Amazon Adventure: Tena

Last weekend John, some of the participants that were still i Quito, and I went to the "doorway of the Amazon forest" aka Tena. We hopped on a 5 hour bus ride from the South terminal in Quito to Tena. The ride was really pretty with huge, high waterfalls and views down into the valleys. I thought the driver was driving a little out of control down the curvy mountain roads... but we made it there safely so I guess he knew what he was doing. In Tena we searched for the perfect hostel. We eventually settled on one with the very cliche name "A welcomed break" (and yes it was in English). It was neat though and had hammocks and bunk beds. Plus it was only $7/person a night.

After securing the hostel room we went looking for lunch. We wanted to go to a vegetarian place that was mentioned in the tour book but it was closed. The boys of the group ended up at a pizza place where they each got a medium pizza. John and I went to a traditional almuerzo place and had a pretty decent lunch. After we were full we decided to make our way to the Amazonia park that was on a little island in the middle of two rivers. Again according to the trusty guide book there was supposed to be a bridge to the island. After searching for a few minutes we determined that the bridge had been demolished and we had to take a canoe across. Fun. The park turned out to be pretty neat. We saw a few different animals (all in cages) that ranged from snakes to porcupines and turtles to (my favorite) the capybara. ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size)! We also saw small monkeys that were not in cages. We tossed them oranges and they caught them. Also, we learned that the monkeys have really bad tempers. When we took away the oranges they would hop up and down in the tree and shake the leaves violently.

Then we climbed a super shaky lookout tower and eventually ended up down by the river. John was brave and got in the river but I just walked along the shore. To get back across to the main land we took a taribita (wire basket that is person propelled by a rope and two pulleys). Poor John got massive blisters from hauling my butt across the river. When it got dark we wandered in to town where a dance competition was going on. It was actually quite disturbing because young girls were provocatively dancing on the stage while grown men watched. We had a beer at a restaurant that faced the back of the stage... so we didnt really see anything, we just heard the men cheering. Gross. We wanted to find a quieter place to hang out so we went down by the river. Around 10 everyone wanted to head back to the hotel...
   John was up bright and early the next day. We waited around in the hammocks until the rest of the group woke up. We had breakfast at the Tortuga cafe. They had traditional breakfasts and pancakes and things like that too. We didn't really know what to do after that so we headed down to the beach again. This time we found sand at the river (not rocks). The boys went swimming and had turns throwing small rocks at a large rock on the opposite side of the river (fun!). We tried to take the 1pm bus home but it was full and we got stuck on the 1:50 bus. On the ride home I had just fallen asleep when the bus stopped. I heard some Spanish being spoken at the front but I ignored it until John told me that it was a police and we had to get off of the bus. I guess that they chose our bus to randomly search for drugs and stuff like that. I am just glad that I decided to bring a copy of my passport... usually I dont (bad habit... I already know). The check took about 30 minutes and then we were off again.

We arrived back in Quito just around when it was starting to get dark. John walked the participants home and I walked home by myself.
   All in all, Tena is a really neat spot to visit and I would actually consider going back there with John one day. More pictures on my facebook page : )


Interesting fact: Tena is the kayaking capital of Ecuador (and possibly of South America). People from all over the world come to take on the challenge of the whitewater rivers here. From Tena you can access 7 different rivers  and 12 other river sections. You can have a relaxed journey on a Class II section or an expert adventure on a class V sectiion. We did not get the opportunity this time to try any of our mad skills (and by skills...  I mean lack there of)