The Jungle

Well, we have been traveling in Ecuador, or should i say the Galapagos for a week, and since then we traveled down south of Quito to a town called Baños, which is a few hours outside of the jungle. On our first day here we decided to do a little hike which ended up lasting about three hours. From the town you can hike up to this cross which also gives you an amazing view of the town. Once we made it up the steep mountain side which we were guided by this nice Ecuadorian man named Yofred. He told us we could follow the path to a town called Rundun which would take us in a loop and then lead us back to Baños. Hesitant because of the intensity of the first part, we were not sure if we wanted to but since we had spent the past two days traveling on the plane and bus we thought it best to get some exercise. The hike was a bit off the beaten path and we had some moments when we thought we were lost but in the end we made it to Rundun and saw the Volcano Tungurahua. From Rundun, we just hiked down the mountain following the sighs pointing to Baños. Exhausted from the hike we made dinner at our hostel and met some others cooking as well. They told us about some of their adventures and sold us on going white water rafting. They set us up with one of the hostel workers who also worked for a tourist company and before we knew it we booked our rafting trip as well as a three day, two night trip in the Jungle. That's right.... we went into the jungle and stayed with a Quicha indigenous community. Before i tell you about it, let me just say the rafting part was loads of fun. We did a class 3,4 and fortunatly no one fell out which was good. The rapids were intense and the trip went by so fast. Back to our jungle experience, right after rafting we left for the jungle and arrived to the community around 5pm. Our first night was relaxing. We played with the children, helped prepare dinner and just chatted with the Quichua family. This community has about 58 people living hear and they are all from one family. Our guide, Delfin, was the son of the grandfather in the community and he has 17 brothers and sisters. For our next two days Delfin took us on sever hikes through the jungle showing us different plants and fruits that grown here in the jungle. Our fist hike was to this look out point and along the way he made us crowns out of palm leaves, a basket/side bag out of branches as well as painted our faces with some red seed paint. That after noon the family did a traditional dance for us which we ended up participating in. After the dance Delfin took us fishing which was interesting. His technique for fishing is to get the fish drunk so they swim to the surface and then catch them. Apparently there is a this root from a plant that you smash open and when you put it in the water the fish drink the fluid that comes out of the root and it gets them drunk. We, or should I say Delfin and the three kids that were with us, caught about 15 hand size fish. Heather and I tried but were not very good at keeping the fish in our hands. Most often they would fling out and the children would then catch the fish. Over all the experience was interesting and different but i have to say we were not such a fan of fishing. For our last day we got up and headed for a more intense hike that we thought would never end to visit a lagoon and a little waterfall. In the lagoon we saw one cayman which is a little crocodile. I had never heard of them before but from the picture it looks like a crocodile. After the hike through the jungle were we walked through many spider webs, slipped down some of the muddy paths, walked through a little river, as well as tarzan swung to the other side of the hill we arrived back to the house/hut and relaxed before eating lunch. After lunch we packed our bags and said good bye to everyone. Our three days went by fast and i have to say it was sad to have to say good bye. Living in the jungle is hard with the bugs and most everything being very unsanitary but never the less i admire those who live with out electricity and very little belongings. Well we are back here in Baños for the night and then we hope to make it to Mindu for a few days before we leave for Lima, Peru. Our time here in Ecuador has been amazing and has gone by so fast. Its such a different feel traveling on our own with out a leader and just making decisions about what to do and where to go on the spot and at times very last minute. Plus we have meet so many nice people in the hostels as well as from our boat excursion in the Galapagos. We have come to realize that there are many people like ourselves who have taken this moment in there lives to spend some time traveling the world and seeing what life outside their own has to offer. I hope all is well at home, we are thinking about all of you lots as election time nears. Feel free to keep us posted on the economy and politics since its far and few times in between that we catch any news.