Quito & Amazonia

We arrived back at Evelyn’s and Fernando’s garden in Quito where we left Mozart for our time on Galapagos, and where a special surprise was waiting for us: Will who we met some weeks before in Northern Ecuador. He is a great guy and we were very happy to see him again. Will drives a huuuge car and loves burger, coke and philosophical conversations. He started travelling on his own about one and a half years ago in Washington D.C., visited Alaska, Central America and everything in between. Spending some days with mentioned folks and getting a private tour through Quito, we decided to team up with Will to explore Ecuador’s Amazonia.

On our way to the jungle, we had to cross the Andes range and stopped for one night in Papallacta to enjoy its thermal pools.

The next day we arrived in Archidona at an amazing place, parking our cars next to the river and receiving a warm welcome from Remo, a leader of the local Quechua community. Remo and his monkey took us on a very special hike which was supposed to be a one hour walk through the jungle to explore plants and trees and being explained their use for medical purposes, rope fabrication, nutrition and much more. It’s incredibly impressive to escort such a person through his native forests where his ancestors already hunted and gathered generations ago. And most important, conserved this big knowledge and passed it on to the next generations. While we as common gringos see nothing but plants and trees, these people know all the secrets Pacha Mama (mother nature) has to offer and how to use them. It was simply stunning to listen to Remo’s explanations, and his monkey was as curious as we were, took everything we got from Remo and used us as his preferred transport option. Suddenly, the one hour jungle lesson turned into something unexpected, and we’re still glad nobody has been sacrificed. Just joking, Remo was an amazing guy to follow into this territory. BUT, what happened next was quite surprising. On a random trail he began to paint our faces and told us to undress our shirts. For any reason we still don’t grasp, we did as we were told, closed our eyes and found ourselves being cleaned as the first step of this ancient ritual. The cleaning included a jungle menthol mass being applied on our backs, swallow a random plant mass he gave us, being punched with a plant bundle and Remo talking in Quechua. Finally, he pulled a little wooden device and shot a local tobacco in our noses. Just to remember, ten minutes before we still thought we’d just be introduced to some plants and trees. After the first cleaning process, we continued some minutes walking a little dizzy to a huge waterfall. He then told us to sit down and poured some tobacco-water mixture in our eyes that burned like hell. The intention was to clean our brains. After that, we had to dive through the water and let our heads and backs being punched below the waterfall, which was simply extreeeme!

At that point we were glad we survived, being clean and that the ceremony was finished, but that wasn’t the case. Another half an hour walking Remo brought us to a cave whose entry was so tiny we could only enter sliding. In this cave there were multiple natural ‘rooms’, various streams and small waterfalls. In one of those rooms we found kind of an altar (read on, nobody will be sacrificed). So one after the other had to lie down and Remo covered us entirely in mud he took from a small crack in this cave. After that, we had to follow him half naked, covered in mud and looking like Tolkien’s orcs into another room of this cave, again sliding on our bellies through tight, muddy cracks. While we were meditating in complete darkness (no chance to find out alone), we suddenly heard steps. First thought: Remo’s getting rid of those damn gringos. But no: his dog came looking for us and most likely for some goodies. You might ask (as we did), ‘why did you guys do all of that’? We assume, some people create a certain connection and trust, for some reason it simply felt right, exciting and trustworthy. And it turned out to be one of the most amazing ‘off-path’-experiences we could have made, especially because we expected something else.

Spending another two days at Remo’s place, we continued to Tena to visit Joy, a friend of Evelyn and Fernando and also a traveler, happy to receive some of the same kind. We stayed for some days, hiked to a hidden jungle lagoon seeming to be out of an Indiana Jones movie, enjoyed Joy’s hospitality, got an Ecuadorian cooking class (Joy has a restaurant and is his own parillero (barbecue chef)) and planned our trip deeper into the rain forest. The aim was to experience Amazonia where no cars drive. To get there, we had to drive another two days to the edge of Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, and get into a motorized canoe for three hours to arrive at our lodge. Those canoes were the only transport option for the coming five days. The only people living in the Cuyabeno area are various indigenous tribes such as Siona, Cofans and Secoyas. There are furthermore few simple lodges from where tourists can explore the reserve with local guides descending from mentioned indigenous communities. Long story short: for five days we experienced the Amazonian jungle, saw river dolphins, tapirs, myriads of monkeys, caimans of all sizes, snakes, huge spiders, long highways of leaf-cutter-ants and uncounted animals more, trees higher we could have imagined and all types of plants for certain special uses. And most impressive, we learned what actions are set today to preserve this area in future. We visited the Siona community, learned how to harvest Yuca (manioc, staple foods of indigenous in the Amazon as well as the Andes) and prepare Yuca bread.

Closing those five days in Cuyabeno, we drove all the way back to Joy again to re-organize and go on further South, still with Will, to the Andean range to Baños. If anyone ever drives this route, stop near Puyo at Heladería del Viajero and enjoy a homemade hell of an ice cream. And avoid having lunch before, this IS a lunch. Do not repeat Patrick’s mistake!