Stories we haven’t told you - Amazon Edition

Lot's happens everyday here. We don't tell you everything in our posts, here are a few mini-stories to fill in the gaps.

Igu Escaped

On the first day of our work in the jungle, I (Paul) was paired with Mia to learn the animal cleaning and feeding routine. Keep in mind that everything was new and we hadn't seen any enclosures until carrying buckets of food to the forest at 7 am. Our third stop were the Tayras - Emma and Igu. Mia, being a trusting soul, told me to take care of Igu, while she cleaned and fed Emma. No problem - I'd seen 2 done - almost expert status. 1. Close the gates to the feeding space with ropes to keep the animal out; 2. unlock the door and enter; 3. clean the old food and compost, wash the trays, dump the new food; 4. Exit and lock the door; 5 Open the access for the animal with the rope. All good.

A few cages later, we saw the vets running down the trail - "Igu escaped." they shouted as they sprinted past. Oh shit. It appears that "LOCK THE DOOR" was a key instruction that I didn't follow correctly. The good thing is that, while Igu is a curious little fellow, he was a pet for long enough that he had no desire to run off into jungle and just walked along the trail. He was easily corralled back to his home. It would have been very bad to have been fired on my first day!

New Routines

We have written about the importance of routines in the past. It’s so important here - very predictable and keeps everyone in the know. Daily- feeding/cleaning at 7, breakfast at 9, extra tasks/ tours till 12 when we cut fruit. 1pm is lunch. 2pm enrichments, 3:15 afternoon feeding.  Done at 4.   What’s not predictable is dinner.  It’s a volunteer task and the suggested target is 6-8 pm, mostly we eat after 8, once or twice after 9.  That’s hard to get used to!

Toe Tape and Rubber Boots

Staff, volunteers and most visitors wear rubber boots. It's absolutely necessary as the ground can be wet, there are puddles on the paths and often we are cleaning poo! Paul got "new" boots from Facebook marketplace before leaving Canada. They seemed to fit well at home. But, after a half-day of work, three blisters had formed. He found a new pair and taped up his toes and foot. After unclogging the Anaconda's drain pipe and soaking the inside of his newer boots, he is now using his third pair.  Better take care of these, because there's no more size 11 wides around!

2 Weeks of healing later...

Wash your hands! 

Simply put - we are dirty a lot of the time and even when we are clean, we don’t feel clean. We are in and out of animal enclosures all day long and they poop everywhere and a lot.  Although we wear gloves most of the time hand washing is critical. We’ve been diligently washing 8 or 10 times a day, but not everyone does - and that’s probably why someone always seems to be sick.

Soccer Saturdays

Kaja, one of the volunteers has been organizing soccer games with the local staff on Saturdays.  These are played on a mini field with a size 3 ball that is very hard and doesn’t bounce at all.  The stakes are high- losers buy the beer. We should probably just say it’s a soccer game and the volunteers are buying the beer because we don't win!

Check out my nasty bruise I got while making a big save!

Wake Up Calls

We know that traveling the way we do will generally involve early wake ups due to noises in our surroundings. At Amazoonico there were three sources of noise:

1. Spider monkeys- who occasionally barked or fought around 5:30am!! Once a juvenile was throwing avocados from high up in a tree.  Loud bangs could be heard as they landed on roofing metal.

2. Music - God only knows why the neighbours across the river had to blare the music at 5 am every day - sometimes even earlier. Weekend events meant that the music played all night.

3. Roosters- who started crowing as early as 2:30 am. All I can say is that if there wasn’t an 80 m wide river between us, we’d have been eating a lot more chicken!

Note: I am writing this section at 12:40 am in Quito. The dogs are fighting and barking - Quito has dogs, lots of them.  I am not going out to scare them off.  

The Quest For Clean Clothes

Clean clothes while traveling are, lets just say, worth their weight in gold. The truth of the matter at AmaZOOnico was the moment you pull on a clean shirt, it was already surrendered to the elements. Between the humidity, the "liquid gold" (aka papaya juice) from fruits, and the occasional "gift" from a bird overhead while cleaning the enclosures, your wardrobe  basically becomes a wearable science experiment, and that is not in a positive way.

At AmaZOOnico, we learned the hard way that laundry isn't just a chore—it’s a battle of wills.

The Lavanderia Chronicles

After a physical and sweaty work day, most afternoons ended at our brand-new lavanderia. Handwashing sounds romantic until you’re staring down a pair of socks that have lived inside rubber boots all day. They were wet, smelly, and practically fused with jungle mud.

We’d scrub the day's emsemble until brown soap oozed, rinsing over and over just to get them "somewhat" clean. Our secret weapon? A desperate splash of leftover fabric softener to mask the lingering scent of "jungle musk."

The Dream Machine 

Our other option was dropping laundry off at Nina’s. For $5/lb, she had a washer and dryer that did the heavy lifting. The only problem? That poor machine was fighting for its life against the sheer intensity of volunteer laundry.

Once, we left a bundle before heading out for a few days off, dreaming of fresh cotton. We were met with a heartbreaking message: the power went out. No clean clothes or sheets. No luck. Just the same dirty and damp laundry waiting for us upon our return.

The Quito Strategy

As our time at the rescue center wound down, we entered the "strategy phase." We wore things just a little too long to avoid one last handwash, resulting in a stockpile of clothes so stinky they had to be double-bagged in plastic like hazardous waste to keep the rest of our gear safe.

When we finally landed in our "luxury" $20/night hostel in Quito, we went on a mission. The front desk offered to wash everything for $0.25 an item. A quick look at our mountain of clothes told us that our ice cream money would be decimated, and we certainly weren’t willing to do that!

The Hidden Gem of the Andes

We turned to Google Maps to find a lavanderia. Low and behold one was a seven-minute walk way. We found a very professional sign, but no door. Upon closer inspection, we saw a small buzzer, so we hit it. A moment later we heard the creek of a door a few meters down the street.

A lovely elderly local couple appeared from behind the door, and after some rapid-fire Spanish (cuenta cinquenta centavos cada libre)  we cracked the code: $0.50 per pound. Sold!

Returning the next night was like Christmas. For a grand total of $4, we received a stack of clean, dry, and perfectly folded clothes that actually smelled like heaven.

Pro-tip for future travelers: hand washing is rewarding, but if you find a buzzer on a quiet street in Quito, press it. Your nose (and your wallet) will thank you.

Amazon Eats

We've shared a lot so far about what we've been doing, but we've left you hanging a bit about what we've been eating. So sit back, relax, grab an apple or piece of celery, and read on.

Full disclosure: We are eating well here in the Amazon. Given our work day starts at 7 am, we've fallen into a bit of a routine by getting up at 6 and making coffee while we watch the sun rise over the river and the monkeys wake up in the trees. Truth be told it isn't just instant coffee. It's fancy. I enjoy using the little cappachino machine in the voli (volunteer) kitchen and I've mastered the role of barista (might be a summer gig at Starbucks in my future). The steamed powered milk is a frothy bit of goodness to start the day!

At 9:00, after we take care of the animals, breakfasts are provided by the staff cook, Vero. She works her magic daily, whipping up different breakfasts for 20 - 30 people, including fried plantain and egg, boiled plantain and egg, fried yuca and egg, bread and egg, and on Wednesdays my favourite, fried empanadas with jam. And if you feel you need a little fibre to go with the egg or plantain, you can always make yourself porridge. Bagged ketchup and mayonnaise are also always sitting on the table, squeezable and ready, if you so desire. Not sure how it works, but the ketchup and mayonnaise are not refrigerated here. Seems ok as far as we know, and I've managed to dodge diarrhea after 4 weeks!

Lunches are also master-minded by Vero as well. There is usually some variation of rice and chicken, with a vegetable like cooked broccoli, cauliflower, or a cabbage or lettuce salad for good measure. Often beans or lentils round out the lunch. Last Friday, Vero whipped up a yummy beef sauce for lunch. When I asked her how she made it, she curtly replied that is was a "sauce secreto". Guess I won't be making that when we get home. Ketchup and bagged mayonnaise remain an option for lunch. Everyday we also have DELICIOUS homemade juice from local fruits. We are spoiled.

If at any time you need a little sugary snack, you can always grab an orito, which is a small, really sweet baby banana. I think I like them just as much as the wooly monkeys, the kinkajoos, and the coatis! 

Now for the suppers. A volunteer task on the rotation is “cena”, where you cook supper with one or two others for all of the volunteers. This can be quite a challenge given the size of the volunteer group, the limited kitchen and what groceries remain after the biweekly food delivery. 

Every second Friday a “viveros” (grocery) delivery comes by truck to Ahuano.  We send a canoe and volunteers to load it onto the boat and bring it back to Amazoonico. Much of this is in bulk - 50kg of flour, 100 kg of rice…etc. Everyone chips in to bring everything up 100 steps to the kitchen. As the end of the 2 weeks approaches, the stores have been depleted and creativity kicks in!

And let me tell you given the diversity of cultures many restaurant caliber dishes have been served from seemingly flour, oatmeal, beans, rice, veggies and eggs! For example, we've had:

- gnocchi with a homemade tomato sauce

- pasta with a peanut sauce

- fried corn tortillas with veggies

- homemade lasagna 

- mushroom risotto 

And there is often dessert!!! People on their days off like to bake. Hooray. We've enjoyed a few banana cakes, German cookies by Cristina, Welsh cakes thanks to Maria, cinnamon buns by Kaja, peach cobbler, pancakes with maple syrup (yes, we brought it from home), donuts courtesy of Adam, and tiramisu. You read that correctly, Andrew made tiramisu and not just once, but twice!

It's been super fun figuring out creative dishes with limited groceries. And kinda like meals  when camping, everything tastes so much better in the Amazon. Perhaps that's because we've carried it in off of a canoe delivery, or we're so hungry from all of the physical work.

Turno Nocturno

At Amazoonico the Tourno Nocturno is a special volunteer responsibility that most of us really love.  This is our opportunity to see the animals and feed them at night. It’s also a chance to see some really cool Amazon creatures. Honestly though, waking at night, in the jungle can be quite daunting - thankfully we never go alone. 

We’ve each been given a few opportunities and none are exactly the same. Some animals are far more active at night which means that Night Watch is the only opportunity to see them. 

It all starts at 6:30 - which means that the night watchers have been sitting around in dirty clothes stinking the place up for over two hours. Head lamps on, back up the 100 steps we go.

First we fetch 5 big pails of food - 3 are for the Tapirs - each one eats about 15 kg per day! The other two are for the peccaries.  While small, these 13 little beasties are ravenous.

Unlike our daylight trips to the animals, we go very slowly and carefully. We swivel our heads often. Insects, spiders, scorpions and snakes are more active at night, and we’re hoping to never make a personal “connection”. 

First stop is two tapirs- of course making sure to kick the gate and feeding trays to scare off any “bugs”.  Then, with only three buckets remaining, we proceed to the coaties. These are friendly little racoon-like critters. They have been fed earlier and shouldn’t be eating at night so we use ropes to close the feeding area. 

We’ve left our buckets unattended for a few minutes so we always make sure to kick them before grabbing the rope. It’s much safer to disturb a scorpion or tarantula with your rubber boots than your hand. 

Peccaries are fun to feed. As soon as they hear us they come to the feeding area - snorting and smelling worse than a volunteer. We spread the food around by throwing individual pieces as far as we can - no we don’t purposely try to nail a peccary in the arse, but it happens. Pretty hard to aim a slimy piece of papaya. 

Next we close the Wooly Monkeys’ feeding space. This is done with ropes and trap doors. Sometimes the male, who is quite interested in humans will be in the cage and refuse to leave. He’s quite a show boat and loves to spook the volunteers by loudly rattling the cage. 

Back tracking a bit, we head to the Toucans. Like the Coaties, they have been fed, but they shouldn’t eat at Night so we close the trap door to the feeding area. This is a good chance to see Pancho, a Lowland Paca (small version of a Capybara) who shares the Toucan space and only comes out at night. 

Now with just one bucket of food left, it’s off to the last Tapir. She lives close to the turtle pond, so there’s a good chance of seeing frogs - especially if it’s raining. 

It’s then time to drop into Taranatula Valley. We’ve seen between 2 and 6 of these furry beasts every time. They like to live in fence posts and don’t travel far from home so they are easy to spot. 

The final stop is the kinkajous. They have food already, so we just have to count them. They sleep up high all day, so we use the opportunity to see if they are healthy and active. The volunteers’ favourite is “Fat Johnny” who, due to a speculated thyroid problem, is significantly larger than his 6 colleagues. 

At about 7:15 we head back down the stairs with lots of photos - ready for a shower and dinner - only one of these will be warm!

Wet and Wild

Each week we get the opportunity to choose a volunteer activity. Two weeks ago we went to a wedding. Last week we visited the local coffee farm and had dinner. This week on Friday we decided to go to visit the medicinal

Jairo, our guide (and his son Jairo

garden that is run by one of our staffers. It’s just across the river so easy to get to. As it turned out, the garden tour would be only a small part of the adventure. 

As we gathered to wait for the boat, a number of us debated footwear choice. It had rained recently so we quizzed the more experienced people. There was no consensus. Gayle and I decided that rubber boots were best. As you read on, this decision had little consequence. 

We left at 4:30 after hailing Romeo the 14-year-old captain of the canoe to shuttle us across. Everyone fit into one canoe, although 20 people is a little over the posted capacity of 10. Don’t worry, though it was super safe. There was one lifejacket on the boat.

Look at the Sky

As we landed on the far shore, we could hear the thunder rolling in the distance. Seemed  like we might get a bit of rain. I welcomed the thought because it was a very hot day and I was struggling to cool off.  We walked about 10 minutes to Edi’s farm, where we were greeted by his son Jairo, who guided us through the forest. We saw cinnamon, vanilla and many other medicinal plants. We got to taste ginger and smell lemongrass. It was a real treat!

About 2/3 of the way through the tour we felt the first few drops. It started to rain a little and harder and harder. Suddenly it was dumping. Jairo hurried up the tour and we hustled back to the shelter where we were going to get to taste some treats made from the jungle. As we arrived, the rain stopped and we played on the giant swing for a while. 

Just as we sat down the rain started again.  It was now past 6:30 and completely dark. The rain came hard and the lightning picked up again. Everyone moved away from the edges of the shelter to avoid bouncing water. It was one of those storms where you say, “this can’t last forever.”

Edi’s wife was cooking over a fire that was sheltered by humongous jungle leaves. Soon we got to taste some home made liqueurs. One was vanilla and the other, tasted like boat fuel. Both were pretty fiery! The warm cinnamon tea hit the spot!

As the rain continued to pelt we were treated to some fried plantain and fresh chocolate syrup. It was so good that almost everyone licked their plate!

Soon after, talked turned to our return to camp. Driving rain, lighting and thunder continued. Adam and Tessa, the admins, decided that it wasn’t going to let up so we better get moving.

Kaja who had the most experience on the trail, took the lead as we filed into the storm. Gayle and I were near the front of the line because I was one of the few with a headlamp. Just as we left, the sky lit up and a nearly simultaneous clap of thunder followed. Screams and “wows” could be heard. The path to the boat was pretty much a river.

The rubber boots lost their effectiveness within about a minute as the rain water filled them!

We trudged along the path of mud and water for about 10 minutes. We arrived back at the beach and waited for Tessa to find Romeo — she’d have to walk to his house. 

Let’s recap briefly: there are about 20 of us. We are all drenched. It’s completely dark and we’re about to get into a boat to cross a river that is rising fast. Oh, I haven’t yet mentioned that the power is out at camp. 

Romeo, who was probably quite dry and happy in his house, skipped down to the shore to ready the boat. We saw him immediately trying to bail the water. Realizing it was pointless, he waved us on.

The boat was now seriously overloaded and the swollen river was moving fast. Many of us started wondering about this plan. A few were quite scared. Honestly, I considered taking my boots off so I could swim better if we tipped. I wondered who might be lucky enough to get the life jacket. 

Lindsay, Kaja and Katelyn - very wet!

We shoved off from shore. Normally we would have expected the engine to start at this point. It did not. Romeo had jumped in to swim us away from shore to find deeper water. 

Seconds later the engine revved and we were moving across the river. The boat drivers here do some pretty slick manoeuvres in the fast flowing river to keep the nose pointing up stream while ever so gently edging across. Romeo did this in the dark with the rain pouring down!

We landed on the beach at Amazoonico without incident - almost. After jumping off, I stood on the shore to assist others from the boat to the muddy shore. I felt a wicked burn on the back of my leg - an ant bite for sure. Damn. It stung badly!

We thanked Romeo and watched to make sure he made it back safely - not that there was anything any one of us could do to help. We hurried up the stairs. 

The scene that followed was complete chaos. People were scrambling for dry clothes, towels and head lamps. It was about 7:30 at this point. 2 unlucky souls would still have to go for night feeding of the animals. And 2 others would have to cook dinner in the dark. Then someone screamed so loudly and shrill that I thought someone had died. Nope - just a tarantula in someone’s laundry. 

Cooking in the Dark

After a few minutes of getting dry and dealing with wet clothes and bug bites, we decided to “hunker down” and skip dinner. Gayle found a couple of granola bars, a caramilk bar and some peanuts in our little food stash. She told the cooks that we’d skip dinner. 

Glad to be back safely, we watched a TV show and fell asleep before dinner was cooked. 

Jr.)

Life in the Jungle

We are absolutely loving the experiences we are having in Ecuador. It's a lot of rewarding hard work and there are a few things about the jungle that many of you might be interested to learn. 

Bug Bites and Itching

At any particular time, we can count well over 100 red dots on our bodies. No joke. 

They are certainly more concentrated near our ankles, and these little buggers are often itchy. We've been told the majority of bug bites are from stealth little sand flies. They are nearly invisible, but they really bite!  Most of the time you don't even know when you're being bitten - you just itch like hell later and see a red circle with a darker pin point in the middle. Recently some of the red dots have developed a white head much like a pimple. It's hard to know if these are bites or something else. Awesome. I guess we hope they are bites, and that they will subside in a day or two. 

As if that wasn't bad enough, in our second week a new volunteer, Skye, said she had a whole whack of ticks on her chest and back. We hadn't seen any, so didn't think too much about it. A couple days later - WITH GLASSES ON - duh - we found one. With a head lamp and glasses on, Paul found about 20 little monsters on Gayle just before bed. Needless to say Gayle didn't sleep so well that night! They are much smaller than the Canadian style we are used to, but just as gross. A couple days later,  we found at least 40 on Paul - they were so tiny they just looked like a speck of sand or a tiny mole.  Tick checks are now a regular nightly occurrence. It's good to have routines!

Dirty and Smelly

Every day starts with clean clothes that have been thoroughly hand washed and air dried (for at least 2 days!) At 7 am we walk up 100 stairs to start our cleaning and feeding routines. Everywhere we go requires going up and down stairs. By breakfast at 9 am it's usually 29 degrees and we are drenched with sweat. Add to that the fact that we've cleaned old food, animal waste and dirt from the feeding cages -- we're starting to smell. On our first trip to town body spray was high on Gayle’s list, but perfume and deodorant really do not help much. By lunch at 1:00 pm, we've been working at other tasks like raking or giving tours (more stairs) and it's now 32 degrees. We are always hoping for an afternoon rain storm. We visit the animals (yes more stairs) again for enrichments and feeding and finish the day around 3:45 - completely and utterly filthy. Descending the 100 stairs for the final time, usually means a swim, then a well needed shower! The reward for all of this is that the after work routine also includes a trip to the outdoor lavanderia, or clothes wash station. It's a daily reminder of how much we have accomplished (and another opportunity to interact with sand flies).

Creepy Crawlies

I have just typed the title to this section - inside the Grand Selva Lodge lounge - and a bat flew right past me! It's the jungle, so there are spiders, bugs and lots of other crawling things everywhere. We have seen countless tarantulas! Before putting on any foot wear we shake and dump it to make sure there are no scorpions or bullet ants (they bite so hard it feels like you are getting shot - don't worry it only lasts for 6 hours!)

Being assigned to Night Watch (feeding) is particularly fun because so many things come out at night - walk slowly - keep your hands to yourself and kick the food buckets before you pick them up!

Hot and Humid

You've already read about the temperature - now add humidity. I has rained for a least a few minutes almost every day. It takes about 2 days for clothes to "dry" after washing. Clothing, money and even passports go moldy in our rooms. Paul’s wireless mouse stopped working because the battery contact corroded badly. After nearly 3 weeks, we have grown accustomed to being sticky all day long. We really notice it when giving tours. Most of the visitors struggle - the first 100 stairs takes a lot out of them - and then we drag them up and down stairs for over an hour watching them "melt" steadily. Most relish the cold drinks at the gift shop when we are done.

We’re here for a few more days so if you want to stop by for a quick visit to see for yourself, let us know. 

How to Poop in The Amazon

After our winter excursion and the post about "How to Poop in the Woods", you probably suspected this one was coming. You were right. Here is what I've learned so far about pooping and not pooping in the Amazon.

Before going any further, let's just remember we are working with animals in the jungle and poop is everywhere! We clean poop from animal enclosures everyday and Paul was dumped on by a rather large wild macaw while guiding a tour of Canadians! Ok, back to the story...

From what we've observed, flush toilets are common in Ecuador. However, in most places septic or city sewage systems are not robust enough to handle flushing toilet paper. The solution - put the tp in the waste basket next to the toilet. As you can imagine the crappiest (pun intended) and my least favourite volunteer chore at AmaZOOnico is "Basura" because for this job you empty all garbages - bathroom toilet paper baskets included. Gloves are a must, as is hand washing every 5 seconds!!!

You will be pleased to hear that 2 bathrooms in the tour reception area are "toilet paper positive." If you know it's going to get messy, you'll want to head there! Nuff said.

Now, for my bathroom travel reality. Often when I'm new to a place, I get a little "bunged up", as my parents used to say. This is probably due to different food and lack of hydration, which is completely my own fault. Full disclosure - I recently got a little constipated and after 4 days of struggle, I had an epiphany, "I'm in the Amazon, so there must be a medicinal plant to help with my ailment." I went to our Admin, bared my soul. Having no answer, what did she do? She went to the local Indigenous Kichwa staffers, of course. The general consensus was to eat papaya and in more severe cases, eat papaya seeds. Easy. We feed papaya to almost every animal so there is no shortage of these slimly little round seeds.

I went directly to the "bodega" and soon I was crunching down on a tablespoon of papaya seeds. If you've not tried them, I recommend it. They are quite tangy, with a fair bit of spice and crunch. I took another tablespoon of seeds later in the day, just in case. I'm not sure if I ate the fast acting seeds, but in about 10 hours things were moving and I POOPED!!! Big sigh of relief.

I think I'll leave it there. If you have any specific questions, email or text. I'm happy to share more. But something tells me I've already shared too much.

Days Off in Ecuador

Just to let you know, it's not all "work hard an no play" here in Ecuador. Since there are up to 21 volunteers and a wide variety of tasks at Amazoonico, on Sundays a new schedule of rotating assignments is released for the next week. This includes animal feeding stations, extra tasks (cleaning, cooking, etc.) and our days off.

Each volunteer has 2 days off each week - kind of like a weekend, but since the animals need to be taken care of every day, days off are unlikely to be on weekends and are not necessarily consecutive. How we use those days is up to us. Many volunteers take days off to visit Tena, the local city to eat and pick up treats (alcohol). It's a bit of a haul to take the canoe and then a bus - anywhere from 1.5 - 2 hours each way. Additionally we are surrounded by tourist-type opportunities that are likely going to be worth experiencing (waterfalls, Indigenous communities, rafting, tubing and jungle hikes to name a few).

Canoe Ride to Catch the Bus

Our first two days off were quite uneventful as we stayed at Amazoonico for both days (Saturday and Sunday). We were able to sleep in a little, do some laundry (hand washing of course), catch up with some blogging and other things that needed internet access (which we can find at the local school when the kids are gone). We even took some time to throw a disc at the nearby school. (The "field" is not very big and full of pot holes and long grass.) 

By the time Sunday rolled around, you will not be shocked read, that we were pretty well done with resting so we began looking for more productive ways to use our time. During the previous week, volunteers had reported that the water in the Spider Monkey feeding enclosure had been leaking. So I decided to check it out and discovered that the cement around the drain had started to deteriorate. I recruited Gayle and we went to the Carpenteria to look for some cement to create a patch. A little while later, the fix was in place (and the next day, I saw a monkey drinking from it). We did have the pleasure of attending a true Ecuadorian wedding, and were so grateful to see many interesting customs and traditions. 

On our second day off Gayle decided to bake a banana bread - which was a huge hit with the volunteers and staff at the weekly Sunday afternoon meeting. Still looking for tasks, we took on the highly glamorous "bathroom cleaning" chore to replace a couple of the volunteers who were off sick (so far there have been 1-2 volunteers out every day due to some form of illness - wash your friggen' hands people) All in, our two days were restful, but a little too slow for us. And honestly, we need to take advantage of the local opportunities a bit more.

We decided to use our next days off differently. In our second week, we had Thursday and Friday off. That means we worked a whole 3 days before taking a break. We booked a canoe to pick us up at 7 and take us to the Puerto Barrantilla. (You can try to look it up on Google Maps but it rarely shows up. It would be more aptly named Playa Barrantilla, because there is nothing there - just stairs to the water.)

From there we walked 2 minutes to the road and waited for a bus.  We’d heard that busses can be unpredictable and to our surprise we hoped aboard an air conditioned bus bound for Tena about 15 minutes later. It must have been an express, because we arrived in just over an hour.  

We had a quick breakfast in a bakery and then hit the busy streets to pick up a few things that we needed (well, mostly wanted). Gayle was hunting for a new shirt but got pants instead. We avoided buying any chickens (alive or dead) and had no desire to purchase the giant grubs at the market. We picked up some food at the grocery store as we wanted to make something special for the volunteers when it was our day to cook. The most important part of our day in Tena was, of course, lunch.

Since we’ve been eating a lot of rice, beans, and lentils, I’ve been hankering for a hamburger for a while. We found "Crazy Burger" on the map and made a bee line at 11 am - the opening time.  Upon arrival, we helped set up the 2 tables and chairs.  The lady worked really hard to explain things in English. I pretty much stopped listening when she said, “is big” and she used a hand gesture to show about 6 inches!

I was not disappointed in my double cheeseburger with 2 patties, 2 fried eggs, 2 slices of cheese, 2 slices of ham, 2 slices of bacon, tomato and lettuce.  It was so huge that I had to eat it in two parts.

Bellies full we boarded the bus for the Grand Selva Lodge.  We weren’t expecting anything too “Grand” as the Booking.com price was just 19 USD - including breakfast.  However, we were pleasantly surprised by a very nice place with a pristine pool and warm showers. We shared the entire place with a French family and joined them on their night time jungle walk - which was an unexpected treat. Gayle turned out to be the "eagle eyes" and spotted more interesting creatures than the guide! The next day we negotiated a late checkout and walked an hour back to meet the canoe to take us back to Amazoonico at 4 pm. Arriving back we learned that the power had been out for two days! 

More days off are coming up and you can expect to read about a waterfall hike.

The Pool at Grand Selva

Fresh off the bus

 

A cool frog that Gayle found