The Jungle Excusion

One benefit of English teaching is that I got a 10 day break over Christmas and New Years. Erin and I had both been feeling a little confined by Quito ready, and decided that this presented the perfect opportunity to escape the dirty city and see more of Ecuador. Also, as it turns out, airfare around South America is really expensive, meaning that we could do a lot more if we stuck to buses. Eventually, we decided on a trip that would first go into el oriente (the rainforest), and then head back to Quito by way of Banos, a beautiful town set in the lower hills of the Andes. Being quite a bit, I will divide our trip into two blogs, the first about the jungle, and the second about Banos.

On December 21rst we started off, taking the bus from Quito to the jungle city Tena. Being two major cities in Ecuador you would imagine the road would be paved and fairly fast, but as it turned out we descended some 8000 feet on a dirt road only wide enough for two cars if one pulled over. Some 200 kilometers and 5 hours later we arrived in Tena. Tena was fine, prettier and less crowded than Quito, but still not quite what we were looking for. Luckily we were only staying there one night before continuing our journey to La Casa Del Suiza, where we would stay for 5 days, including Christmas.

Casa Del Suiza truly was unbelievable, everything that we thought that it could be. On a random note, most of the really nice hotels in Ecuador are Swiss, which I don’t really understand but if anyone has an answer I’d love to know. Anyways, we took a one hour bus from Quito to La Punta, which literally was just a point with a restaurant along a river. From there we took a motorized canoe to the resort, which was set a bit up a hill overlooking the river. It truly defined secluded in a way that I may never have experienced. There was a small town behind the resort, but from the balcony off Erin and my bedroom (complete with hammock), we could stare out across the river and jungle with no one in sight. Every day we went out with a local guide and explored the jungle or did other activities to get to know the area. It was truly incredible the different life skills that people there had, they truly used everything that they taught us, be it how to build a house, construct a roof from this leafy plant that was impenetrable to water, to get a medicine from a tree called dragon’s blood, or to shoot a blowgun. Our guide was a tiny man by the name of Jose (shorter than Erin), who nonetheless picked up huge logs and flung them around like it was nothing, utterly incredible to watch.

All in all it was perfect, utterly relaxing and a wonderful way to get back in touch with nature. We tubed down a river, built a raft and then rafted down the river, read, hung out, it was awesome. When we were there the resort was fairly empty, only around 15 guests. We met some fun people, spending Christmas with a British couple on their honeymoon, a Swiss couple on their honeymoon, and a Brit who had taught English for 8 years in Moscow. It definitely did not feel at all like Christmas, with 75 degree sunny weather and more humidity than I thought was possible. Still, I think that was better than hanging out in Quito and missing being at home with friends and family.

Erin and my one concern about the whole thing was the difference in standards between the resort and the town. The resort was beautiful and immaculate, with electricity, hot water, and a swimming pool. The town was definitely much more impoverished, with some houses not having even electricity or running water. Still, after a bunch of thought we really think that the resort is doing good things for the town. The resort employs all people from the town, I think almost half of the town worked there. Also, it is helping in other ways, even installing a water tank that will provide drinkable water to the town and to the resort, which is more than we have in Quito!

On a final note, the last night that we were there it rained harder than I have ever experienced in my life. For those of you who know me well, I am an unbelievably deep sleeper, someone who could probably sleep through someone jumping on me. The rain woke me up at 2:30 AM, and sounded like a giant was pounding on our roof. In four or five hours of rain, the large river outside the lodge completely overflowed, erasing a small island in the middle of the river. It was incredible to witness, quickly reminding Erin and I why this was called the rainforest (up until then it had not rained very much).