Ecuador! Since Medellin, we traveled south to Cali and Popayan then north to Cartagena to meet Mariel's brother and his gf,Annie. Then we traveled along the coast to Taganga and Parque Tayron, then bogota and then quito, ecuador!
The past week was amazing we went from Quito to the jungle in Cuyabeno National Park To get there we took a bus from Quito, a van to the riverbed and then a two hour ride in a motorized canoe. From the moment we got in the canoe, the jungle was surrounding us with its different shades of greens, vines weaving through the trees, birds howling,churping and singing, and monkesys! There were squirrel monkeys playing in the trees above us jumping from tree to tree! That night we watched the sunset over the lake and went swimming in water where pink dolphins, anacondas, piranhas and other wonderful creatures lurk.
The next day we went to an "indigenous village"...aka a small river town of rural people just working for tourist. It was pretty much more developed than my site in El Salvador...we get off the boat and people are weed wacking with weed wackers, like really?! Anyways, we watched some woman make yucca bread and she explained about yucca...def wasn't as good as the yucca in my site. BUT there was a monkey named Nacho we got to play with. It was so weird because I had never like held a monkey or seenone reallyup close and its ears and hands are so human-like. Also, besides playing with Nacho, we saw pink dolphins on the boat ride back! Yes,pink dolphins are real. They would stick their noses and dorsal fin up over the water as they were swimming by!
the next day we went fora walk in the jungle. It was cooltosee some of the trees that are used in many common medicines or food products that we don't really associate with coming from the jungle. Also, we crossed a swamp and i sank into mud until my upper thigh it was hilarious watching and listening to everyone in the group cross. On the other side, our guide found a poision dart frog! I was so exited to see one because I use to think they were the coolest thing when I was little,largely in part to their coloration. After everyone trying to capture its colors on film, we walked around some more and then canoed backed to the lodge.
That evening we went piranha fishing, which was cool to see a piranha. Also, we saw a three toed sloth, a small anaconda, and later that night we went walking throuh the jungle. Now, I was a bit scared walking into the forest at night because their are snakes, spiders, insects, fungus, and plants that are poisionous and/or harmful in someway. We found various insects, including a huge poisionous spider which i held by its leg! As we were walkning in the dark, the sounds of the jungle were incredible. It was like a nature cd, with all kinds of clicking, churping,howls,croacks, whistles and more. We finally ended the walk at a laguna area, where there were baby crocodiles!
To see pictures from the jungle go to the linkto my picasa account. Actually, all my pictures are there and also, there is a link to Mariel's pictures too
https://picasaweb.google.com/115684579163990248499/TheJungleCuyabenoEcuador
