Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh....In the Jungle.... (Part I of Classick's Visit)

Sorry for the hiatus readers, but it is due to the just awesome year we are having.  Javier and I are both enjoying our time in the classroom and have taken on some responsibilities at school outside of our classrooms.  Both are keeping us super busy and happy!  But more on that later....what I just haaaave to update you on now is our most recent Ecuavisitor and trip to the Amazon.

Classick came to visit!!!! YAY!!!!!!

He arrived on Thursday night and spent a day adjusting to the altitude (although he really had no problems in Quito which was awesome!) and then we started our long journey deep into the Ecuadorian jungle.  Javier and I had Monday and Tuesday off from school so we booked our long anticipated trip into the jungle for this long weekend during Classick's visit!  We started with an hour flight north of Quito and then took a two hour bus ride to meet the canoe that would take us into Amazon.  

Flight down...on the bus to meet our canoe!  Also....Javier and Poppy had booked the long weekend in the jungle too!!

Examples of the motorized canoes we would be taking to get to our jungle lodge!

Loaded and ready to go. 

Mom and Dad had graciously offered to send an early Xmas present with Classick.  After our little bird watching adventure in Mindo, the Cabezas realized that a nice set of binoculars would be a really good addition to our adventuring equipment.  As you can see, Javier has them hooked up and ready to go in case we saw some wildlife along the way!

We arrived at the 'dry' time in the Amazon.  As we traveled along the river it was easy to see that the water sometimes reached heights 2 additional meters than its current level.  The strength of the water and erosion can take out massive trees (like this one) along the shore. 

This was the view for much of our trip: lush greenery and open sky! 

We were lucky enough to see some monkeys on our 2-3 hour trek.  There are 11 species of monkeys that live in this part of the Ecuadorian jungle and we got to see 7 over the course of our days!  (Just FYI, we were visiting the Cuyabeno jungle of Ecuador).

You know...just hanging around

We arrived at Jamu Lodge after about 2.5 hours on the river.  We were in an area that included a few other lodges, each with their own little dock and sign to mark their existence on the water.

Jamu included several cute little cabins and a large lodge where we ate our meals. 

Upstairs in the lodge there were hammocks set up for visitors to lounge in between treks. 

After we settled in, Classick tried out some of said hammocks.

I never got a great picture of our room, but you can kind of see it here....nothing to write home about, but relatively bug free (which was my priority for the weekend!)

Our first day included a trip to the lagoon to watch the sunset.  We were lucky enough to see this sloth on the way!  Apparently they sleep hanging from the trees and can stay in the same position for hours and hours.

The sunset on the lagoon was gorgeous.

Truly breathtaking!

Even knowing about the anacondas, piranhas, and massive fish that could be in the water we couldn't resist the chance to take a swim.  (It also probably helped that is was quite warm and humid so the sound of a dip was delightful.)

Here we are at sunset!

I took about a million photos because the colors just kept changing. 

I had to take some pictures on our walk out of Jamu on the way to meet the canoe (we traveled everywhere by canoe) because it reminded me of the Fire Swamp so much!

A few more steps and we'll be safe into the Fire Swamp.....

Our first full day meant a trip to an indigenous community that lives in Cuyabeno.  But whenever we traveled anywhere we were always on the look out for animals along the way.  We stopped several times to check out the fauna.  In this tree our guide knew there was a nest belonging to two owl monkeys.  We lucked out that they were here on our day!

They are nocturnal and adorable.

Sometimes we got a closer look at the animals....like when they landed on Javier's hat.

This was how we spent much of our travels.

Every day we were able to see these popular birds along the river.  They have blue faces and autumn colored feathers.  Their name is not quite as lovely as their appearance: they are called the Stinky Turkey because of the defensive odor they emit when in danger.

We became pros at pointing out stinky turkeys.

We pulled over at an old abandoned lodge (which seemed the perfect set for a horror movie set in the jungle...complete with upturned mattresses and sheer curtains blowing in the breeze....) to look for these monkeys.   They are called bebe leche because of the white rim around their mouth.

They were tiny and only visible through our guide's scope or our fancy new binoculars. 

This one gives you a good view of their white mouths.

It seems almost silly to talk about butterflies when we're cruising around with monkeys and sloths, but the butterflies were truly beautiful.  We saw butterflies of just about every color, but I thought the blue ones were the most striking.  This one hopped a ride on the ledge of our canoe for a while.

Our guides were amazing!  This is a picture of the smallest species of monkey in the world: the pocket monkey.  How this man could find this monkey (that seemed about the size of my hand and, oh, was almost the exact same color as the branch he was on) is beyond me.  Un. Believable.

He really was the most adorable thing.

I would have put him in my pocket in a heartbeat.  

I tried hard to remember all the animals we saw, but I can't....(blame it on my ever-aging brain) but this was some sort of heron that we saw along the river.

This is a toucan!  It is crazy to see the colors that occur in nature....on the toucans, macaws, and parrots. 

We saw so much along the way I almost forgot the purpose for our day was to visit the village.  It appeared out of nowhere as we rounded a bend in the river, looking like an elaborate movie set.

We pulled up to unload from the canoe.

I tried to take some pictures of the scenes we saw as we arrived.  It's strange to think that these people are living this hybrid modern and ancient life.  (And that they are continually visited by wide-eyed tourists who take pictures of them going about their daily life....)

Soccer.  Everywhere.  

Chickens.  Everywhere.

Some traditional tribal face paint for our group.  We look like locals already.

Some other locals that were on our tour.

We were whacked on the hand with a thorny bush that made little welts appear on our skin.  If I remember correctly it was supposed to help with blood flow....mostly it just stung. 

We started our traditional experience by harvesting yuca from their fields.  We were surprised at how much yuca came up from one plant.

And at how easy it was to peal the think brown skin from each piece.

We were harvesting the yuca to learn how to make a traditional tortilla with the root.  When we returned the fire was ready for us.

The next step was to the grate the yuca.  It was hard work and the graters were VERY sharp! (...ask Classick)

It was hard work....but we had many able helpers.

After we grated it all, the paste was put into a woven net so that it could be drained.  (There is a lot of water in yuca)

We let the professionals handle the wrapping.

I could not believe how much liquid was squeezed out.  (And of course...the liquid is saved and used in soups by the people in the village.)

After the rigorous draining process, the yuca was the consistency of parmesan cheese; so light and fluffy.

The professional who was leading us through this endeavor sprinkled the powdery yuca onto the heated flat pan. 

She used the bowl to flatten and pack down the powder.

The final product was thin and a bit bland, but our hosts had some jam and tuna to try with it...

In the end, the consensus was that the tortillas were pretty delicious.

After watching our professional, Classick and I felt confident that we could whip the next tortillas up....

We had some assistance, but they ended up turning out to be edible tortillas for the group!

After our snack we walked around a bit.  Lots of chick-a-dees hanging around.

And kiddos to be seen.

Our next stop was to see the local shaman.  Shamans still hold a revered position in indigenous societies.  They have a knowledge of the plants in the Amazon that can help with illness.  They also frequently take a hallucinogenic plant to communicate with their spirit animals and learn potential solutions for problems in the community.  

These ladies were giggling around our group as we learned about what the shaman does and means to the community.

Our ragtag group with the shaman.  (Also everyone made fun of us for wearing the same UVA hat just in different colors...wahoo wa!)

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much out of our indigenous day, but the experience with the yuca was pretty cool.  And the village on the river was beautiful.

That evening we played some games and drank some cocktails in preparation for our night walk.  (1. Shocking that my husband brought games with us. 2. Classick and I were a bit nervous about taking a walk whose purpose was to find spiders in the dark.  We thought some rum and cokes might calm our nerves....)

It didn't bode well for us spider haters that the first thing our guide did on the night walk was coax this tarantula from its tree nook. 

Hello.  I hate you.

But he wasn't the only friend we saw in the jungle at night.  (If you can't tell there is going to be a theme for the night walk...)

Ah yes.  They were everywhere.

Okay, we did see some other cool critters like this huge dragonfly.

And stumbled upon this Mitad del Mundo marker, proving Classick has been in both hemispheres at once!

Oh yeah.  Back to the spiders....

This is the only one whose name I can remember.  This is the scorpion spider.  Because scorpions and spiders are not quite terrifying enough on their own.  Nature decided to create a creature that combines both scorpiony and spidery terrifyingness.  (I know none of those are real words, but I'm upset and you guys should just go with it.)

This was also when I yelled at our guide who was walking towards me with this creature...saying something along the lines of 'No, nonononono! don't come closer!' (Maybe this is a good time to note that I am not responsible for any of these pictures of the night walk.  Classick and I were like jumpy, underaged college students in a bar: scanning from side to side and wondering if we could have a drink....for the entirety of our time in the jungle at night.)

We did see some cool frogs and toads!  This guy was huge!  I don't understand why the shining light and noise of our group didn't scare him off, but it didn't.  

Our guide got all excited when we saw this couple having a somewhat romantic evening.  Again, they didn't seem bothered by our lights or up-close photos, but I guess they had other stuff on their minds...

another frog friend

But come on, I can't leave you with a fun friendly frog friend.  Last pic from the night walk: this terrifying friend (and me in the background as proof that I did survive this hike and did not just send Javier to take pictures and pretend I was there!)

The next day included our day walk through the jungle (great...now that we really know what's out there waiting for us) but the days always included scanning the river banks for birds and monkeys.  We spotted this adolescent tiger heron on our trip.  You can tell it is a young-in because the tiger stripes that give this guy his name will fade with age.

And he is a nocturnal bird that (again) blends in almost perfectly with his tree house.

Speaking of birds...have I mentioned that Jamu Lodge adopted this parrot, whom we called Victor, after an injury left him unable to fly.  He received some of our breakfast fruit every morning (sometimes multiple pieces) which explains why he is so willing to stick around.

Pretty adorable.

We saw lots of cool stuff on our day walk, although I'd say more flora than fauna.  Although I did capture this quick pic of some busy ants that were pretty huge.

Mostly I noticed the unbelievable diversity of the fungi growing in the forest.  All sorts of colors!  This maroon guy.

But bright beautiful colors too

We also found a tarzan swing that allowed Classick to entertain our group for a bit.

Oh yes, and Javier too.

I've told you guys before that pictures often do not do these scenes justice.  The vines hanging down from the canopy are everywhere and really give you that jungle feeling I was expecting from the movies.

This tree was massive.  

You can see all five of us enveloped at its base. (Also, this was taken with our new Go Pro!  Classick played a bit of Santa Claus bringing many early Xmas gifts including this very generous one from Javier's brother, Felipe!)

This is one of the huge, blue butterflies we saw everywhere traveling along the river.  We found one resting on a leaf.  I took a picture of its brown outer wings, but videoed his take off from the leaf. (See below, fingers crossed it works!)

Check out the vivid red on this tree bark.  (Looks like veins)

Millipede

We saw lots of these red blossoms that hang down from the canopy, facing the ground.

And this seed pod is supposedly used as a hair brush by certain species of monkeys.

fungi

Fancy fungi

larva

Everywhere we looked there was stuff growing on stuff that grew on stuff.

What do you think makes these crazy patterns on these leaves?

These looked like little umbrellas.

In the evening, we headed back to the lagoon for another jungle sunset.

Just gorgeous.

Our second sunset was a bit cloudier but still beautiful.

I'm continually frustrated by the limitations of my camera.  It was a cloudy sunset, but the lagoon just afterwards was eerie and awesome.  This photo is pretty, but doesn't capture the mood the sky created on the lagoon at twilight.

We stayed on the lagoon well after dark looking for caiman (one of the only anticipated jungle animals we had yet to see...)  And were lucky enough to find this guy hanging out just on the edge of some brush.

Our canoe traveled very close by so that we could get pictures!

We were up early on our last morning for a chance to see the sunrise on the lagoon.  Unfortunately it was still cloudy so no brilliant colors, but the lagoon is pretty amazing.  These floating trees were some of our favorites.

We also did some birdwatching and spotted these macaws hanging out for sunrise too.

No colors, but still beautiful.

It was super sad to think about leaving, but the four days really were an adventure! 

And the jungle had one more treat in store for us!  On our 2 hour canoe trip out, we saw an ANACONDA!!!  It had come ashore to molt which apparently only happens a few times a year.  I know it's hard to see, but you can see its shiny black scales if you look hard in the middle of the photo.

Again, not a great photo, but this thing was HUGE!  It was wrapped up on the ground and we kept finding more of it along the shore.  Our guide estimated 15 feet!

His head was behind a leaf so I never really got a good picture (not wanting to stick my hand in the brush to remove the obstruction...) but it was amazing to see in person.  And the perfect way to end our adventure!
More to come on the rest of Classick's visit soon!!