November 21, 2007

Jungle/Quichua Trips

We woke up and met at breakfast. After a quick meal of breads, fruit, yogurt, eggs, and cheese we meet our guide, Iván, at the reception desk. Our party of four was augmented by one when a German lady joined us for the tour.



We went and changed our shoes for rubber boots and got into the canoe. Along the way we grabbed some long balsa wood logs. We then headed into the jungle and walked for about two hours. Our guide showed us the different tropical plants and talked about the Indian medicinal uses. He made me into the queen of the jungle.



It was a very interesting tour. We even got to swing on a rope in the jungle.



After our walk, G and I quickly changed into our swimsuits in the jungle and we all hoped onto the handmade balsa raft and floated down the Napo River on the raft to our hotel. G and I got into the water for a bit, but it was super cold as the Napo River is a glacier fed river. It was still a lot of fun to hang on to the raft though. After we arrived back at the hotel we all headed back for a quick shower before eating lunch.

Lunch was rice and beans, tropical fruits, salad, and mashed potatoes. We then met our guide and headed to the butterfly pavilion. We received a tour of the butterfly tent. It was neat to see all the different species in the different gestational states.





We then walked through the town of Ahuano and went to three different cultural areas. The first was a Quichua family where we received a demonstration on chicha. After she was done we each drank a sample of five day-old chicha. One to ten day fermented chicha is drank by everyone, but after ten days it an adult only beverage. But I thought the five day drink was quite strong.

We then headed to a Quichua pottery maker. We received a demonstration on how they made pottery with the local river mud, and paint it with different rocks to achieve the coloring. They also have a tree bark that acts like a natural glaze and makes it shiny. It was very interesting process.

Afterwards we headed to a balsa carver. He makes all kinds of balsa animals by hand in the wood. He carved a Papagayo bird for us. It was then back to the hotel and G and Thomas headed off in a canoe to do some fishing down river. Once it got dark they returned and we headed off to dinner. Another tasty buffet of local typical foods.