All I have to say is that Ecuador is AMAZING!! So far its the best country I have been to...sorry to all the others its just that there are so many adventurous activities to do here and its so easy to do them! It seems like so long since I last wrote, but really its only been a few days and I can´t believe how much we have done in that time. We went to the equator, just to say that we have had one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot in the Southern Hemisphere at the same time. It was like a ghost town in the middle of nowhere because it is the low season for tourism there was no one there. To be honest the best thing about it was the view, but that was about it....but we had to do it, couldn´t go all the way to Ecuador and not got to the equator!!
April parted ways in Quito last Friday and went straight to a place called Baños (baths) and Amy and I went to a place called Tena, which is where our rafting guide was from. He hooked us up with another rafting session for really cheap and also a jungle tour in the Amazon. We took the bus to Tena, it was about 5 hours, and stayed the night in a hostal there and randomly bumped into Tarquino (the rafting guide) down the street who organised the rafting trip for the next morning. Tena is a really cute little rafting town and there are kayaks and rafts everywhere. We went to a little bar that had swings and had a drink but were so tired after doing nothing all day that we went to bed pretty early...all ready for the big day of rafting tomorrow.
We had a cool group of rafters on the trip; it was really multi-cultural. There was another girl from Germany who was so funny. The rafting guide always finds one person to pick on in a fun way and this time it was Leah and he kept pushing her out of the raft when she least expected it. It was so hilarious! There was another guy from Argentina who now lives in Miami also and our great rafting guide Tarquino. Anyways this river was different from the one we went on the first time; it was calmer in parts so we could do more tricks with the raft like we all sat at the back and the raft did a mono for ages, then we flipped it over and made a human pyramid until Leah fell on everyone...We also sat on the front of the raft, like rodeo riding and went down the rapids, that was really funny. Everyone fell off before the rapids even started, but I stayed on right up until the end...Tarquino said it was because I was a horse rider. And we also did this thing where we paddled straight for a big rock and kind of launched up it like a ramp so high we almost flipped over backwards...that was fun! It was a really long river and we were rafting all day, didn´t finish until about 4:30pm and we started at 9am. Straight after that Tarquino took us to a friends jungle lodge about 30 minutes from Tena and then another 30 minute hike into the jungle. It was such a cool place and it felt like you were in the middle of nowhere. The lodge had hammocks everywhere, but there was no time for lazing around that night as we had dinner then went on a night hike in the jungle. The safety talk at the beginning of the hike was a little scary as the guide, Angel (pronounced Anhil) told us about a snake that only comes out at night and usually stays on the trails and is attracted to light....and we all had flashlights to guide our way, so in reality the snake would be attracted to us. Angel was a teacher in natural jungle medicine and showed us all the plants that aid in almost every ailment you can think of. It was fun walking through the jungle and even funner when everyone turned all the lights off and you were plunged into darkness. It felt as though you were the only person in the world and all you could hear was the sounds of the jungle birds and the rushing of water in the river below. It is plain to say that we were incredibly tired and pretty much zonked out that night. The next morning we had the most amazing breakfast of fresh fruit and plantains and then went on another hike with Tarquino and Angel. We did so many things on this hike i´m struggling to remember it all. Firstly, along the way he pointed out all the plants and trees and their function. Some had to do with medicine, some had spiritual meanings, some were just really dangerous to humans and others worked in symbiosis with the animals of the jungle. It was incredible to see and hear all this amazing stuff about the jungle and we even got to try first hand some of the magic of it. We ate this root that amde your whole mouth numb and tingly...that was weird, then we licked ants that tasted like lemons...that was weirder. The best part was when we went down to the canyon and walked through the water down the canyon. There is even gold in the river and people pan for it everyday. We even saw a bit, but couldnt pick it up because of the current. We didn´t get back to the lodge until about 2pm then had some lunch then we were meant to go watch the native people pan for gold in the river but we all fell asleep in the hammocks until it was time to leave the jungle. As we were walking out the storm came in...it was an amazing sight seeing the black clouds rolling in and the thunder was so loud! We had quite the experience coming back into Tena...we were trying to catch the bus from the side of the road and we saw one coming to we waved it down...turns out that it wasn´t a real bus, just the front part was and the back was a truck with god knows what in it. Anyways they said they could take us back to town so we got in...it was actually really fun to ride in a truck with locals. We got back to Tena and had dinner with Tarquino then stayed in a hostal that night.
The next day we went to Baños to meet up with April. It´s a really nice town too, but looks really touristy. We went for a walk around and there are so many hostals and restaurants and travel places...thats pretty much it right now. They also have hot baths though and we are looking forward to relaxing in them soon.
