Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Amazon: Cuyabeno

Pouring the grated yuca
For Josh's second week here, we went to one of the last parts of Ecuador still on our list, The Amazon.

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
When Amber and I woke up, we could see some monkeys eating in the trees outside our room.  After breakfast, we were taken to a nearby village to watch how they make bread out of Yuca (Yoo-ca, not Yuk-a) root, the stuff tapioca is made out of, and to see the shaman of the village.  On our way there, we saw a huge anaconda on the edge of the river.  It left too quickly to get a picture though. In the village we helped pull the roots out of the ground and then grated them and dried it.  Then the woman put the yuca shavings on hot, clay griddle and cooked it.   It wasn't bad.   Then the shaman came out and talked about himself and what he does.  He then showed us a demonstration of his rituals. On our way back to the lodge, we stopped at a large tree with big roots. Then we went back to the lodge and back to the lake to swim and watch the sunset.  On our way back from the lake, we searched for alligators in the river and edge of the lake.  We saw a few medium sized ones.

Grating the yuca
This day, one of the guides took us on a walk through the rain forest.  It was really muddy in some spots, but luckily they had boots big enough for me.  We hiked around and the guide talked about the different plants and animals.  Later, we went on a night hike to see the different insects and frogs that come out.  We saw some tarantulas, tree frogs, and other strange bugs.

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