Jungle Time

June 12, 2014

Now that this mission part of our adventure is complete, we get two days to relax and reflect.

Early morning and a long bus ride to the jungle. We took a pit stop in Baños for shopping and to use the baño (bathroom). Last year, this was one of my favorite places. It is small town with tiny colorful streets. I love the atmosphere.

After five hours of driving, the bus stopped at the very edge of the Napo River. The Napo is a tributary to the Amazon River… so it’s basically the Amazon River. Just in case you didn’t know, we are at the butt end of the Amazon Rain Forest for the next couple days! We jumped onto boats and off we went. It was about a 15 minute ride to the hotel. Then, it was about a 15 minute hike up a huge hill to the hotel. AY! It is absolutely gorgeous! Also very humid too. I LOVE the jungle!

June 14, 2014

Jungle adventures were on the plate for the day. At breakfast, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Yup, it was a spider. I saw a tarantula out of the corner of my eye from across the courtyard area. Lots of pictures. A sweet old lady even touched the ugly beast.

Half of the team went on a medicinal plants hike through the jungle, while the other half went on a kayaking trip down the Napo. I was on the kayak adventure with my ladies. It was pretty exciting. It was about a two hour trip with a pit stop on a small island for a sniggy (snack).  Pretty much, it poured down rain the entire time. Just like we were in the rain forest or something. Ha! Katty and Stephen flipped their kayak twice, while Miss Katherine flipped her’s only once. Not that it mattered; we were all soaked anyways.

In the afternoon there were also two adventures. Most everyone went to a Quichua (key-chey-wa) home and Linda and Sharron hiked to the butterfly farm. The home was pretty neat. We learned how chicha, a local fermented beverage, is made. They had some jewelry and other trinkets for sale. I tried on one that I really liked. Right about then Blair said, “Hey Tash, how does this look?” When she turned around, she was wearing the exact same necklace that I had on. We were twinsies the rest of the day… I mean really, we were wearing green shorts, tan tanks, same necklace. Super cute.  They showed us how to use a blowgun. Let me tell you, I was the first one to hit the hanging fake monkey with the dart. Yea buddy! Next, we saw how to make pottery. In the shop that had all of the pottery for sale there was a water bottle with two small snakes in it. I made Aneesh squeal like a girl… again.

There were more heart-to-hearts this evening/night. It is so sad knowing that this trip is almost over.

P.S. I saved Katherine and Blair from Jiminy Cricket. Meaning, I removed a cricket from the room.