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The mornings activity saw us head upriver past the point where we had left the truck and onward to a curve in the river where we disembarked to start a nature walk in the jungle. Our guide was Fausto, a knowledgeable and friendly local man. For a few hours we slowly walked and every now and again Fausto would stop and show us something, whether it be to describe a plant and it’s uses, show us an animal such as a small poison arrow frog or a tarantula living in a curled up leaf, or grabbing plant material show us how a wall and a roof could be fashioned with some weaving and judicious scoring.

Albert at camp walking away from our dorm

Fausto holds a small poison dart frog

A weaving demonstration

Keryn thinks I type too much and I guess I should be enjoying the location rather than typing all day so I’m going to concentrate on main events and highlights from now on I think. Anyway, the walk took us to a couple of large trees, buttresses nearly joining together to make one big wall. Behind the trees there was a makeshift jungle swing and a few guys had turns running and swinging themselves.

Fausto shows a use for a native flower

Danny runs for a swing

Further on we reached a stream and here we had a short rest before heading downstream along the stream bed. We had all been provided with gumboots and made good use tramping through the water. There were a number of logs fallen into the stream and most of them had a number of large, palm sized spiders crawling over them. Thankfully the eight legged critters tended to scarper when we got near. Every now and again the stream would get deeper, nearly up to our waist at places, but each time it was an easy wade through for a short time before the water level lowered. We ended when the stream met the river where our boat was waiting for us.

Looking out over the jungle

Refreshing before walking along the stream

Most of us ended up in the water cooling off, the jungle being hot and sticky with humidity. This was followed by a packed lunch and then we were into the boat and heading to the next destination. We were led up a path and entered a wooden building with a dirt floor. Along the walls of the building were mock-ups of various traps. Fausto explained the mechanism of each trap and gave brief demonstrations; most of the traps were designed to catch specific animals such as armadillos or ocelots. There were also specimen jars containing snakes and insects, some of the beetles were huge.

Walking outside we sat on benches underneath a covered area and Fausto explained the use of a traditional blowpipe. This was followed by a small competition; we all had two attempts to hit a mock-up of a parrot attached to a distant target board. No one hit the parrot but a few people got quite close and most hit the board at least. A few also had a go at aiming for a wasp nest in a tall tree and we all ran when Sean hit the nest, angering the wasps inside. There was a bit of relaxing in the lined up hammocks before we ended our stay.

Danny aims for the wasp nest as everyone watches

Relaxation time; from the front we have Danny, Sean, Rhys, Sophie, Melissa and Kerrie

It was getting to late afternoon as we headed back down the river. We arrived back at the lodge in time to get a few drinks and then sit and wait for the sunset. We sat and talked and watched the setting sun, spotting shapes in the clouds on the horizon. It was quite idyllic. Dinner was followed by cards and drinking. We had a night nature walk that turned into a bit of a Halloween fest with Fausto telling a strange ghost story, the point seemingly the fright he engineered at the end with a loud yell before he raced off back down the path. A couple of times as we walked back he would burst out of the bush and run away once more. The night continued with further cards, drinking and some dancing. Kerrie was particularly funny, finding a life receiver to tangle herself in while dancing around. The poker came down to me and Kerrie in the end and going all in Kerrie got the better cards, oh well.

The afternoon light on the river

Watching the sunset

A frog found on the night walk

Our journey today was a reasonably long driving day out to the Amazon basin and the eastern edge of the Amazon jungle. It was a beautiful day and we drove past some amazing scenery as we drove over the Ecuadorian Andes and a high pass at 4200ft.

Taking in the view

One of the alpine views

The road was terrible at times and some of the bridges were a little bit on the small side but it all added to the variety of the day, keeping us interested in between spectacular volcano views. We stopped for lunch at some natural hot pools but the usual complex was bypassed as it appeared to have no water. The replacement was a bit more upmarket and over three times as expensive ($7 instead of $2) so most people didn’t take a dip. This was our first lunch from the truck and it all went quite smoothly.

Narrow bridge

We eventually got to Rio Napo and transferred to a long and shallow boat for our trip downriver to the Anaconda Lodge. It was a good twenty minutes down the wide river and we went through a couple of very small rapids. The Anaconda Lodge is run by Adonis and he showed us to our rooms. We were all in one big building which was divided into six rooms, three on each long side. It was all wooden and while basic with no electricity it was comfortable.

Our candle lit room

It was getting dark as we unpacked into our room and most of us ended up back at the restaurant/bar area. We had a good dinner and a few drinks in the evening.

The group met at the hotel reception just before 8am and we were taken a short way down the road to where our truck, Tranquilo, was parked. Vanessa showed up around the vehicle and our bags were loaded into the lockers and then we were inside and heading for the equator park. Vanessa was talking about the safe on board when Sophie remembered that she had left her passport at the hotel so we stopped and Sophie accompanied by Melissa took a taxi, the plan to catch us up later on.

We continued and then got a road where a lot of trucks were parked up and the traffic was going slowly. We came to a road block, a police car in the road, and Vanessa went down to find out what was going on. It transpires that a strike was underway and the road was closed for public safety. The park we had been heading for was also closed. We had to turn around and instead find a way to the next destination. Luckily Sophie and Melissa were not far behind in another taxi and they were able to get out and join the truck again.

The road out of Quito took us down from the plateau, mountains and volcanoes to all sides but mostly obscured by clouds. Every now and again a peak would appear, snow covered and bright white in the distance. The road followed a ridge and came down over a raging river, the water coffee brown and surging over the rocks and around bends. We had a comfort stop at a service station, the toilet facilities surprisingly clean, and then drove for another few minutes to reach an equator monument by the side of the road.

Keryn at the equator

Walking back to Tranquilo

The monument was a giant sundial, the centre spire a tall orange column. The overcast skies meant we couldn’t see the time on the big clock but we were still able to take photos straddling the equator. A guide gave us a talk on the equator at this place, Ecuador is the only place where the equator passed through highlands and this give the position unique views on the night skies, the elevation meaning that the full spectrum of stars can be seen, both southern and northern hemispheres. Many people bought maps and other information at the end of the talk. Back to Tranquilo we continued on towards Otavalo, the market town that would be our overnight accommodation. The journey only took another hour or so and we came down past a beautiful lake with a large volcano as a backdrop (again the peak obscured by clouds) and on into Otavalo.

Vanessa and Rees hadn’t been to the hotel being used before and we had impromptu little tours of some of the streets around the Plaza Los Ponchos before we found our hotel with the same name, Hotel Los Ponchos Inn. Checked in we were let loose to wander the market and the town for the afternoon. Keryn and I had lunch with Daniel and Shaun at a chicken takeaway joint and then started wandering the market stalls. The indigenous people of the region tend to still wear traditional clothes and many of the stall holders were dressed this way; the woman with black headscarves, embroidered white dresses and ponchos or shawls, the men with dark caps and hair long, a dark mass loosely tied. Keryn bought a few things, an alpaca top, a small bag and a scarf (which actually came about because I asked a woman if I could take her photo and she then suggested we should buy something from her). Most of the people were friendly and those I asked seemed happy to have their photo taken which was nice. Most of the market items for sale were clothing or textiles and the colours were bright and attractive.

Colourful dream catchers in the Otavalo market

This woman was politely begging in the market, the price for a photo $1

Keryn bought a bag from this young lady

Guess which country we’re in?

This friendly woman asked us to look at her scarves after I took this photo, fair trade I reckon

I left Keryn in the market and came back to the hotel to type. I played some pool with Daniel (losing 3-2) and watched a few others play table tennis while I hit the keys.

In the evening we went out to a friendly little local restaurant and had a good meal. Afterwards we packed a bag for the coming three nights in the jungle and then went to bed.