30/11/2011 - Day 1 of 2 Amazon Jungle Trek

It was an early morning start at 7 am to pack our stuff to prepare for a hike through the amazon jungle for two days and two nights.
There were 9 of us altogether with 2 more Spanish girls and an Australian couple, our guide who was very informative showing us how to signal for help if something bad has happened to you by whacking a stick against a certain type of tree. We all learnt a lot, learning how to make a shelter and carrybag from a certain fern and using plants to cure sickness. Our guide also gave us insight into shamanism which involved taking a hallucinogenic drug to invoke spirits which apparently can make you see the future.
Lunch was spent at a waterfall where swimming was a necessity because of the crazy hot temperature and humidity.
I took plenty of pics today, obviously as you can see below.
Hiking back to the boat we were taken to our accommodation for the evening in an almost resort like place with clean and mosquito net covered beds, a bar and a good restaurant - of course all included in the $40 a day we are spending.
After dinner we went for a night hike to find some nocturnal animals but was only able to find animals of the creepy crawly variety, still it was a cool experience. But at one point when trying to focus a picture I slipped off a small cliff scaring the shit out of some of the others but I managed to get secure footing without falling too far.. I found it funny although the othere did not.
Again like most nights we finished up the night with beers and laughter but I also showed off some more magic tricks for our guide and hotel owner - they were baffled beyond belief; well, that's magic for you.
I had a stroke of bad luck today loosing my sunglasses in the river and for some reason I don't know why but my secondary lens that I use for portraits and low light situations literally fell apart in my hands - not happy!

No time to put these pics in order or comment… sorry

29/11/2011

Today was a fun filled day with good food, hot sun and new people. Daniel, Manual and I walked around Tena to see what there was to see, which really wasn't much but because it was so hot we didn't get far either, finding refuge at a sheltered juice stand. We had to get a bus at midday to Misahuallí where we wanted to organize a amazon jungle trek for tomorrow. We met a Spanish guy and girl along the way wanting to do the same thing.
Laura and Filipie were great to hang out with and we checked out the small town grabbing some food one of the local places, not that there was any other choice as really this place was tiny.
Finding cheap accommodation was relatively easy and we found a nice place at $7 each in one room.
We all organized the trek together for the following day setting us back a pricy $80 for two days but it was the best we could find and the trek itinerary seemed very good.
The 5 of us spent the afternoon together swimming in the strong current of the river and drinking beers on the sand before the evening storm darkened the skies and shortly later started raining cats and dogs.
Dinner was great with good company and we finished the night off with drinking some more beers at the hostal.

View from Hostel, Tena, Ecuador

Monkey stole this candy from a store

Around Misahuallí

Giant Moth

Boing having fun

28/11/2011

Another traveling day where we (Daniel and Manual from Austria ) spent the whole day getting to Tona via Quito, 2 buses and 13 hours of travel. It was good time to catch up on rest and when we arrived we headed to a hostel where there were a bunch of German speaking people about, we didn't set out to the bars and just chilled at the hostel chatting; which is something I prefer.
Btw, Poof is the Austrian word whore house Hahaha

 

In the morning in Atacames

Arriving in Tena where there was a thunder and Lightning storm passing through. I love these pics

27/11/2011

Not nearly feeling as bad as I did yesterday we went for lunch at a local place down the road where I got fish soup and cerviche (prawns) with rice. The fish soup was by far the most delicious thing I've eaten in south America, it was so good and sorted out my internal organs after I ruined them last night with all the beers I drank.
For the rest of the day we set off to another beach (Sopacoma) but like yesterday the weather wasn't the best so we headed back to Atacames and chilled on the beach there.
Said goodbye to Josue and Mari but ill be seeing them again in Quito in within a week.
Nothing else to mention for the day but I had an early night so I could join the Austrian guys for the jungle trek.

 

Mari, Josue and his brother… and for those who are wondering what the deal is will the baby Kangaroo, his name is Boing and he is joining me on this trip around south america

26/11/2011

One thing I have learnt about drinking and that is always to down a shit load of water before going to sleep, I didnt do this last night so I woke this morning feeling stupidly rough - my mistake.
Anyways Mari, Josue (Mari's friend who put us up with accommodation ) and myself headed to another beach 2 hours away, it's suppose to be lovely but the weather wasn't all that great, we spent most of the time waiting for our meals to be cooked giving us a little over an hour for chilling on the beach before having to get back to Atacames.
With a crazy headache but a full stomach I managed to sleep on the way back preparing myself for another night on the piss.
Girls who were apparently 17 and 18 years old would come over to me to chat me up, this was awfully uncomfortable as I was sure they were certainly not older than 16. My Spanish didn't help me out here as I couldn't get them to leave me alone without being rude or aggressive, after some time they gave up. I met two Austrian guys (Daniel and Manual) at the bar and they told me about heading to the jungle for a trek for a few days, this seemed like a great idea and I managed to get an invite to tag along.
The rest of the night was interesting as many drunk locals would want to talk to me and the crew when sitting and drinking on the beachfront - one even passing out beside us. (photos below)
Not getting to bed till 5 was unexpected but a sign of a good night.

Chilling at beaches

25/11/2011

All these buses and all the hours spent on buses is exhausting the hell out of me. Today was no exception, I had to go from the border town of Tulcán through the mountains to Quito then to the pacific ocean beach town of Esmeraldas to get to a beach spot called Atacames where I was meeting one of my brothers friends Mariachiara.
So far I find the locals here extremely friendly, chatting to people whilst busing it across the county was fun-filled and although here they use the American dollar things are still awesomely cheap here.
Haha, just as I wrote the last sentence on this bus towards Quito I was looking for my pouch that I keep my iPod that I use to write this draft. Searching on the ground for my pouch the bus was stopped by the military at a checkpoint, not knowing this I kept on searching until a fully kitted out military guy was standing beside me.
Searching as I was probably looked awfully suspicious, I was the taken off the bus and all my belongings were searched and I was asked if I inject drugs, of course I replied 'claro' - not the smartest thing to say but I was joking, he didn't find it funny but I talked my way out of any issues (as a stupid tourist)and got back on the bus.
The views today were magnificent to behold, farm pastures situated on the gradient of volcanoes, brightly dressed farmers tending to their crop beside the highway, I'll honestly admit definitely the most scenic bus journeys I have taken. The pictures I took certainly don't do it justice.
I'm writing this part in the mid afternoon sitting on the third but not the last bus for the day, ive spent 7 hours already and have another 6 to go. I don't think Ive travelled so much and so far on wheels in one day in my many years of traveling around the world.
Transferring in Quito was interesting because I had to board another bus across the city to get to another terminal, this is where thunder struck and when it absolutely pissed it down. This gave me an idea for when I return here - to do a time lapse over the city at a high point.
Crossed over the equator twice today
Finally after something like 15 hours of transportation I finally made it to Atacames where I met with Mari. Obviously the first thing we did was down a beer and another and another, it was a fun night out at a bar on the beach I did something I don't do very often, dancing, it has never been an interest for me but his French girl dragged me onto the dance floor, issue was that she had very bad BO meaning it didn't take long before I stopped and went back to my beer.

 

Crossing the Equator almost 00’00’000

Views….

Finally at the beach with Mari and friends

24/11/2011 - Into Ecuador

As I'm trying to make it to Quito before the weekend I got up early to get a bus to head to Ipiales via Pasto, this time I was able to knock off 5,000 pesos from the original fare, it wasn't the bus service that the staff at the hostel recommended although it was a much faster service in a smaller less comfortable bus. Cramped on the back seat I endured the winding bumping mountain roads to the border, the views were nice but would have been better if I sat on the right hand side of the bus, shame.
I feel more comfortable bringing my nice camera in public because last night I gave it a bit of a makeover using some elastic bands and duct tape giving it a weathered/broken/old look in hopes to make it less appealing to thieves and muggers - I hope this works.
Arriving at the bus terminal in Ipiales got a collectivo taxi to the border where I accidentally tried to attempt to leave Columbia without getting a stamp for departure.. My mistake. I had to walk back across the bridge to the Columbian side for the Immigration office to get my stamp out. Here I waited behind 100 school kids staring at me for them to pass before I finally got to the front of the line. This is where I wished my Spanish was better, the official wanted was for me to put my index finger on the scanner, I pissed him off a little not knowing what he wanted; also all the kids made his job a bit of a nightmare too.
Crossing back over to the Ecuadorean side I got the stamp and entered a new country to cross off my list.
Finding a hostel room beside the bus terminal was easy enough and also relatively cheap at US$8 for my own room and for me being able to leave towards Quito early in the morning is ideal. I munched down a huge dinner of BBQ chicken, frijoles and rice before watching a film on my laptop . Speaking of which, DON'T bother watching Thor - an unbelievably shitty film.

Road tripping through Ecuador