Welcome to the Jungle...

We have successfully crossed in Ecuador. A much smaller country than any of the previous, we still had to choose our route to go through from Peru into Colombia. One route is coastal, through Guayaquil and interesting coastal communities with beautiful beaches and smoltering hot temperatures, through the Andes straight into Quito through Cuenca, or through the jungle. Having seen a beach recently and having seen much of the Andes in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru, we decided it would be a crime not to go through the Amazon basin while in South America. So we popped a couple of malaria pills and headed into what the locals call "el oriente." (By the way, malaria medicine is really rough on the body, ugh)

We have taken the most scenic bus rides to get here, busses that chug slowly along dirt/mud roads through fairly lush jungle. We have not seen any signs of travellers and the food has been pretty fun. We have seen frog on the menu, though it was expensive (relatively speaking) so we held out for the moment. We did have one lunch in which the two choices were chicken (pollo) or something we had never heard of. I (Adam) went with the something I had never heard of. Tracy went with the chicken. It was flavorful, as it was cooked in a peanut sauce. We got back to the hostel and looked it up, to learn it was tripe. Yum, something widely available in the US, but that I had never eaten before (and have little intention of eating again).

We headed out for a trip further into the jungle with a local who is Shuar. Shuar is the local indigenous group who have lived in the Amazon basin for thousands of years. We stayed in a small thatched roof hut, navegated on of the rivers (a tributary to the Amazon) in a hollowed out canoe, attempted fishing (with no luck), hiked through sometimes knee deep mud, got soaked by pouring rains, saw amazing flora and fauna, and got to listen to the jungle really start to make it jungle noises as the sun went down and after dark (it seems many of the species are nocturnal). Our new Shuar friend was extremely knnowledgable and was a regular Bear Grylls when it came to telling us the properties of each and every plant, be it medicinal, poisonous, edible, etc. He was also able to recognize bird calls and other sounds, identifying animals to us, which was actually nearly as impressive as being able to actually see them. He is also a traditional musician and told us countless stories about local shamans and traditional parties, some of which revolve around harvests and marriages and the like, and some of which are more unpredicatable, like when someone completes the healing process from a venemous snake bite.

Tomorrow we climb back to the mountains headed toward Quito. Some pictures from the past week-ish.

Bienvenidos A Ecuador!


Tracy and Rafael, navigating the river.


Flora


Adam with the jungle below:


Rafael pointed out the beginnings of being able to see this trees roots about 5 minutes worth of walking before we actually came within view of it. You will have to travel to Macas, Ecuador to see the whole thing, camera can do it no justice.


Flowers flowers flowers...




Typical Shuar home, also where we slept.


Adam unsuccessfully fishing:



Well I think we have spoiled you with photos for today. Post comments, send us emails, let us know if we are leaving anything out you would like to know about. We miss seeing everyone.