JUNGLE FEVER - day 1

So as some of you might know, I just spent the past week of my life in the Ecuadorian jungle. Since there is no possible way I could describe this to you fully, I'm going to split this up and give you the whole play-by-play on a daily scale, with as many pictures as I can get down. Hopefully this will transmit at least to a small extent the experience I had here to you sitting down wherever you call home!

Ok, so day 1, last Friday. I wake up earlier than usual at 6:30 because I have to not only get to the school where I'm meeting everyone else to launch off, but I have to get ALL my luggage and whatnot from my one host family house to my new one, where Phil and Aislinn live. I lug all of my suitcases downstairs (forgetting, of all things, my alarm clock that was right on my desk by itself), throw 'em into the nearest cab, and head off to the new home. After putting all my stuff down, we all meet up at the school and head toward northern Quito to get on the bus on the way to Tena, the town where we will be heading from to enter the jungle.

Now if you're read anything I've written so far, you know buses / taxis / anything with multiple wheels and axles drive out of control. This bus looked fair enough. . .comfortable seats, not overly packed with people, no blasting John Cena or obnoxious music. But of course, nothing could be perfect. . .our driving route took us through winding mountain paths carved right along the sides. This is an appropriate time to say that roads, streets, paths in general in Ecuador never go in a straight line. . .they ALWAYS take what almost seems like incredibly unnecessary dips. This was the same with the bus, where we started flying through curves like Keanu Reeves in "Speed" and luggage from upper compartments hit both babies and Aislinn (while she was sleeping, no less) right in their faces. Thank GOD I don't have motion sickness unlike some of my friends, who were struggling mind, body, and spirit throughout the entire trip.

After a few hours of Quito drifting, we arrived in Tena. . .which was extremelyy humid and hot. It reminded me a lott of a mild VA summer day, and we sat down to a tasty lunch. We then proceeded to each get these large rubber boots which we used to walk through the jungle. Now these boots. . .imagine Rambo and Chuck Norris got together to make a shoe product. That would be these bad boys. Want to walk through mud that could qualify as quicksand? No problem. Want to trudge through icy cold water and rocks as slippery as ice? Ain't no thang. What about jungle floors filled with insects the size of your face and plants covering every possible hole available? NO BIG DEAL. I might buy a pair to bring back to the states. . .wear them for yardwork, hiking, shoot maybe even teaching.

Anyways, from Tena we get in the back of a truck and whip through streets on a 40 minute trip to the entrance of the jungle. No rails on the truck, goin around 40 / 50 mph, just a day in the life. After a short walk through the jungle, we entered our campgrounds. . .nice cabins, no electricity, just pure nature in all its glory.

Barrio Ballin

the cabin with Garrett in the crucial hammocks

So after putting our luggage down, we went on a nature walk. Instead of telling you about it, I'm going to let pictures speak for themselves. .

Bamboo tree. . .each section can be cut open for a fresh source of water. Indigenous people used it for water on long journeys, along with building houses, etc.

The leaves you see here are used to make tea that indigenous people drink before a day of work. . .think of it as a natural, warm, not NEARLY as-bad-for-you Red Bell :)

 

 

The sap on this plant can be boiled into a tea that heals colds, fevers in just two to three days. It has spines on the trunk, but there is really good fruit at the top of the plant. . .so they grow another tree next to it typically to climb and gather the goodies!

Take the leaves on this one, boil 'em, let the water settle.  . .and you have natural soapy water to fit your everyday Bounty needs

Too lazy to wait for fish to bite, but you know a whole family is there? Cut this guy down, boil the sap, and dump in into the water. . .the fish get poisoned and float to you easy as 1, 2, 3. The process of cooking the fish kills the toxin inside, making them edible

As gorgeous as this vine is with its flowers, in reality it is killing the tree you see. Once the flowers bloom, the tree is beyond any sort of help. Talk about beautiful but deadly. . .

This tree, called "Sangre de Dragon" (blood of the dragon), is nuts. Chop into a bit of it and it looks like the tree is actually bleeding. . .bright red sap seeps out of the cut. But take the sap in your hand, rub it around, and VOILA! It turns white and you have your all-natural sun block. You can also take the sap and use it to make a tea, which serves to help colds and fevers as well.

Last but not least, edible mushrooms. . .yuuuuuuum

Which one of the plants was your favorite? I loved Sangre de Dragon, and the energy tea plant was really neat as well. After our tour of seeing jungle plants, we ate a delicious dinner and called it a night. I'll be writing about the other days soon, so keep checking the blog for more info!