Cuyabeno

After a sleepless 10-hour night-ride filled with Steven Segal movies, Sarah, Mom and I finally arrived at the entrance of Cuyabeno reserve, a well-preserved patch of rainforest, located in the north east of Ecuador. There we met a few other people who were going to be in our group at the Cuyabeno River Lodge. After we paid our entrance fee we hopped into a 20 ft motorized canoe, and the driver expertly navigated the narrow river tributary, which would lead us to the lodge 20 min downstream.

The Lodge was located on the bank of the river in what is called semi-flooded forest because every year the river flows over its bed and floods surrounding forest with a few feet of water. The buildings were all held on stilts about 3 feet off the ground, but the river, when we arrived, was abnormally low. In the center of the clearing was certainly the reason they chose that particular spot for the lodge: a huge tree, with buttress roots and a canopy swarming with squawking Oropendolas and their long hanging nests.

After a piranha fishing trip, our guide, who had been missing in action, showed up. His was skinny, tall and very funny because of his accent and manner. We ate a simple meal and some of us headed out to go for a short night walk, which is a good way to see insects, scorpions and other invertebrates some of which are very colorful. I was doing my best to imitate birdcalls, and that night I managed to have a conversation with an owl.

After fishing for piranhas in the same river it took a little guts to float downstream the next day. “Hold your feet off the bottom!” Luis said, and I asked quietly if it was because of the stingrays and snapping turtles and he said “well…” and then he decided not to lie, “…yes.” I held back this little piece of info from the others because they were already having a hard enough time dealing with it. Later, in the lake, I also learned that there were electric eels, which scared me much more than rays or piranhas.

The next day Luis asked us if we wanted to go on what he called a “camping trip” which really meant that we would go say at another lodge, which was not fully constructed yet. To get there we headed downstream for about two hours, all the while looking for birds, anacondas, caiman, and other animals. When we got to the lake It was large but seemed very shallow. Trees called Macrolobiums grew there, up to their waists in water, and on their branches grew some of the first orchids I had seen in Cuyabeno. We began to keep our eyes out for pink river dolphins coming up for air. Here again we jumped out of the canoe and went for a swim in the lake. Just after the swim Luis began to talk about how dangerous going in the water really was which made me feel a little strange, “its really not that good of an idea to swim here” he said.

When we got to our “camp site” the boat bottomed out in the mud about 100 feet short of solid ground, so Luis hopped out of the canoe and began to trudge trough the mud pulling the large canoe closer in. “Sarah could you help me?” he asked, and gamely Sarah jumped out and sunk knee deep in mud and thigh deep in water, but she didn’t complain. We got as close as we could before we all got out and waded the rest of the way trying not to sink in past the depth our Wellington boots would allow.

In the morning I set out to find a way to climb one of the macrolobiums, but they were all out in the water. I considered stealing a canoe, which was moored along our boat, but instead found some orchids in terrestrial trees around our camp and climbed them. When everyone else woke up I had found a marolobium which I could climb and was photographing Lalias growing on the living but seemingly rotten wood. We headed out again in the boat and went looking around the lake where we saw some unique birds. We got out and walked around where Luis explained the differences between the three types of forest: flooded, semi flooded, and terra firme. We found inch long bullet ants, and heard the screaming phia (bird), which sounds like the loudest catcall you have ever heard.

Later that day Luis said we would be visiting a Siona village and I was not looking forward to seeing a bunch of people dressed up as if they still lived the same way they did one hundred years ago. Thankfully it was not like that. The village was not dressed up; it was just a village of bamboo huts on stilts. While this relieved me a little, a German couple was quite disappointed with the lack of drama of the people and the place. I yanked up a yuca plant and a woman made yuca bread, which is made by grating and cooking it on a flat clay pan over a fire. Later we visited the shaman of the village whose feet had big

toes, which were pointing inward so much that they almost looked opposable. He cured the German guys back pain by brushing his back with stinging nettles, and singing.

That night we went out with our lights looking for the tell tale glimmers the caiman eyes. We found and approached several caimans most about two feet long. On the way back I was riding out on the front of the canoe when we upset a school of foot long fish, which began to jump out in front of the boat. Suddenly dozens of fish leapt out of the water all around us. I heard screams from the back of the boat and realized that people where being hit by fish and they were flying into the boat left and right. Suddenly I was punched in the shoulder by a whizzing fish. “Punched” may sound like an exaggeration but before I realized what was going on that’s what I thought had happened. We got payback by eating them that night.

The next day was our last, which I felt quite sad about as we motored across the lake. I had enjoyed our time on the lake the most. The deepest part of the lake was right at the entrance of our river and it was our best and last chance to see the dolphins. After waiting 15 minutes and fearing that the dolphins would be a no show, a smooth pinkish grey dolphin skimmed the surface to catch its breath, Cuyabeno does not disappoint. They came up every four or five minutes and we stayed and watched for about an hour. Finally we dragged ourselves away and headed back to the lodge passing herons and sun grebes with their little stripy feet.

We arrived back at the lodge and began packing our things for the canoe ride back to the entrance not looking forward to the next night ride. The river had gone up at least eight feet since when had arrived so I took the opportunity to use the rope swing and go for one last swim, before we said goodbye to Luis, Emma and Brent who we had become good friends with over the trip (they had one more day). On our way out I tried to soak in everything I could before we got in the bus and headed back across the country, up the Andes and back to Quito.

I really thought we would be able to keep an update with life as it comes, but this past month has been pretty incredible. This is a post I've been meaning to write since last month. Two friends and I packed up and headed to Latacunga for the festival "La Mama Negra." Louis was on a hike with a few friends, and so we ended up having about the most opposite experiences you can have.

Planning to leave at 8, we were a little delayed by Jay's rigorous beauty routine, and after an hour and a half long bus ride to the bus terminal we ended up in Latacunga at 1 o'clock. We were a bit nervous, as the festival started at 9. We looked around, and really, it was dead. Before panicking we asked a few people. The good news: we weren't late. The bad: we were a day early. We decided to spend the day looking around this small market town and met up with a friend who grew up in Latacunga.

The next day we walked out the hostel which opened up onto the plaza where the parade was, and I really have nothing more to say, because I still can't process it all. All I know is that there were 30 some pigs on portable alters propped on crosses with pictures of the virgin, or a flag pole holding the Ecuadorian flag coming out of their mouths.

It can only be seen. I promise. Accidently, we ended up at the "La Mama Negra" mostly for Ecuadorians, and the more well-known festival wasn't until November. It was amazing, and we were the only non-ecuadorian people I saw the entire time.

O, did I forget to mention "limpio"? Its where a shaman and his two helper angels circle you with sticks naming all the major mountains in Ecuador, and at the end, the shaman with a hollowed out cows foot full of alcohol gulps some alcohol, and then spits it all over you. I got "limpio" 4 times.

What you need after a week of tests is HOT POT!! Lucia, a Chinese girl in Sarah’s class, invited Sarah and her boyfriend (me), and her Korean classmate, Adriana, and her husband J.C. to dinner on Friday night.

While I was expecting a bit of alienation and awkwardness as a result of not being in the Asian train of thought, what I got was quite the opposite. It was an evening of wonders. Firstly, the company was great and the atmosphere was relaxed and humorous. Second were the amazing discoveries we made.

The first was Hot Pot. Hot Pot is a Chinese meal, where plates of raw food cover the table on which you are about to eat. Then there is a crock-pot of spicy, boiling soup in the center of the table. When everyone sits down to eat, we all start putting that we want, such as bacon, sausages, lettuce, different mushrooms, vegetables, and whatever else you can imagine, into the pot to be cooked. Meanwhile you mix up a peanut sauce in your personal bowl, which you add a little soup to, to make it spicy and thin. Then, after a few minutes when the food is cooked, you start chop-sticking the boiling soup for bacon and broccoli and wild mushrooms, which you then put into your bowl. The food, now covered with sauce is ready to go, so you eat it. This process of adding and subtracting food to the soup goes on for two or three hours, at which point we started talking about techniques competitive eaters use to stretch their stomachs so they can eat more.

The Second wonder of the night was brought on by a little bit of YouTube.ing. Looking at strings of videos on YouTube can easily ruin a night, but not that night. That night Sarah and I were introduced to a Russian singer named Vitas. Vitas is famous for having an incredibly high voice when he wants to. During the song his voice is more or less normal but when the chorus comes you see just how high he can go, and its not a joke. The first video we watched of Vitas was a video in which he was dressed in a fine suit and backed by an orchestra. I thought he must be well respected in the music community for his talent, and respected by others for his good looks as well. This idea was instantly thrown into confusion in the next video. The next video showed standing on platform shoes a foot high, wearing a glittering, white, bell-bottomed jumpsuit which covered his shoes, and singing one of his odd songs in the midst of a bunch of alien characters, straight from a disturbing children’s show. I wont bother describing his body language and facial expressions, I only recommend that you go and watch one of his videos immediately. Its funny, but I’m not trying to make fun of him. I really like the two songs but it is very, very odd.

Ok that was just Friday, our weekend was great too. We headed down to Mindo again. Its not that I don’t like Quito but living in a big city get stressful for me and it relieves the stress if I can get out of town for a weekend. Mindo is the perfect place to go. It’s a really small tropical town where you can hang out and explore the cloud forest. I like it because its warm, its small, and its crowded with birds, orchids and other life. Luckily we didn’t have to watch Yeti or some other terrible movie on the way down the windy road. On the other hand we didn’t get a little plastic cup full of coke so it goes both ways.

Oh another bummer of the weekend is that upon leaving I found that I had lost my binoculars, which were given to me years ago buy Dale Zimmerman, and which had never failed me in three trips to South America. I had thought about buying a new pair since that pair was about fifty years old, but upon loosing them I found that I was attached to them in a way that I’m not usually attached to a possession. I didn’t dwell on it for long but it did make me quite sad.

The day we got there Sarah wanted to canopying, which is zipping down a cable stretched between two mountains high above the forest. In all about ten bucks gets you a tour of 12 cables. The fear of the first cable quickly wore off, and we were soon more thrilled by the view that being suspended high above the forest. I spotted a few orchids along the way and we got some amazing views of Toucanets which are fairly common in the area. Hanging in my harness I managed to get some great photos, which are hopefully on this page.

We had also heard about a bird watching guide, who runs a hostel in Mindo. We stayed at the hostel for the night to feel out what the guided trips were like and how much they cost. It turned out to be 25 dollars for both of us, which at the time seemed quite reasonable. It turned out to be more than reasonable, when our Guide, Irman, knew every single bird by sight, sound, and was able to call in many kinds. Additionally, he helped in the making of the bird book in which I marked all the birds he pointed out, and he is a good friend of the authors. An early morning five-hour walk provided views, of about 45 species, including two types of toucan (photo is a Crimson Rumped Toucanet,) a Quetzal, a Potoo (don’t ask me how he spotted such a well camouflaged bird, and sleeping no less), two species of Barbet (the photo is a Toucan Barbet), a Motmot (photo), and a Cock-of-the-Rock. Another plus of the trip is that we met a couple from Sweden, who had never been birding before and were very exited about it. We hung out with them after the trip and exchanged emails hoping to see them next time they were in Quito.

Action Shot

Louis:
Originally planning to go to a town called Papallacta, we once again made the wrong choice of bus stations, and once again we resigned to going somewhere else. We chose a jungle town called Mindo, which is about three hours away. We had initially wanted to save a few days for Mindo because it seemed like a cool place to hang out and because two three hour bus rides is a little lengthy for a day trip. Seeing that we were leaving at 10:30am we realized that we would only have about three hours there (which was later cut short by a half hour stop in another bus terminal.) The long winding road, which descended 2000 meters into the foothills, was beautiful but was a little tough to focus on with a horror movie called Yeti, playing twice as loud as it needed to be. Just as the terrible movie ended we reached our stop, got off, and hoped in the back of a truck, which took us down the road a few miles to Mindo.
Mindo is a small town, which is sustained almost entirely on eco-tourism. The town offers guided tours, canopy zip-lines and tubing trips down the small river. The town is surrounded by some awesome cloud forest but for our two hours I was happy to just walk within town and look for all the hummingbirds Mindo is famous for. Bird wise, we did see some really cool stuff, including Squirrel Cuckoos, Groove-billed Anis, and a Water Tyrant. While I had my binoculars pointed into the trees Sarah was dog-watching. Every dog that walked by was apparently cuter than the last, and the awwwwes flowed freely. After walking around for an hour or so we stopped into a restaurant owned by an Italian man, which made some great pizza. Then back to the bus station we went, where we had a bit of a problem. There were a total of three more busses leaving Mindo for Quito that day, and there was no space left on the one we planned to take. I asked about the other two and there were two seats left, but inconveniently they were on two busses, which left an hour apart. We considered taking the two seats but it seemed really inconvenient. We were also considering skipping school and staying the night, when the bus driver offered to let us sit on a ledge near the front of the bus so we went with that option.
The drive back up to Quito was nicer in a couple of ways. They didn’t play the worst movie I had ever seen this time, there was a little airflow instead of sealed windows, and we sat next to a German guy named Jonas, who was cool. At the end we exchanged phone numbers. We bought a used cell phone but we still need to get a new sim-card so we can call the US. We also ran into a French friend from class on the terminal. We got home at 6:30 or so and it seemed like bedtime. That’s a problem here. The day is twelve hours long at all times -dark at the same time and light at the same time. For New Mexico in the summer that is a very short day and for winter it is a long day. Having left solidly in the NM summer the days seem short here and it’s a little odd to have it get dark at six. It is also odd to think that the seasons are reversed here (not that the seasons are at all like the seasons in NM) but we got temporary relief from that having crossed over to technical winter when we crossed to the Northern Hemisphere to get to Mindo. The Equator has always been a huge thing in my mind, and this isn’t the first time I have crossed it but driving by the monument really got my mind going. At a certain hour on a certain day of the year they say, that the top of the volcano Cotopaxi is the closest point on Earth to the sun, but I felt pretty close, driving in the wrong bus, across the waist of the world.

Sarah:

If there is one thing Louis and I have needed to adjust to while here in Quito, its probably the bus system. Actually, we needed to adjust to the reality that we will always be taken or go, to the opposite bus station that we need to be at. We’ve kept an open mind, and its actually resulted in fun trips. About a week ago we set off to visit Otovalo, a highland city north of Quito to browse their world famous weaving and see one of the largest open-air indigenous markets in Ecuador, and also to scout it out for when Louis’ parents, Bob and Carry, come down and visit us. We ended up at the bus station on the south side of Quito. Not just slightly south, but on the southern most edge of the most spread out city I have ever been in. We decided there was no way we would pay another 10 or 15 dollars for a taxi to get to the north, especially when the bus ride was only $3.50 (the buses charge a dollar an hour.) I’de been wanting to go to a town, Banos, on the edge of the Amazon in the south, so we took off. We arrived in Baños amid rain and had a scare on arrival. Louis had a scare, I didn’t really realize what was going on, but I had been left on the bus. As Louis ran after the bus, he yelled at the doorman. The doorman asked, “O is your luggage still under the bus?” Louis replied, “NO, MI NOVIA (girlfriend).” Everyone within earshot laughed, and I was hurried to the front where the bus slowed down, not completely, and I jumped off. Then we realized we got off at the wrong point. I get nervous, a whole lot of the time, and started imagining all types of horrific scenarios, and was reminded that even if our bodies were found the next morning, no one knew where we were, and the only people who did know thought we were in a totally different town. Louis told me to stop clutching my bag and speed walking down the road because I may be attracting some attention being so visibly nervous. I slowed down and quietly stewed, because even though getting off at the earlier point had been partially my idea, I take comfort in silently blaming him until the situations are worked out. We arrived at our hostel about 15 minutes later, and were greeted by a fast talking host named Second, who had signed us up for water rafting the next morning with his company, whom he promised would take us on a great adventure, and assured us we could wear underwear, not swimsuits, under our wet-suits. What he did NOT tell us, was that when we were changing into our wetsuits, we would be at the base of the river, surrounded by our guides, 20 other rafters, and a television crew for an Ecuadorian comedy show who had come along to film a segment featuring rafting. I decided the only way to do it was be completely nonchalant. I flashed my goods everywhere. We ended up rafting with the only person on the bus ride down who was yelling, in his very limited Spanish, that he was hung over and drinking beer (on the trip to the river) to get over it. When he put on his wetsuit he carefully secured a pack of cigarettes and a lighter under the suit, and proceeded to tell everyone in our boat that he knew how to raft, and give critiques of his partner. That aside it was beautiful, amazing, and our raft guide was sexy like the way older men adventurers are with natural streaks of white all in his hairs. We stopped a few times to take showers under waterfalls and jump off ledges into the river. We stayed in Baños for the evening and the next morning, looking around, buying their famous taffy and riding bikes down to the river. It was a great time, and we’ll probably be back again.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Finally- A Blog!

I'm finally following through on my promise to keep a blog while Louis and I are living here in Quito.

Here are a few pictures of the trip thus far. I'll be sure to add a bit of narrative soon.

I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that these huge jugs are full of Yogurt...

Louis went a bit hummingbird crazy for the first few days.