Pouring the grated yuca |
We booked a 3 night 4 day tour with Jamu lodge in Ecuador's northern Amazon region called Cuyabeno. Amber and I took the overnight bus from Quito to Lago Agrio, and then met Josh at the airport with the rest of our tour group. After a long, hot bus ride, we arrived at the park entrance, ate, and got on a motorized canoe to head down the river to our lodge. Our first impressions of the Amazon were that the trees seemed shorter than what we imagined. The ride down the river felt like a paddle on a stream in Ohio or Georgia, except there was some monkeys in the trees. Then we arrived at the lodge, rested, and then took the canoe back out to a large lake to watch the sunset. Josh later discovered a large tree frog was going to be living in his bathroom while we were here.
Amber with yuca horn |
Grating the yuca |
On our final morning, we went back out to the lake to watch the sunrise and look for birds. We left a little too late to catch the sun, but we did hear some howler monkeys way off in the distance. We ate and took the canoe back up the river to the road. I guess we were there in their dry season, because the river was almost too low to drive the canoe back. While the rain forest had some unique and interesting features, we all kind of agreed that it just felt like we were in the swamps of Florida or Georgia and neither one of us fell in love with it.
Once back in Quito, Josh was treated to the beginning of our town's festivals, or the Fiestas de Guapulo, and one final double hot dog from Los Hot Dogs.
Interesting Fact: The Yuca bread we made would probably be called a Tortilla. Before moving to Ecuador, I just thought a tortilla was the very flat bread tacos are made out of. In Ecuador, and probably the rest of the Spanish speaking world, a tortilla is anything that is somewhat flat and fried. It could be a fried scrambled egg, or potato pancake, or thick dough made of wheat, corn, or green plantains. Breakfast pancakes would be considered tortillas also.
Amber liked the mud |