tales from the jungle

Well, I survived the jungle.

It turned out to be a great time. We stayed (all 12 of us) at Huasquila lodge just outside of Cotundo, Ecuador, and the place was beautiful. We had private cabanas, and the landscaping around everything was fantastic. I especially loved the huge gardenia bushes--they smelled wonderful at night. The family who owns the lodge was super nice, and took especially good care of us (their daughter-in-law works at my school, and one of my friend's boyfriend is a family friend as well.) The food was excellent, and they were very accomodating of our wishes.
Saturday afternoon we went to an animal reserve where injured animals are brought for rehabilitation. Some are released back into the wild, but others have injuries that prevent them from surviving on their own. We saw macaws, parrots, a toucan, several varieties of monkeys, indigenous wild pigs, and even a lion and lioness who were rescued from a less-than-credible circus. My favorite, however, was the smallest monkey named Lucas. We watched him for a long time, and he would mimic our movements and "talk" to us.

photo courtesy of Ken Shores

The next day, Leah and I hiked through a cave while the rest of the group went whitewater rafting. They dropped us off literally on the side of the road, and our guide led us up a hill and showed us various natural traps that the indigenous Kichwa people use to hunt animals. We reached the top of the hill and had a great view, and then began our descent into the cave. It was steep. It was rocky. It never would have flown in the US due to liability. I was saying my prayers. We entered the cave and saw bats and several waterfalls in the underground river, and then had to cross the river at one point where it is chest deep. It was pretty crazy, and we were pretty proud of ourselves for doing it. Later that afternoon, we went to see ancient petroglyphs, which were created between 300 BC and 1200 AD. That night, a Kichwa tribe came to the lodge and performed traditional music and dances for us. The next morning, we all took off for a 2 hour jungle hike, in the rain. We didn't see any animals (we weren't far enough into the Amazon for that) but our guide showed us lots of plants that have medicinal uses, and showed us the ants that are edible. I tried a few--they tasted like lemon. The final part of the hike brought us up to two waterfalls, which we could stand under if we weren't wet enough already. We finally made it back and were soaked, tired, and hungry, but it was a lot of fun. We cleaned up, had lunch, and made our way back to Quito. On the way home, we had pretty good weather, so we stopped to snap a few shots of the view.
It was a good weekend.