Ecuador - Amazon- Day 2

7-08-2011

Clambered onto the back of a jeep to get to the river. We managed to cram quite a few of us in there, no need for seat belts as there was nowhere to move. Got in to narrow motorised boats to get to the animal sanctuary . It felt very touristy and movie like as that is how river travel in the Amazon is shown. Very peaceful.

The amaZOOnia is a privately funded, volunteer filled, sanctuary. They are doing a good job. As per the guides there seem to be a few mentally unstable monkeys around, one even self harms. Each of the animal has an interesting story surrounding it. Most of them are abandoned pets, some treated very poorly (muscles cut out so the macaw could not fly). Saw many things for the first time, a few I had seen before. Macaws, tucans, spider monkeys, fur monkeys, capybara, turtles sunbathing in a row, caimans, ocelot, sadly the Anaconda was shy so did not see her, would have loved to see one. They are doing a good job of rehabilitating the animals.

The afternoon was spent tubing down the river. It was lovely. I have never done this before and I loved it. Due to the currents being strong 5-6 large rubber tubes were tied together. The guide paddled while we soaked up the sun, the rapids at times gave us a bit of a rush, especially when we raised our arms up. Jumped off the tubes to swim along at times, other times just dipped my feet ( at times butt) in the water. Stopped midway to visit an indigenous village, Santa Monica. The house we went to was of the shaman, he and his wife seem to be the founders of the village. Did not get to meet him but did see his wife. Learnt about their ways of living, fishing, drank some chiqua ( yucca, sweet potato and water) and some herbal tea. Short game of soccer in which the Ecuadorians beat the Rest of the World quite easily. Continued on the tubes down the river to our lodge. If we were in shallow water and there were rocks underneath, our guide would shout - up your butt- meaning raise yourselves to prevent scratches. It was amazing, the rainforest all around us and we were just floating by. Wonderful experience.

Had to work for dinner, over 300 stairs above was the lodge. Carried a tube as we navigated the steps, a few were missing a half, would not have been good to fall through, it was a long way down.




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