Rio Verde & the Amazon

Well we've had a most enjoyable and busy week since we left Punta Sal, the beach and Peru. We crossed the border (which involved 2 immigration and 1 customs checkpoints) and continued to drive all day until we pulled over on the side of the road, just on dusk and set up a bush camp. As soon as we crossed into Ecuador, the difference in the terrain was most notable - suddenly green, tropical and hot.

The following day we continued on, and after stopping for lunch in a little town that seemed to only sell jeans we arrived at our hostel just East of Rio Verde. It's owned by a Scottish guy who used to drive overland trucks (including for Oasis) for 9 years. He and his business partner bought a block of land 14 years ago (for US$6000!) and have built the hostel on it. It's the kinda place I'd love to own and run one day... maybe that's ambitious, but it was really cool. We were there for 3 nights, and despite it being fairly rainy, we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the area.

Our first morning we headed into the nearby town of Banos (30 mins on a bus), where I had my first OK cup of coffee since we've been away. We wandered the picturesque centre and went for a swim in the natural hot spring baths, right at the base of a little waterfall. In the afternoon we went with some others from our tour for a "bridge swing". Basically there's a big long rope (25m) tied to a bridge, and then the rope is passed under the bridge and up to the other side, forming a big loop underneath. You then are attached to the rope, climb over the railing, stand on a tiny little platform and launch yourself off for a quick exhilarating freefall, before the rope picks up the slack and you swing to-and-fro under the bridge. Crazy fun!! I videoed some of us jumping, so I'll try and post that sometime.

After that we went for a walk down to Pailon Del Diablo, or Devil's Cauldron, which was absolutely unreal waterfall and apparently one of the top 10 in the world (however you measure these things). You can pay the grand sum of $1 to climb right up under the falls, which after all the rain Ecuador's had was a very wet experience. It's a tight squeeze, at points we even had to crawl, but to be standing underneath and be able to put your hand in the water (mind you it felt like it was going to get ripped off!) was fantastic.

The following day we went for a walk with Tommy and Asa up on a path that led to a whole lot of little waterfalls. After yesterdays experience they seemed a little underwhelming, but walking through primary rainforest with loads of flowers, butterflies, fungi was worth it, even if there hadn't been any waterfalls. We caught another bus up the road to a cable car that strings its way across the valley and back again. Again the $1 fee was happily handed over, although we weren't feeling so sure of our safety after we saw the guy who was operating the lift running what looked to be not much better than a converted lawn-mower engine :-P We arrived back safe and sound, and the view was great, so we'd definitely recommend it. Plus it was topped off with a fruit skewer run through a chocolate fountain (another dollar) :-)

After leaving the now much loved Rio Verde, with its hammocks, fantastic food (thanks for the apple pie Nick!) and serve-yourself beer fridge, we went on our way toward Tena. Tena's the white-water-rafting capital of Ecuador, but on this occasion we just stopped for a great lunch before driving an hour (30km :-P) into the Amazon. We parked the truck and caught a little motorized canoe up the river to the Arajuno Jungle Lodge, our home for the next 3 nights. Tom Larson is an American guy who's been living in Ecuador for decades, and about 10 years ago bought his own section of rainforest for conservation purposes. Originally involved with the Peace Core, he now runs the lodge as an Eco-Tourism project, and also works with local communities to help introduce environmentally sustainable practices, particularly in regard to fishing.

Again we had a blast while we were there, doing various activities. The river we were on feeds into a major river, which in turn feeds into the Amazon itself. It rained a fair bit the first night we were there, and the river came up a good couple of metres overnight. That didn't curtail our morning activity, which was a guided tour through the primary and secondary rainforest. Octavio was a most interesting guide, telling us stacks of information about everything we came across. He caught a poison arrow frog (pretty red, blue & black) for us to look at; we also saw a prehistoric looking centipede, a weird yellow bull spider, leaf cutter ants (they're amazing!), fungi, lots of plants that the indigenous use for medicine, cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon trees to mention a few things. We ate lemon ants and tasted a sap that forms part of the poison that's used on the tips of the poison blow darts.

The whole way we were accompanied by Mona, a 2 and a half year old Woolly monkey orphan that Tom came across somewhere, and who quickly became part of his family. She was loads of fun to have around the whole time we were at Arajuno, she's very playful and crazy. She seemed to take to the guys, and liked to just lie over our shoulders. She fully launches herself through trees (and out of them), and we had to be wary of her thieving hands during meals.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon hanging out in hammocks, napping and reading, before being fed an amazing meal (actually breakfast lunch and dinner were always great feasts) and playing cards and chatting late into the night. The next day we traveled 45 minutes down the river to Amazoonica, an animal refuge. There are lots of monkeys and birds that are ex-pets that will never be released back into the wild, but there primary purpose is caring for injured or orphaned wild animals with the intention to release them back in to protected areas of rainforest. We also saw wild cats, capybaras, cayman, turtles, pigs, loads of birds - some with stories that sound promosing, others that were more sad. Can't help but think if there's no hope of being released to the wild, no hope of establishing a breeding program, and no hope of them living a happy life in captvity, then they'd be better off spending their money and energy elsewhere. That afternoon after lunch we headed up the river in the canoe for about half an hour and floated down in tyre tubes. Lots of fun :-)

On our first night there we were woken just after midnight by one of our tour friends banging on our door shouting for the tour leader "quick, Sadie's fallen out of the top bunk, we think she's broken her arm!". That sort of problem is never easy to deal with at the best of times, so trying to deal with it in the middle of the jungle with no roads, mobile phones or decent hospitals made it even more fun :-P Turned out she had cracked the top of her humeorus, as well as semi-discloacted it. Two days, one metal plate, a couple of hours of surgery and US$5000 later, problem solved! And that's why we have travel insurance...

We had an early start as we headed back to Tena where Nik and I went white water rafting with 4 others from our tour. Certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far, we had a full 8 hour trip including lunch. We were in the water for probably 3.5 hours, enjoying grade 3+ rapids. Due to all the recent rain they were on the high side of normal. We all fell out at some point, although sometimes that was due to the guide giving us a helping hand. We paddled down 27 km of river, stopping a number of times to enjoy the scenery. Our penultimate stop was at a place where a little stream flowed out between some cliffs - we swam through the opening and it widened out to a sandy bed surrounded by rainforest, complete with little waterfalls. Looked like we'd stepped onto the set of a shampoo commercial. Our guides painted us up with coloured clay mud, it took more time to wash it out than it did to apply :-P Thanks to Asa for the photos. We ended up meeting our guide in the evening, and he took us out to a local Ecuadorian restaurant for a $2.25 set menu. Gotta love the price of food here!!

We're currently in Otavalo, more of what's happening will follow in our next post. Love to all!

Dining room at Rio Verde hostel. Nik & I were camping just off to the left of this photo

Hot spring pools in Banos

Me getting ready to jump

Underneath the waterfall

Orchid's on our 2nd walk

View from the cable car

Dining room at the Amazon lodge

Our cabin in the Amazon

Mona helping herself to a banana

Poison dart frog

An Ocelot cat, she's so pretty! No wonder they're poached for their furs.

Doesn't look quite as scary as it felt :-P

One of our stops along the way