It's a jungle out there...

Tessa and I at the beach.

I apologize for the delay between posts; school has been keeping me busy, and for a couple weeks I was living out of a suitcase!  October 29-November 3 was the Dia de Disfuntos break (Day of the Dead) for most of Latin America. With the days off of school, I went with my host brother, his girlfriend, my host-cousins, and my friend Tessa from school to the coastal town of Tonsupa. We spent the time on the beach (for the two days of sun we had), eating the best ceviche of my life, and playing cards.  Overall it was relaxing, save a traumatic experience or two, and we enjoyed our time out of the city.  

A little more noteworthy is my most recent adventure to the Amazonian jungle.  We drove back from the beach on Wednesday night, I went to school and taught on Thursday, and Friday morning I was enroute to the Tiputini Biodiversity Station.  I didn’t know any other students who were going, so I was apprehensive about how much fun this would be.  Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.

Friday morning, the 5^th, I arrived to the airport to take a 25 minute flight out of Quito to Coca, a small jungle town that is really about 10 hours from Quito if you drive through the mountains.  I chatted with some of the other students as they arrived; mostly bonding with one girl, Kristin, who is from Wisconsin.  We reminisced about Midwestern pleasantries and how we were loving Ecua, but were ready to see the comforts of home. Anyways, on our flight we pass magnificent views of the volcanoes surrounding Quito. Cotopaxi and Cayambe were at their prime.

You can see three volcanoes here... Cayambe front and center, Antisana to the left in the back, and Cotopaxi far away to the right. Magnifico!

We arrived in Coca to a bus that took us to a boat dock a few minutes away. The city was already substantially warmer than Quito, so we snacked on ice cream and played with the monkeys that entertain the patrons awaiting their boats. As soon as our boat arrived, we motored down the Napo river for two hours.  After docking at another station, we then hauled our backpacks and bags to another open-air bus. We ate lunch and tried to sleep on this bus for another two hours.  Arriving to a bridge over the Tiputini river, we descended the hill to another boat, and we sped along this winding river for another two and a half hours.  Needless to say, this place is remote.

Boat ride #2

We walked up the stairs to find a fantastic facility.  The TB station is about 15 years old, and is a collaborative effort between Universidad San Francisco de Quito (my university here) and Boston University.  This place is one-of-a-kind.  When the world went through its ice age millions of years ago, this section of the Amazon on the equator did not freeze. There are hundreds of species of trees per hectare, where in places like the US, you might find eight.  Over two hundred species of mammals inhabit the entire property of the station, 110 of which are species of bats.  

These are the cabins we stayed in. My roommates were Kristin from Wisconsin, Jacob from Virginia Tech, and Tom from Georgetown.  The station only has electricity from 10 to 1pm in the afternoon, and 6 to 930pm at night. The water is taken out of the river, filtered and cleaned, used, then cleaned again, and returned to the river.  They have their own biodegradable soap that is provided that we used to wash our hands, hair, and bodies with.  One afternoon it rained after our morning caminata (hike) and we all played in the rain outside of our cabins.  We washed our hair outside underneath the rainspouts that water off of the roof. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

Meyer

 

Meyer was our guide. I never asked how old he was, but he was swinging on vines and tiring us out each day we were with him.  He uses medicinal remedies from the jungle whenever he has an ailment or sickness.  His arthritis was cured by a type of tree bark that he took in a tea each morning for a month or two.  He showed us a tree that cured a friend’s prostate cancer. This man knows the jungle, and I think he could save diseases throughout the world with some of his natural concoctions.  He was precious – always wanting pictures of us with his camera too, after we’d ask him for a group shot of ourselves.  I hope we meet again someday.

Animals were everywhere. We saw a tapir (super rare), families of monkeys, tarantulas, caimans (small crocodiles), toucans, various species of spiders, insects, birds, bats, and not to mention the plethora of flora.  The 300 plus year old trees were some of my favorites to admire and photograph.

The Tower

We climbed countless terrifying stairs to the top of the tower that’s built into an impressive tree overlooks the canopy.  There’s a telescope up there that Meyer would magically find birds through and beckon us to see once he focused on them.  I took this picture through the telescope, and then was able to zoom and focus to take the second one.  Two of my favorite pictures ever!!

A similar tower a few hundred meters away brought us up to bridges connected by cables between trees that were higher than the canopy and overlooked the green horizon.  I had to remind myself not to be so terrified and to enjoy the view in front of me as I pushed my carabineer along the cable above my head.  The harnesses seemed secure, but I still couldn’t climb all the way to the top of the ladder onto the platform.  Getting to the top, looking around, and making my way back down was sufficient for me. There were flying, biting ants all around us the entire time that were also distracting.  Overall, incredible and unforgettable.

The group I went with ended up fitting fantastically.  We all got along amazingly well for none of us really knowing each other beforehand.  Some students were from the states, but some were exchange students from Canada, Germany, and Singapore. Meeting kids from around the world was great - even if government and politics did come up a few times. We were all agreeable and sensitive to opinions and learned a lot about one another. 

Monday morning we started our trek back to civilization at 8am, and I arrived back to my host-family's house by 5pm. I've had a lot of catching up to do, but Angela has helped out a lot by taking over most lessons for the week before I start up again tomorrow. 


This past week was spirit week at school, so the following post will show off my kids and their dress-up days. 


I hope the midwestern-ers are enjoying the snow! I heard you all had a rude wake-up call to winter. Stay safe and warm. :) Besos a todos.