Yachana, Amazon

Sorry this has been so late in coming. The first week in May was a busy one. 

Wednesday, April 27

We meet at the Rio Coca station at 8 AM where our BCA bus is waiting for us. It´s raining. Quito is just getting us ready for the RAIN forest. In total the trip takes us about 7 hours. We make a couple bathroom stops on the way. Also, we have to drive UP before we can drive DOWN to get to the Oriente, which is what they call the selva AKA rain forest. So...we happened to encounter snow. Crazy! 
Proof:

We get to this small river port and we all climb out of the bus and load our things onto the canoe taxi. If we weren´t aware of this before, it has now become obvious that the rain forest is beyond humid. It´s ridiculously humid. So the canoe taxi (with a motor, no we didn´t have to row) takes us about a 5 minute ride upriver and we land on the other bank. We´re staying in Yachana lodge, and they have people waiting for us there on the steps telling us to leave everything in the canoe, they´ll bring it all up to the lodge. What service. So we walk for about 3 minutes from the dock to the lodge. And we are in awe THE WHOLE TIME. There are plants unlike anything I have ever seen before. Shapes, colors, sizes. 
My Fav:

The symbol of Yachana lodge:

Then we get to the lodge and it´s practically the most beautiful thing we have ever seen. We thought we were pampered in the Galaps. HA! Little did we know...It looks out over the Napo River, the dining hall, bar, and relaxing area are open decks covered by nice thatched roofs. We show up and they hand us hot towels, a glass of lemonade, and crackers. Speechless. Completely and utterly speechless. We choose room assignments. Wesley, Ashley, Rachele, and I are in the 4 person room. Jeepers...talk about accommodations. I don´t know if you all remember the Rio Muchacho post, but this is the complete opposite. The cabin is enclosed so bugs are limited. Ceiling fan (although the power is only on from 6 PM to 10 PM). Comfortable beds. Our towels are creatively folded on our beds. We have a personal bathroom in our cabin. It´s spacious. Holy cow.
 
We put our stuff down and put on our jungle clothes. We have a little time to relax, so we sit there talking. Then there´s a commotion outside and we head back to the main building area where we can clearly see the erupting ash cloud from a volcano. What a site. We put on our favorite rubber boots (sarcasm) and then head up to a look out point near the lodge. We get up there and the sun is strong as heck but the view is incredible. 

The ash cloud is on the left side of the screen. It's blue. 

We stand around taking pictures and listening to our guide, Robert, tell us about the river and the surrounding communities. We can already tell he is going to be less annoying than our guide, William, from the Galaps. When the sun starts to go down we head back for supper. Supper is buffet style and it´s delicious. We finish up and even though it´s only 7:45, we decide to head to bed because we´re exhausted. Stay up talking for a little bit before we fall asleep. 

Thursday, April 28

Breakfast at 6:30. Seems to be the time of day when the bugs are most active. They were all over us (not stinging ones, just annoying ones). They were attracted by the butter, jelly, coffee, juice, etc. We had to become creative, so we either put our napkins over those things, ate/drank fast, or stored the condiments on another table. It helped. Then it was back on with the boots and across the river we went. We started out with a double-decker chiva ride to do some bird watching. Because we went kind of later in the morning we didn´t see much, and what we did see was far away. We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a small black monkey. That would turn out to be the only monkey we saw. The thing is with people moving into the rain forest and the whole search for oil, animals have had to move further and further into the forest. Yachana isn´t in a heavily populated area, but it´s not extremely deep in the forest. After about an hour on the chiva, we got out and hiked for about 3 more hours through the forest. Robert, showed us various plants, trees, insects, and small animals. He was very knowledgeable about everything. Turns our he grew up in Yachana and went the the Yachana High School. And he's only 20, which blew all of our minds because for one, he looks older than 20, and two, he ACTS older than 20. Haha. Anyway, we get back to the lodge and eat a well-deserved lunch. Then it´s off with the boots and on with the suits. We took a canoe taxi upstream and stopped on a sand island. Then we put our life jackets on diaper style and proceeded to float down the river for 45 minutes until we got back to the lodge. The current was crazy fast! If you just look at the river while you´re in it, it looks like a lazy river, but take one look at the shore, and you realize you are bookin´ it. Try to swim against the current and you make no headway...still moving down stream at a lightning pace. So much fun. Got back to the lodge, shower, supper, bed. 

Friday, April 29

Breakfast at 7. Then it´s canoe taxi back across the river to visit a curandero. He´s a healer, but more medicinal than a shaman. He lives in this wooden house sitting on stilts that are a story high. We go inside and he performs a cleansing ritual on whoever wants to participate. Cleansing of bad spirits. He shakes bundle of leaves tied together and blows a lot of smoke from his joint of unknown substance. It was very interesting. 

Then we moved down into his yard and had a competition. First, blow gun. The goal was to hit the target (a wooden parrot on a stick) in the eye. The gun is literally a meter and a half long. None of us have ever had any experience. We each get 3 tries. I´m the first one to hit the eye. That was my first shot. Second shot? Same spot, but I didn´t have quite the velocity to split the dart, so it didn´t stick. Third shot? heart. After everyone had gone, four of us moved on to round 2. Two of us had hit the eye. The other two had hit the heart. We each got 2 chances. I hit the heart dead on and was crowned blow gun champion. 

Robert gave me a crown he had made out of peeled fibers from a plant stalk. My new weapon of choice? You guessed it. The it was the javelin throwing competition. We had to throw the javelin and knock over a tree stump. I hit the thing dead on. Something I learned that day: I might be adopted from the Amazon. On our way back to the lodge, we stopped to look at an enormously big tree. All 19 of us, holding hands, could barely fit around the trunk. 


Got back to the lodge and had a cooking lesson. We seasoned fish, ate roasted white chocolate beans (which aren't used to make white chocolate. completely different things), and ate roasted gusanos (grubby worms; like the squishy juicy one that Simba eats in the Lion King). Lily was the only one brave enough to eat her's alive. Bleh. They kind of tasted like bacon, but left a very weird aftertaste. 
Me and my gusano:

Then it was time to eat lunch with the senior class from the nearby high school called Colegio Yachana. The high school and the lodge are interconnected. During vacations and such, the students can work at the lodge and practice their English. They go to school for three weeks straight (including weekends) and then they get a week off. We were at Yachana during their week off. After lunch Daniel facilitated some improvisation games that we played with the kids. We played hug tag to break the ice and then we followed that up with Sí, Whoosh, Imagenes del duelo, and Completar el imagen (I'm not going to take the time to explain everything). After about an hour of games we split into smaller groups with Yachana and BCA kids in each group. from there, we walked and talked our way to the high school which is about a 15 minute walk away, got a tour of the place, and then helped out with a few chores. When we were done working, it was time to play. Soccer. We headed down to the field which had grass, unlike most of the fields in Quito that are just dirt, but the grass was patchy and made things very bumpy. It was very interesting because some kids played in cleats, others in Ecuashoes, and others barefoot. 
The gang:

When the game ended, some of us stayed and threw frisbees around until it we had to head back because it was getting dark. I could have stayed longer. These kids are incredible and each of them have their own story. Then it was supper, a small informational talk that went into more detail about the high school, and then bed.


Saturday, April 30


Some of us (6 of us) met at the lobby at 6 to go on an early morning bird watching chiva ride. We saw a lot more birds this time, but had to cut the excursion short because it started to pour...for the first time since we arrived in the RAIN forest. Ironic. Got back, ate breakfast, headed back out to the high school to hang out with the kids one last time, then packed up our bags and taxied back across the river, boarded the bus, and drove for about 4 hours. We stopped at a place where we could go caving. The cave entrance was located in this pool/park area. It was still raining and we were going to get wet in the cave anyway, so us crazy gringos, in our street clothes, decide to go down the water slide. Hahaha. Super fun. Then it was off to the cave where we were given one headlamp per two people. Ashley and I got stuck with a dud. You seriously had to be within two feet of the ground for it to do any good. We managed though. On our way through the cave, we got to jump into a deeper part from a rock extension that was about 2 meters high. We also got to dunk ourselves in three consecutive holes that were 6 meters, 4 meters, and 2 meters. Took about an hour total. We came out soaking wet and muddy as heck, but it was well worth it. We changed and then it was another 30 minutes to Tena, a large jungle city. We got settled in the hostel and then headed out for pizza and ice cream. Got back to the hostel and had girl talk until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. 


Sunday, May 1

Got ready, ate breakfast, and headed out to the Napo River to do some rafting. Never been before in my life. I was in a group with Ashley, Wesley, Rachele, Lily, Vince, and Matt (the volunteer doctor from Yachana). Our guide was super cool. He looked intimidating, but was a lot of fun. We practiced commands, rowing together, and our raft cheer. Then it was off! The water was freezing, but it was cloudy so the sun wasn't burning us. At one point our guide said we could get out and swim, so Matt and I immediately jumped out. During this calm point, one of the rafts was empty all except for Shun. It's hard to get into the raft without help, so Daniel shouted to Shun "Help us in, Shun!" Shun proceeded to look around and then jump in the water. Haha. During another calm point our guide went up to Lily and acted really interested in her shoes. Once he had both of them in his hand, it was just a matter of a small push and she was out the raft. Haha. I was laughing then, but 5 minutes later I stupidly fell victim to the same joke. Hahahahahaha. I still laughed, though. Later we played a game called "la flor" (the flower). We all stood on the rim of the raft, held hands and leaned in when the flor closed and leaned out when the flor opened. When we were leaning out, our guide let go of our hands and ran through the middle of the raft pushing people out. I managed to fall in instead of out. Another time, Vince was in the river and Matt and our guide were helping him in. Instead of pulling him up and letting go, they pulled him up and pushed him over the other side of the raft. haha. We also took turns riding on the front of the raft. Let me tell you, it's like riding a greased pig. No joke. About 2 hours in we stopped on this little rocky beach and walked back into a crevice that was like a mini-ecosystem. Absolutely incredible. It looked like something from a Disney ride. Like Pirates of the Caribbean. Our guides painted our faces with rock paint. Then it was off again. That was where I fell out on accident after we hit a bump. The one and only time. I was proud. We made one more stop at a waterfall where we tried to wash off the rock paint, but we basically just smeared it around until it looked like we had all just fake tanned. At the very end our guide us told us we were going to do one more trick - stop the raft at a 90 degree angle. He made us all come to the back of the raft and told us we couldn't move or we would tip over. He grabbed a rope tied to the front, pulled the front up, and then pulled us all the way over until we flipped. Hahaha. Don't know why we fell for that one. We changed and then the rafting people gave us lunch. Quite an adventure. Made it back to Quito by 8. 


More to come.


Lizzie