THE AMAZON JUNGLE

After our meal, we took the canoes and went on a hunt in the dark for nocturnal jungle life. We saw caimen, various night birds that are camouflaged so well, your first impression is that they are just broken, rotted, tree stumps, and we heard great, haunting, mystical sounds. It's a bit scary on the river in the dark though. Stuff is floating all over the place, as I mentioned earlier, and there are no lights. We went back to the Flotel, spent a little time on the deck again looking at the stars and listening to the wonderful sounds. All our days were spent in this same way during our time in this wild, unsettled, wonderful, untamed wilderness.

On our last night in the Amazon, it was early to bed, as wakeup call would be at 5:00, breakfast at 5:30, and departure in the canoes at 6:00. We went to bed about 10:00. Up to this point, we still had seen no bugs, and as far as we knew, had received no bites.

At 11:00, I started to itch like crazy on my arms and legs. Funny, how could that be.........we never saw a bug, but kept ourselves covered with insect repellent as instructed. I had no sleep........ I itched all night. Ed woke up itching about 4:00. Those darned elusive bugs really WERE here in the jungle!

After breakfast, we boarded the dugouts, in the pouring rain, as usual. Of course, heavy rains were to be expected. We were there during the rainy season, and after all, we were in the rain forest. We traveled three hours up the river toward the place where we would again board the bus. This trip was an hour shorter than our arrival trip. One of the reasons was that the Flotel had been repaired. During the previous night, when we should have been sleeping, the Flotel traveled toward Chiritza, saving us quite a bit of travel time in the dugouts. Another reason was that we were traveling in a high speed canoe this time, but we were traveling against the strong currents, which slows down the travel process.......so the high speed canoe really only balanced things out.

Along the way, we spotted a large village. This village had a community center. There were many people gathered there. They were holding an election, to make a decision as to whether or not a new county would be established. Everyone was waving to us as we passed by. To be sure there was no hanky panky during the voting process, armed guards dressed in camouflage, with high powered rifles, were there to provide their services.

About 20 minutes before we would have reached Chiritza, the engine conked out on our dugout. The operator tried and tried to restart the engine, but nothing was happening. He had the motor apart, worked on it, and still couldn't get it started. There was a backup motor, but that wouldn't start either. There's only 1 flight a day to Quito. If we miss it, where will we stay for the night, and how would we get off this river? Terrible visions began to dance in my head. The currents in the river are very strong, and we were being pushed by the waters, back to the direction we just traveled from. We lost an enormous amount of time.

After a long while, the engine finally started. Yikes, was I happy! Just a very few minutes after we once again began to travel, we got stuck on a sandbar. We couldn't believe what was happening to us. Will we ever get off the sandbar and reach Chiritza??? I surely had my doubts at this point. Yes, thank God!!! We finally arrived in Chiritza.

It was still raining down in buckets. We had to get out of the dugouts, walk through the deep mud, and head toward the bus that was waiting and waiting for us to arrive. We no longer had ponchos or boots to protect us, as these are the property of the Flotel, and we had to leave them behind when we entered the dugouts for the last time. We barely had time to use the bathrooms before the bus was going to pull out. Now we still had to face a two hour ride on the bus back to Lago Agrio, where we would, hopefully, catch the plane back to Quito. Having to travel in the bus, and on the plane, soaking wet and mud covered, was hardly the most comfortable thing we'd ever done in our lives. We did make the plane on time.......JUST on time!

New bites kept appearing on our bodies for 10 full days after we left the Amazon. These were the strangest bites we ever received. There were no welts. The marks didn't appear for days after the actual bite occurred. The bites were very deep, and in the center was a very large, black spot. They remained on our bodies for about two weeks after they first appeared. Can you imagine how many bites we would have had if we had not used lots of repellent? I shudder to even think about it.

The natives still live as they have for centuries. They raise corn, which has very large kernels, and is delicious, and as mentioned, they hunt for their meat with blowguns. They also fish. Their meat consists of birds, wild boar, deer, chickens, and monkeys. Bananas are very plentiful, as well as yucca. Even soup is made from bananas. If a man makes a large catch, such as a boar or deer, the meat is shared with others in the community. They have no means of refrigeration.

These natives are the happiest people I have ever seen. It proves what I have long known. The more simple the life, the happier the people. I truly envy them.

Was this a good experience for us? Absolutely. Would we do it again? Definitely. We learned so much here.

If you would like to view my complete photo album of the Amazon, just click here.