENTE region of Ecuador.

Then we made a stop in the city of Logroño, which is where we made "The Switch" which is when we transfered all of our stuff into the back of a pickup truck and so that the rest of us could fit in another pickup truck to travel to our final destination for today, which was the small community village of Najempaime. The pickup truck we traveled in was modified slightly with wooden boards that came up on the sides that came up to my waist when I was standing in the back of the truck and there was a pole that was at about the height of my head that ran across the middle of the back of the truck so we had something to hang onto during our half our ride to the pueblito de Najempaime. The ride was a little bumpy but was very cool, I felt so free to be able to move around in the back of this pickup truck and it was nice because we were able to look at all the scenery and not have to the restrictions of the bus. Plus the most exciting part was traveling over this huge bridge that looked like something out of a Indiana Jones Movie, that looked like it was going to fall aprat any moment. We actually had to get out of the truck and walk across it because the truck driver was not sure if the bridge could hold the weight of all of us on one pickup truck, eek! But obviously we all made it across because I am alive and writing to you all right now, haha. Then we had some hills to get over and we eventually makde it to the pueblito (small town). We were sleeping overnight at the elementary school on the floors of classrooms. We had sleeping bags and little foam pads, which do nothing, from the travel agency. We had almost the whole afternoon to oursleves to do whatever we wanted.

The first adventure in this pueblito was to go to the river that was close by. If your wondering if I got in, I did not, but it was because I did not want to be wet for the whole night becuase we did not have bathrooms, except for the bush next door to the classrooms, haha, and the fact that I forgot to bring a towel. Anyway on our way to the river, which was less then 5 minuntos away, a group of kids followed us to the river, about 15 or so kids around the ages of 5 and 12. This was the start of our bonding relationship with the kids for the remainder of the night we were in Najempaime. Then after the river we went back to our classrooms and hungout with the kids on the basketball/soccer cement field and basically anywhere any of walked we had a shadow of kids behind us. It was really fun to hang out with the kids and whenever anyone took a picture, they all wanted to look to see what they looked like, since most of us students have digital cameras. There was one kid in particular that I hung out with and a couple of other students. This boy, about 4 or 5 years old found some chalk somewhere and started rubing it all over his face and arms, and said he was just like us, since the chalk was white. It was quite funny and we eventually punned a name for him "Blanquito" (little whitey), he stuck with Kendra and I the whole night until we went to bed, it was muy chevére. Then for dinner that night, we had freshly slaughterd chicken with YUCA, which is a kind of plant that taste like a potato, along with really good YUCA soup to go along with everything, oh and they also had popcorn for us to put in our soup! The chicken was funny becuase earlier the women cooking our food had it in a plastic bag, one you would find at a grocery store, and its feet for the onlything sticking out. Mind you the chicken was still alive in the bag, and Esteban´s wife Joanna tried to do some of her healing on it to make it more calm. I thought it was kind of funny and I got a really good pic of it. ANYWAY, we had a very good time playing with the kids and getting to know this town which had welcomed us with open arms and let us stay in their school. The next morning we woke up pretty early and had Café, Eggs, and Bread/Jelly. It was very filling and to get on with our trip we got back on to the pickup trucks and traveled back to the ciudad de Logroño to get on a bus to take up to SUCUA:

The bus ride was again amazing with jungle views and blue skies. When we arrived in SUCUA, we immediately went to the Universidad de Shuar, which is a university that specializes in the study of indigenous groups including the SHUAR, which our the group of indigenous people that would be hosting us in the Jungle for the next to nights (Thursday and Friday Nights). We recieved a lectura on the Shuar from a professor that has been studying and writing text books on the SHUAR for the last 20 yrs. It was very interesting, but I was kind of tired already becuase the pueblito that we slept at in the classrooms, there was music that played the entire night that kind of kept me up, but it was fine, I perked up once we went to our next destination which was the "Anaconda ZOO" It was more like a little animal park then a zoo that you might think of in los Estados Unidos. We saw many animals, but the one I like the most was a little hairy hog, for some reason I thought it was muy chevére!

After the Zoo, we went downtown SUCUA to get some chow. While we waited for our food the Tour Guide and I traveled the city, because I was looking for the hotel that my Host Mom´s Aunt own and lived in. My mom had told me about her Aunt living in SUCUA before I left so I was excited to be meeting some more familia. It was nice that our Tour Guide lived in SUCUA, becuase he knew exactly where the hotel was. I basically said HOLA and had some small chit chat with the Aunt and then went back for Lunch. It was cool just to know that I had met some extended family of my Host Mom´s. For lunch I had a big piece of beef toped with an egg over easy and rice and a delicious avacado. Then when we done filling our bellies, we traveld to our last destination before the Jungle which was the ciudad de MACAS!

In Macas, we travled to a friends house of CEDEI to drop of any unecessary luggage we wouldn´t need in the Jungle, since we would be returning to MACAS and staying there on Saturday night and the fact that we had to walk an hour and half inside the Jungle just to get to where we were staying, so you had to carry only what you needed. Then we made one last stop at a convienent store, so if we wanted to get any last goodies, we could get them there. Then it was off to the SELVA (JUNGLE)::::::

We travled on a really nice highway, and before I knew it we stopped on the side of the road and started getting all our stuff together. I quickly realized that we were going to just start walking into the Jungle Brush, right off the highway road. The beginning of the walk was through some farmland, then after about 10 minutos we were at the entrance to the dense rainforest enviornment. I could not believe it we were actually going to start hiking through the JUNGLE; I was going crazy over the excitement! WIthin the first minutes I saw so many different kinds of plants and insects, it would take days to decribe them all, and right away we saw tons of ants, like the ones you see on the Discovery Channel all the time, and they carry leaves in their mouths in huge lines that strectch forever and all over. I tried taking pics of them but they were really difícil to fotograph. Then we had to cross little streams that were all over the place, which were really slippery and very muddy, muchas personas fell over and into the mud, it made the hike that much more fun, at least for me. Then we made it to another clearing, where we saw a huge tree that had fallen over and we were able to stand in the hoe where it once was, muy muy chevére! Eventually we made it to our final destination, which was the HUT BUNGALO, that sat on the edge of a tiny waterfall/stream and had two floors. The first floor was our Eating/Hangout/Demonstración Area. Then the Second floor is where the guys slept. We did not sleep in tents, because we were right above where they cooked the food and where the fire was, so all the smoke got rid of most of the bus that would be crawling around us at night. We had little mattress pads, which were actually very comfortable, and even pillows to go with it. I was very happy to have the mattress, becuase I was sore from sleeping on the wood floors of the classrooms in the previous town. Then after we dropped our stuff down, we traveld with the ladies to where they would be spending their nights, which was about a 5-10 min hike from our HUT. I was glad I did not have to take this hike, because a night it rained a lot and the trail became very muddy and slippery. Anyway, when we got the ladies Bungalo, we discovered they were right next to a good size river, and I was so glad to see water, because I was sweating my balls off by this time and most everyone else was too, and before you could even say "El Río" people were getting into their swimsuits, or for me, I stripped down into my boxers since I forgot swimsuit in my bag back at our Hut. We swam and bathed in the river and it felt so nice, I did not even worry about what was in the river, because for one I was crazy hot from the walk and two, the river was very clear and looked more clean than most rivers I have seen the States. If you have facebook, you can see alot of the fotos from this river experience, especially some funny ones of me in my boxerbriefs, haha.

After the river, we all went back to the main HUT, and got ready to eat. Adios Mío (Oh My God) the food was amazing in the Jungle, I felt like I was at five star restaurant the whole time we were in the jungle in regards to our food and tour guides who doubled as our chefs and "waiters". ALso, I wanted to remind you all, that the guides were part of the indigenous community of the SHUAR, so they were letting us experience their land, that is reserved for them, kind of like the Indian Reservations in the US. I can´t remember what we ate that first night but it was very good I remembwer that much. Then after dinner most people played cards, made jewlery from seads our guide pick from a plant in the Jungle, or just hung out and talked with one another. While we were all hanging out, this "bat" came out of nowhere and flew around everyone and when "it" eventually landed we figured out that it was not a bat, but a humongus MOTH! This things was way bigger than my hand and was crazy to look at. It had the colors and design that looked like feathers on an owl, our guide told us that its main defense was to imitate a bigger animal like an owl. AFter that excitement I was about ready for bed because I was so exhausted, but I had another suprise waiting for me next to my bed when I climbed up to our second floor "bedroom". The one insect I hoped I would never see was a big hairy spider and what was sitting next to my mattress, a HUGE spider that was crawling quite fast once I shined my flashlight on it. I quickly smashed it and wiped up the guts infear that more spiders or insects would come and try to munch on its smashed guts. After the spider I think I inspected my bed for the next 10 minutes and actually went back down, because I wanted to delay going to bed just a little longer so I wouldn´t face the bugts just yet, haha. I eventually went to bed with my scrub pants tucked in my socks and my long sleeved shirt tucked in my scrubs and my sleeping bag tightly rolled around me and flashlight in hand, ready for any action that might be crawling on me.

I survived the night and was alive the next morning to eat our egg omlet, with fresh made jelly to slober on the moist rich bread and rolls. To wash it all down we had freshed squeezed juice. Today we would be going on a 4-5 hour hike thru the jungle! I was very excited:

We started the hike by traveling to the Ladies HUT, because we needed to cross the river right by their Hut. So you might be wondering...How did we cross the river? Well, we traveled across the river in a raft that was about 5 logs wide and only two people could cross on them at a time, and their was a guide pulling us across on the metal cable that ran across to the other side. I will post a pic of this so you can see what it looks like. I was definitely a little unsure about the whole thing, and that is why I did not go first and watched the others, haha. I was actually not that bad and everyone helped out each other so noone fell in the river. Then once we crossed, it was like wildlife was jumping out all around, I immediately started taking pictures of little froggers sitting on the huge plant leafs and the scenery surrounding us. The beginning of the hike started out in a less dense part of the rainforest and the guide stopped a lot to explain some of the plants we were walking on and around. He showed us the plant that sits above us on our Hut and keeps us dry throughout the night. He showed us how they wrapp them together and dry the plant out so that the roof is waterproof and is very durable. Then we hiked a little more, and this time we were heading uphill, which throughout most of the hike we headed up and down, there really was never any "flat" land to be seen. Then we stopped a second time to eat a plant that literally looked, felt and pealed just like String Cheese. The plant is used by the indegenous to "quench their thirst" because the plant absorbs a lot of water and I thought it was pretty tasty myself. To show us the plant and get enough for everyone to have some our guide carried a Machete around with him and just chopped away, I almost wished I had a machete so that I could do the same, but I was glad I did not, because I tried holding on and those things are really heavy or at least the one our guide was carrying, I was just trying to stay on the trail and not fall head first into the mud or the person in front of me. Then for about the next hour and half, we hiked through really dense jungle, and I took tons of pictures of the crazy flowers, insects and tree trunks! I did not stop to long to take pics because I felt like the Jungle would of started growing around me if I stopped for too long, the insects were everywhere and if you paused for too long they would just started crawling on you like you were just another tree or part of the Jungle. Throughout the hike, I talked with Joanna, who is the wife of Esteban (our director from CEDEI). She is so cool and teaches little kids english in a pre-school, so you can imagine she is always upbeat and can make anything sound fun and interesting. It was really cool to have her thier to talk with and laugh about all the crazy things in the Jungle, and we helped eachother get through some pretty tuff spots, where I was practically sliding down the hill and couldn´t stop myself, but Joanna would be there to give me a little boos to fo energy to make it up. Then after about an hour and half hiking through dense Jungle, we came to a clearing at the top of this mountain we were hiking up. The view was spectacualr and looked like something out of Jurassic Park. Everything was coverd by the tree tops and there was a slight mist that lumed over the tops of trees and over the mountains. We rested and soaked up the view and I got a really good group foto as well!

Then our next adventure was to cross the river again, but at a deifferent sopt and altitude. We took a tram like device across the river, with the river about 20 feet below us. It was very cool to ride it and it was powered byt the guides pulling the rope. I could not believe I was doing all of this and that I was actually here in the middle of the Jungle, I felt like I was living a Discovery Channel special in the Jungle. Then we eventually got back to the our respective Huts (guys and girls) haha, and I was ready for a shower, so I put on my bathing suit and hiked to the waterfall that was about 5 minutes from the Hut I was staying in. The water was definitely cold, but I was excited to be taking a shower in a waterfall that I did not even notice the cold, I shampoo my hair and all that jazz. It was muy chevére the experience. Then in the late afternoon, I hiked to the girls Hut to watch how the Shuar make their medicine to heal one another. It was interesting information, to see how the SHuar used all the elements of fire, earth, wind and water in their medicine mixture and how they use this mixture to heal eachother. It was cool to experience this and I got some really cool picks of some walking stick insects and a spiky looking tree high above us.

Dinner that night was exceptionally good with Fried Yuca, that looked like french fries, and Meatballs with a side of avacado and vegetables. Along with Yuca soup and Pan (bread). After dinner we were able to experience the Shamen cleaning. A Shamen is a perosn in the community of the Shuar who is able to heal others in the community and does a "cleaning" which consists of using tobacco smoke (not a cigarette) and plant rubbing and use of a water/alcohol mix to cleanse the inside of the body. A couple of the girls in our group got to expierence this and it was only a demonstración. Then after, it was time for the Bedtime Bugs! haha, I was very exhuasted this night and I of course I did my inspection of my bed and I was glad that I did because I found a type of Cockroach that was the size of a Twinkie, As soon as I shined the light on it, it started running towards me and I was like, oh no you did not, so I politely smashed it and while I was smashing it, another one of the students was climbing up to get ready for bed and was like "Wholly Shit" and I said yeah no kidding, and kicked the Cockroach down below where we eat and it landed perfectly on its back on the middle of a table below. The situation was hilarious after the fact and when the CockRoach landed on the table the girls below were all sad that I had killed the Roach, but I did not care, i did not want to be sleeping with it crawling on me. It was funny the girls acted so sympathetic towards the Roach, because the following morning they came for breakfast with stories about more than 15 of these huge cockroaches that were crawling all over their Hut and they explained how they we freaked out,haha. After breakfast, which consisted of more Egg omlets and Pan (Bread) y Jelly, we traveled to a Shuar community. We were supposed to get a tour and a lectura of the community, but when we arrived we quickly realized their was something wrong and noone was in their homes. We found out that their was a funeral going on in the community of no more thatn 43 personas. So our guides took us to the school and we kind of hung out for a while and rested and walked back for Almuerzo (Lunch). Lunch, was very good and consisted of Pasta, Platano (a type of banana that is really sweet) and really really good seasoned bread. After Lunch, it was time to leave this Jungle Paradise and we hiked through the same path we took and one of the girls on the trip actually took a horse back to the road! We eventually made it and cought up with our bus which then took us back to MACAS, where we would be spending the night. We spent the night in a very nice Hotel, where we could get a very clean shower and get rested in nice comfortable beds. We actually went out to each a Chinese restaurant, which was owned by Chinese, so it was really good! I decided to stay in the night, because I could barely walk and all I felt like doing was watching the Simpsons in Spanish on the TELE! It was pretty hilarious to watch since the voices were definitely not the same and their were other actors filling in the voices in Spanish of Bart, Lisa, Homer and Marge.

So the final day (Sunday) we traveld in a bus for over 8 hours back to Cuenca and watch a couple movies on the bus and enjoyed the views and said our goodbyes to the Hot and Humid Climate and back to the Mountainous climate in Cuenca. I think this is about it, I might add some more details later in other blogs, but this was pretty much what it was like in the JUNGLE!

Ciao Ciao!