Queen of the Amazon

March 13 – Word of the Day: Mariposa (Butterfly)

So for our second day in the Amazon we were to eat an early breakfast so that we could go on a rain forest hike right after.  I should mention that they gave us these giant rubber boots to wear on the hike which was pretty fabulous because 1) it was muddy but 2) it protected your feet and legs from danger. While we didn´t see any snakes on the hike, we were told that the Amazon is home to a wide variety of poisonous snakes.  We did see a TON of bugs on the hike though — big and small, colorful and not so pretty.  We kept seeing this gorgeous blue butterfly which would always elude me so I couldn´t get a picture.  I had to pull one off line though to show you… the Blue Morpho butterfly.   This picture doesn´t do it justice though.

The naturalist guide, Carlos, was very informative and taught us all kinds of cool things about the Amazon.  I could make this post really long and boring for you, but I´ll spare you and tell you that the most interesting thing we learned about were the lemon ants which you can apparently eat.  After eating the Palmetto weevil larvae the day before, I wasn´t feeling quite so adventurous, but J decided he was and tried them.  Ewww!

They make all kinds of things out of the palm leaves including hats, crowns, jewelry, parts of their houses.  The Quechua are very resourceful people.  Our guide demonstrated making a crown out of the palm leaves and then crowned me queen of the Amazon. 🙂   Halfway through our rainforest hike we got to take a basket chair zipline which was pretty fun, but less exciting than our ziplining in Costa Rica.  It was definitely HOT and we were ready to jump in the river after the hike.  We didn´t have to though because we were able to cool off on our raft ride back to the hotel.  They showed us how they made a raft out of balsa logs and each raft could hold ten people.  Sitting on it though you get pretty soaked.  Here´s a picture of J on the raft before we started (aka got soaked).  It was pretty cool though and I can now say that I could make a raft assuming I have a tool to cut wood.

After we returned to the hotel, there were optional activities for the afternoon.  Some people chose to head into town and explore… we figured we´d get enough of towns and cities throughout the rest of the trip so we skipped that option.  Others decided to go to the Butterfly Farm, but after the big blue butterfly in the amazon that morning I decided it was cooler to see them in the wild.  So J and I headed to an animal sanctuary run by some Europeans.  The Ecuadorian government sends animals there that need to be rehabilitated and those that can will eventually get re-released into the wild.  There were a lot of animals there that will stay at the sanctuary permanently including some “illegal pets” confiscated by the government.

Starting with the top left and going clockwise you can see a toucan, a tapir, me and my parrot friends who kept whistling at me and a cayman (similar to a crocodile).  There were a variety of other animals too including lots of different birds, monkeys, a capybara, and snakes.  J was in heaven.

I have to say that even though I will be sad to leave the Amazon tomorrow morning, it wil be nice to be back in slightly cooler and less humid temperatures.  Our room is open air (with screens of course) so it can get quite hot… especially if you want a sheet on you to protect you from mosquitos that sneak in.

I can confidently say though that J and I want to come back to the Amazon though probably through Peru or Brazil in the future to see other areas of it.

Intro to the Amazon

March 12 – Word of the Day: Caliente (Hot)

We continued to meet interesting people as part of the tour group throughout the trip and on Wednesday morning we boarded the bus in the cool Andes mountains to head to the hot and humid Amazon (hence the word of the day).  With all these bus rides, J and I were getting a lot of reading done.  I have since lost track of where I was with books at this point, but I think I was well into Insurgent.  We had various stops throughout our bus trips for drinks and snacks as needed.  We tried these limon remix doritos which essentially tasted like our lime tostitos. 

J also tried some yucca chips. Upon arriving in Punto Ahuano, we had to take a canoe down the Napa river in order to get to our hotel – Casa del Suiza.  Along the way we passed many of the indigent families doing laundry in the river.  I vow to never complain about laundry again given that I can do it in the comfort of my home and I don´t need to trek for 20 minutes to the river to do it.  This trip has helped to remind me that we have many things to be thankful for.

Above are two pictures from Casa de Suizo… the first is to show the ambience of the hotel and the second is the view of the Napa river you can see from the hotel.  Ahuano is a small Quechua villageon the north bank of the Napo River in Napo Province, Ecuador in case you want to read up more on our location.  Upon arrival we checked out our room and then relaxed in the pool before our afternoon activities started.

We took the canoe across the river to an island where approximately 40 Quechua families live and we got to learn a little more about their way of life.  The first picture below is of a broom made of leaves and termite nest.  The indigenous in the amazon use the termite nest to keep mosquitos and other insect pests out of their house.  They will add pieces to their brooms to sweep the floors, burn portions of the nest like incense or when out in the jungle, rub termites all over their arms and legs to repel mosquitos.  Sounds crazy but it works like magic!! The second picture below is of J learning how to shoot poison darts in case we´re ever stranded in the amazon looking for food and happen to remember how to make poison darts. 🙂  The woman of the house also taught us how she makes Chicha – their fermented drink.

Chicha is the name of the main drink that they use daily throughout Ecuador (and other South American countries) and many are derived from maize, including corn beer known as chicha de jora and non-alcoholic beverages such as chicha morada. Chichas can also be made from manioc root (also called yuca or cassava) and this is the kind that we learned how to make!  When we tasted it, it was sour.  I thought it tasted like a bad cider and J thought it tasted like liquid yogurt (I don´t like yogurt much so that makes sense.)

After saying goodbye to the family, we headed back to the hotel for a cooking lesson.  We learned more about the common foods in the Amazon and got to try them.  They typically eat a lot of hearts of palm (which is very yummy), fish like tilapia and trucha (trout), yucca (tastes kind of like potatoes), and grilled weevil larvae.  I promised J I would be more adventurous with foods on this trip so I tried it.  It tasted like a slightly slimy, very salty bacon.  Apparently the protein content is very high and thus they are very good for you to eat daily when you are working hard in the amazon!  The drink we tried was a tea called Guayusa which is an energy tea similar to our green tea and pretty delicious.  It actually comes from an Amazonian holly tree.

Side note for you all that I was slightly worried about contracting malaria and yellow fever because we didn´t get yellow fever vaccinations or take anti-malarial drugs on the trip.  After reading about it, I didn´t think there was really that much of a need given the area of the Amazon we were going to and we just didn´t have time.  However, we had several nurses, CRNAs, PAs and NPs on the tour with us and none of them took anti-malarials or got the vaccine so I felt a lot better after hearing that. 🙂

  J decided he would try the Ecuadorian beer while I stuck with a nice refreshing mojito to relax.  Not too bad for our first day in the Amazon.