While struggling terribly to lean how to make one of Jupita´s bracelet patterns a man stopped by to talk. He learned that I was a citizen of the United States and immediately asked if I would help him set up his email. He goes by the name of Fredy and is a Chef at one of the Hosterias, similar to a small resort, on the outskirts of Tena. Chef Fredy grew up in the poorer part of Las Angeles, California for his school years and has returned back to his home country of Ecuador. I helped him to set up an email and skype account and to send his first email.
A couple days later I called Chef Fredy to see if he would want to go to Misahualli with me. I had heard the name of this place before and thought that it was a rain forest park. When we arrived I learned that in fact it is a small town that survives on the tourism that is brought in by the river, the waterfalls, and the rain forest near by. Misahualli is also famous for the monkeys that live there. These monkeys got here because a man traveling from the forest once brought a male and female into the town. The family has grown and now there is a population of forty or fifty monkeys through out the small town. If you leave your things unaccounted for the monkeys will take them and bring them into the trees, but apart from steeling things they are not generally aggressive.
The alpha monkey in Misahualli was the biggest and most aggressive. One day he went into one of the houses and through the mans television onto the ground along with other things. The man had worked very hard to earn a television and was furious. He got his gun and shot the monkey. The monkey would have died, but the people of Misahualli have grown to like having the monkeys around and made sure that the Alpha monkey got medical treatment.
On the bus ride to Misahualli I learned a little more about Fredy,s life growing up in the Ghettos of Las Angeles. He had begun to teach himself marshal arts by the age of twelve. Everyone in his area were getting tattoos of barbwire around their right upper arms, so to create something different and still acceptable he made a more intricate design that follows one simple line. As soon as he finished high school and had raised enough money to return to Ecuador he came back to be a chef. In Quito he finished his education for Culinary arts then packed up and left one day because he was tired of the freezing rain. He has worked and lived all around the Tena, Napo area and has recently moved into a room at the Hosteria where he is working.
Chef Fredy showed me around the small circular town of Misakualli. We passed by the president of the town and met a person who asked for Fredy´s help with painting a sign for his store. We had dinner with another individual in the town who could not find work. We had missed out bus back to Tena, but eventually found a pick up truck that was headed back. Some of the things that are typical here would never be permitted in the United States, like asking a complete stranger for a ride in the back of their truck on a high way.
