From the Jungle to the biggest foam party of South America

Hester is still crying in her pillow for the fact that she had to leave the Galapagos, but it’s time to continue our adventure. We gave ourselves a whole day to rest, prior to leaving to the Ecuadorian Amazon. It was not really a rest day since we had to go and pick up our car at the mechanic. When we arrive at the mechanic, we find out that they still haven’t resolved everything we asked them to do. It must be the work mentality here in the South. Anyway, this time we decided to wait until they have fixed it all. To save ourselves some costs, we have decided to take a night bus to Lago Agrio, from there we would be picked up for our jungle tour. The guide who arranged the trip for us is offering us to park our car for free at her house. From her house she was actually kind enough to bring us to the night bus. It seemed to go very smoothly, except for the fact that the night bus office was closing and we were there 2 hours early. The guide, who isn’t coming to the jungle but just helped us organizing the trip, thinks that it’s not safe to wait on the street for the bus, so we decide to go to a restaurant for a quick coffee. I’m not sure what her business model is here, since we didn’t pay her for any of these services. The bus ride is smooth, within 5 hours we arrive in Lago Agrio. Not a very safe town, since it is close to the Colombian border, and there are a lot of issues with drugs there. That’s also the main reason we decided not to drive here with our own car. Since it was still early, 4:30am, we decided to look for a hotel to sleep for a couple more hours. Eventually we find a place and after a quick shower we were able to catch a couple of hours of sleep.

Around 10 am the tour guide is picking us up. He brought us rain boots, since the jungle was going to be wet. After a quick stop at the airport to pick up two other tourists, we were good to go. First stop is a juice stand next to the road, for a quick, local refreshment. A local sugarcane drink, one with, and one without alcohol. The road is good for about 2 hours. There is a lot of oil industry here, hence the good roads in the area. Then we reach the outskirts of the national park. Here the quality of the road changes into a bumpy off-road track. As always I’m surprised to see that the local bus is also traveling of these kind of roads. The guide is amazing; while driving over the bumpy road he suddenly makes a stop and reverses for about 200 meters. Then he said “I heard monkeys”. Not much later a big group of monkeys shows up in the trees next to the road. Well, that’s a good start of the trip! After about an hour on the bumpy road, we arrive in a small village, from here we are going with the boat to the actual lodge where we will stay for three nights. We load up the boat and set sail to our first stop. About an hour in we make a stop at a local, indigenous family, here we are served an amazing lunch. I’m a little ashamed for the fact that Coca Cola is served during the lunch. As I understand, a previous tourist requested it and therefore they now supply it during lunch. Must have been Americans! After lunch we ride with the boat for another 2,5 hours. Along the way we are picking up the daughter of the captain, she is heading to the village up the river. Along the banks of the river you can see enormous buildings, all made for the oil industry, but at some point it stops. It’s where we enter the actual national park. Soon we also arrive in the village where the locals live. The place has been completely renovated and brought up to western standards by the government. The aim is to build a connection between the native people and the other Ecuadorian people. From the village we take a smaller river to the lodge. Oh, right, just so you know there is no road to the village. The only route to get there is the way we went, via the river. As soon as we arrive at the cross point between the two rivers we are treated with a show given by pink dolphins. There is no guarantee you see them but we are lucky enough to find them already the first day. Eventually, after 3 hours in the car 3 hours in the boat, we arrive at the lodge. An amazing building, recently renovated and run by locals with the support of the guide we’re traveling with. Impressed by the environment we get some time to relax, but not much later, a 4 star meal is served in the middle of the jungle. I think we are all impressed with the quality of the lodge and the service. Way better than expected, especially knowing our location. The mosquitoes are for sure a negative aspect of the jungle. Especially in the early evening they are very active, but around 8:30 it’s getting less and less.

6 am, rise and shine! The weather is good so the decision was made to leave early for a boat safari. With a cup of coffee we take a seat in the boat. We see monkeys, birds, so many different types that I’m lost. At some point, both the guide and the captain become overenthusiastic. They have spotted a Harpy Eagle. The guide tells us that there are people coming to the lodge to only see this animal, but often they leave without actually having seen it. Great for us, very special and indeed a nice bird to see. Our final stop is a clay wall, where parrots come to eat the clay. The clay contains minerals which allow them to eat berries which would otherwise kill them. After a three hour boat safari we are back at the lodge for an outstanding breakfast. The lodge is made for 16 people, but we are only with 4, so it’s very relaxed. Before lunch we go out with the boat again, but this time we are towing canoes behind the motorized boat. We are hiking an old hunters path through the jungle. We don't spot a ton of animals, except for a couple monkeys who try to pee on us, but we’re getting spoiled, because we have already seen a serious amount of monkeys and birds in the morning. After the two hour hike, I had enough of it. It’s very hot, and the mosquitoes are killing me. Hester seems to be handling the jungle heat much better than me, and the mosquitoes don't like her that much (I can understand that :-)). After the hike we canoe back to the lodge, where we are again welcomed with a ton of food. In the afternoon it’s time to relax a little. We decide to go for a swim in the river. The guide has promised us it safe, so we trust him. Hoping we don’t piss off some piranhas! Jumping in made me soon realize it’s not that safe at all. The lodge is built in a curve of the river, and the dock is in the middle of the curve. Therefore the current is very strong! Me, our two German friends, and even Hester are struggling to get back to the dock, but we make it. It’s at that point when the guide realizes that it’s maybe an idea to give us some advice on where to jump into the river. Around 4 pm we go out with the boat to do some fishing. Every time a boat passes by we need to hide our poles, since officially we don't have a license to fish. Fishing is clearly a skill I don’t master. Our German buddies catch one piranha after the other one, Hester is catching trees and I don’t catch anything. Thanks to the Germans, the fishing trip was fun and on the way back we tried to spot some caimans. In complete dark we’re drifting down on the rivers current. Finding the caimans is actually quite easy, since their eyes are so red that when you catch them in your flashlight you will see them immediately. We spot two, both on the smaller side in terms of size. Back at the lodge, we are again welcomed with way to much good food!

The next morning we are in the canoe at 8 am. Because it’s again a morning without rain, we can leave early for a safari. This time we take only the canoe and drift down the river, slowly peddling. We take a couple smaller streams left and right from the main river, but usually we get stuck a couple 100 meters in due to fallen trees. Our German friends are unstoppable, and canoeing like it’s a race. One of them really wants to spot an Anaconda, so every corner has to be looked at. After three hours the motor boat comes to pick us up. Peddling against the current is too hard. After lunch the weather changes. While living in the Netherlands I’ve seen a fair amount of rain, but nothing like this. In about 30 minutes everything is flooded and the thunderstorm is more than impressive. Good for us is that we had nothing planned for the afternoon, except for making our own chocolate. Before dinner the weather changes again, and one of the locals who runs the lodge takes us into the jungle. Since Hester is the only one speaking a little Spanish, she becomes favorite of the guide. When she is almost drowning (read: stuck in the mud/river until her knees), the 70 years old guide comes to safe her. We finish the day with a night hike. Hester is the top spotter, we find multiple spiders and other insects. We also spot a jungle rat. One of the spiders we spot, is the famous Brazilian Wandering Spider, also known as the Banana invader that sometimes is spotted in places it doesn’t belong. When it bites a guy, you get a painful erection and possibly die. So I decided to stay far away from that one..

It’s time to go again. It has been great, but I have to be honest. I’m also done with the mosquitos. Although the chemicals we brought to fight them worked surprisingly well. Before leaving we’re doing a quick boat tour to spot a couple of birds and monkeys, and after breakfast it's time to pack up. Again, at the cross point of the river we find about 8 pink dolphins. It starts to feel normal, but when the captain of the boat and the guide take out their phone to record them, you know it’s special. Just like on the way in, we have lunch with the same family. This time they serve us anteater meat. It tastes like pork if you ask me, and of course there’s Coca Cola. We make it back to the bus station from where we take an early evening bus back to Quito. The guide who sold us the tour promised us to pick us up at the spot where she dropped us off. Since there is a lot of drug trafficking in this area, we are forced out of the bus twice for a full check. Eventually we arrive at the outskirts of Quito. Stopping the bus is actually quite hard, and we miss our stop by at least 500 meters. As promised, the guide is there waiting to return us to our hotel. That was really amazing service, and still unclear to me how she got paid for it.

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Making Jungle Drinks!

Catching Nothing!

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Making Chocolate

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Pink Dolphin

The next day we take a real day off! In the later afternoon we buy a present for the guide who has transferred us from and to the bus station, and allowed us to park our car with her. Quito has been an amazing town to use as a hub to reach the Galapagos and the Jungle!

It’s time to go further south. We make a stop in Baños, the tourist spot for locals traveling from Quito. I would consider it a boring city, but there are some good restaurants to eat. But, overall it’s overpriced and tourist oriented. In the area we visited a waterfall, hiked to the local Jesus watching over town, and enjoyed the famous swings that go over the edge of the mountain. To be honest, Baños is, if you’re on a trip as long as ours not worth a stop. For now it was nice since we used the time to relax a little as well.

After Baños we headed to Alausí. For the first time in a while, we scheduled an activity on a travel day. Usually we aren’t too keen on doing that, since we have all our stuff in the car. But, Ecuador has actually felt really safe. Prior to our activity we stay in a hostel in Alausí. While enjoying a beer in the bar of the hostel, I meet a German guy who travels the world to visit stadiums and soccer games. Name a town wherever, and he knows the division the local team is playing in, and the size of their stadium. Very special! The next morning we are ready for our activity traveling down the devil's nose with the train. It’s only a 45 minute ride, but special because at some point the train goes in reverse to be able to make corners and deal with the steep slopes. Expensive activity if you ask me, but worth every dollar! Down in the valley the local community welcomes you and serves some coffee and bread. They also entertained us with a local dance and specific part of there town has been transferred in a big open air museum. The ride up takes again roughly 45 minutes. We are very lucky with the weather, since there are zero clouds, which meant an amazing view! Back on the top of the mountain we quickly jump in the car to travel to Cuenca, where we’re welcomed as if the host is our mother. This is basically also the first comment she makes; “for the next couple of days I will be your mama” :-)!

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The following morning we are spoiled with a nice local breakfast. The weather is beautiful so we decide to head into the surrounding mountains. The ride up to the place where we want to do a hike is already stunningly beautiful. The hike we planned to do is actually closed so we are forced to do another loop. It’s a beautiful route, which brings us by lakes, and again some stunning views. During the whole hike we are followed by a dog, but he doesn't want to interact with us. He keeps a safe 10 - 15 meters distance at all times. Even when we hide and try to trick him, he sprints back to a safe 10 - 15 meters distance. Halfway through the loop, the weather changes and the rain sets in. Something you can expect during the rain season here in Ecuador, so we are prepared with our raincoats. Something we noticed but we were unable to address, was the shit a certain animal was leaving behind. It looked like it was from a rabbit or a goat. But, since we didn’t spot either one, we were not really sure. Until the moment we almost reached the parking lot, we were facing our first Llama. He wasn’t really impressed by us, but we were by him! In the afternoon we make our way back to the AirBnB. The roads get quite slippery when it rains, but we make it. Back at the AirBnB, we find another Dutchie who is staying here for a couple of days.

The next morning we are heading out early to experience Carnival in Cuenca. We quickly notice that it’s quite popular to spray with foam here in Cuenca, during carnival. Soon hit by foam from all sides, we realize we are somehow attracting it. Even though we are not participating in the sparing, being foreigners walking in the streets of Cuenca, we are the main attraction to hit with the foam. Soon we decide to start defending ourselves and settle for a couple foam sprayers ourselves. It’s one big party and together with Hester, Hans and a Belgium guy we battle everyone who targets one of us. By the end of the day we have all bought at least 4 foam sprayers, and battled in multiple one on one battles with people in cars, on squares, police officers and firefighters. Somehow my feeling is saying that if you would do this in the Netherlands, it would end up being one big human fight, since not everyone would be so accepting to be sprayed on with foam as they are here in Ecuador. A big advantage of the foam is that the whole town smells really clean, a disadvantage is the fact that it's unbelievable slippery everywhere you walk.

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We decide to stay two more nights in Cuenca, during which we keep are self calm, worried that the locals would recognize us from the big foam battle we took part in during carnival :). Eventually, we leave Cuenca behind and head towards Malacatos. The ride is easy since the whole road is paved. Twenty minutes out of Cuenca though, we are stopped by a police officer. We need to show him our car documents, and our car insurance. We provide him most of the documents except from our car insurance, since we don't have it and we thought we wouldn’t need it in Ecuador. Since he keeps asking for it, I decided to say “lo siento, no lo se (I’m sorry, I don’t know)”, and I provide him with a copy of our Colombian car insurance. Which has actually expired, and is only valid in Colombia. He looks at the papers and tells us, “gracias, buen viaje!”. Well, I guess sometimes you need a little luck, and since we are crossing the border in three days, and this is the first guy asking for it, I guess we are going to be fine.

The AirBnB we are staying in is pretty nice It’s a guest house in a backyard, all for ourselves. We haven't scheduled too many activities here. The only thing we are doing here is a horseback ride. The town itself isn't that interesting. Like more towns in South and Central America, this town is flooded by US pensionados. They move here when retired, resulting in the fact that the town has transferred in an American Hippie town, which is not really our scene. The horseback ride here was amazing, we went to a waterfall and we slowly start to develop some skills after doing it the first time in Mexico. I’m surprised how much trust the guide has in our skills. We’re actually accompanied by some of his family members, but they clearly lack some skills. At the end we gallop back into the town, with the guides assistant, who is also his nephew. He actually studies in Barcelona, and is temporarily in Ecuador during a study break.

Prior to the trip, we assumed that we would stay roughly 14 to maximum 21 days in Ecuador. We ended up staying for more than a month. Ecuador is interesting, but also fairly pricey, and if you go and visit the Amazon and the Galapagos, you could even consider it to be expensive. But, it’s all well worth it. The border crossing we have chosen with Peru isn’t a common one, but it fitted best to our travel schedule. The ride leaves us with 3 hours off-road and 5 hours in total. Eventually we make it to the border, where the guys are eating their lunch when we arrive. We have to wait! I’m guessing the border officer can’t read, or is in need of glasses, since we need to read him all the documents. Eventually he tells us that he won’t be able to make the decision to let us go, he needs to make a phone call to his manager. But, the guy on the other end is still having lunch. Eventually he gets a hold of him and after some back and forwarding, the conclusion is that we are good to go! Adios Ecuador! I can already see the pavement in Peru, that’s going to be a smooth ride to the first town!