What haven't we done on this trip, we've been skiing on glaciers, surfed beaches in Brazil and Uruguay, seen penguins and seals, stayed in crazy hotels, seen volcanoes, rode horses, stayed on farms- well you get the idea. But the one thing we haven't done is the jungle. So that is what we did on 7th of December. We arrived at San Pedro after a long day of travelling, from there we rode in a canoe along the Rio Napo for about 30 minutes until we reached the Yacuma Lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Before heading into the jungle we needed to paint our faces with a natural paint that Mario (our guide) put on us so the jungle would respect us while we went on our 4 hour trek to the bat cave. We had fun painting a patern or two on Mario. After this we set out on our walk through the jungle on the 8th of December.
This is the Black Saber tree which is about 500 years old. There are two types of Saber tree the Black one, which is the one in the picture and the White Saber tree which is smaller. The Black saber tree can live between 800-1000 years, and the white one can live between 400-700 years.
The Saber trees are very useful to the native Kitchuwas who live in the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon. It Is useful because the roots of this tree grow 2-3 meters above the ground so the Kitchuwas can beat a thick stick against the roots and it ecos out a message to other villages within a 2-3 km radious. They could be warning them about danger or that someone has died or even that they have killed a jaguar to eat. The reason this tree can grow up to its enourmas size is it's roots create a sterdy anchor that can support the tree and stops it slipping benith the soft Amazonian soil, unlike many other trees.
There are leaves in the jungle that are useful for the people of the region. Mario made us a cup out of two medium sized leaves, which can then be used for scooping up water to drink from the river, or to cook with. The photo above shows one they use when they catch the fish. They tie the parcel up with a little vine that grows on most trees. They then carry it back to village and place it on the fire so the fish can cook. The leaves don't burn because they are green, which means it is perfect to cook with.
We finally arrived at the bat cave after 2 hours of trekking in the 80% humidity of the Amazon. The bat cave was nice and cool but only Scarlett, dad, Mario and I went in because mum freaked out and didn't want to go in. It was cool watching them fly 25 cm above our head. Then we started our 1.5hr walk back, plus a 10 minute boat ride back to the Yacuma lodge.
The start of our second day was a walk to the native Kitchuwa village. Our guide made us many different things out of the leaves. This is the devils costume which he made me out of the flowers of a very common plant in this part of the Jungle.
The Kitchuwa people make the thatched roof on there houses by curing the leaf of a palm tree. They need to dry the leaves first then join them together to create a water proof roof. We slept under a roof like this in our hut and when it poured with rain there wasn't a drip to be seen inside!
We also went to a local school. There were about 14 students of all different ages k-6 and only one teacher. After they finished their soccer game in the rain the children came back into the classroom dripping wet. All of them shook our hands with happy smiles.
They sang a song for us in Kitchuwa and then it was our turn to sing to them. Mum suggest we sing jingle bells. It was really embarrassing. We introduced our selves but of course dad got his Spanish completely wrong and instead of saying mi nombre he said mi nueve (9). We showed them were we are from and mum imitated a kangaroo. Embarrassing again.
The kids don't have much stuff but they look happy, and that's the most important thing.
Oscar :)
RSS Feed