AGAIN IN Pucara it's pretty much up where it left off: It's raining, is relatively cold and very, very gray. What looks like autumn in Germany, the Ecuadorian winter. Fortunately, Julian and I were able to escape this time of year a little uncomfortable!
completely broke after two rainy days in Quito Julian and I on Tuesday afternoon to Baños on this small town about three hours southeast of Quito and is due to its hot springs, popular with (backpack) travelers. Also its location between the Sierra and the Amazon basin has helped him to a regular place on Route Ecuador traveler. We drove down there to escape the winter Quito - and were wetter technically not rewarded. After all, the bike tour led us through the direction of Puyo Pastaza Gorge towards the Amazon lowlands and always offered us great views into the deep cut in the mountain valley. At the end of our tour, we were able to catch even a glimpse of the Amazon level before the rain started and we returned the next bus took to Baños.
went after the small bike it's pretty straight back to Quito. There, a little stressful program was waiting for us: We had our luggage in the hostel to pick up in the city, submit it at the bus company that would later bring us to Lago Agrio, and then drive to the stadium, hoping to get more tickets: of the Ecuadorian national team friendly match against Venezuela was, and we did not let us miss this event!
For ten dollars we have to get tickets for the opposite stand, and while waiting in line in front of the rather lax controls, we were approached by two young Ecuadorians, with which we us well during the game were talking and could be on my next Quitofahrten a contact point, if I am tired of living in hostels. The game began entertaining, and after three minutes was felt there is already two to zero for the gas-imaging team. Until the mid-term, a further goal came for the home team, and after dreiundneunizg minutes it was four to one.
were remarkable, the sellers and sellers in the stadium: Throughout the game they ran through the ranks and praised their wares loudly: beer, soft drinks, empanadas , candy, chips, cigarettes. Otherwise, the atmosphere was rather tepid. The stands were beiweitem not sold out, as in a friendly match and insignificant in these weather conditions, moreover, would have been during the week and in the evening, probably to be expected worldwide.
Later that night Julian and I got on the bus that would bring Trans Esmeraldas, which are oriente in the , more precisely, to Lago Agrio, northeast of the country near the Colombian border. The eight-hour night ride was horrible, the TV is incredibly loud and the film - "Papá se Volvió loco" - incredibly bad. After all: When we arrived the next day at half past six in the morning clock Lago Agrio, the sun shone! And it was warm.
After breakfast We were tourists and twelve picked by Mariana: This should be for the next five days our guide and bring us safely through the jungle. But first were two and a half more hours on the bus. We drove up to the Cuyabeno Bridge, where our luggage and we were transported in motorized canoes. Now it was two hours on the Cuyabeno River downstream to the lodge. Heading the dense green of the jungle was marvel at the brilliant blue of the butterflies, the incessant chirping of birds. Even monkeys, we were able to even see the pink river dolphins as we could. The boat ride through the jungle was exciting: we had water, the Green jungle and the varied soundscape, which provided for the residents surrounding jungle. No power poles, no houses, no roads, no traffic noise. Only the jungle and we!
Our group consisted of ten people. Next to us were a retired teacher and her daughter from Texas, an Australian couple and four volunteers from Australia participated in the tour. A Swede, a German and two German-English women who had previously driven us on the bus to the bridge, had been assigned to another guide. We were housed in a lodge on the banks of the Cuyabeno: Two wooden houses with single and double rooms and a kitchen and dining pavilion, all made of wood and palm leaves cover, made from the whole plant. Two solar panels serve provided the necessary power supply in the kitchen, the rooms had flashlights and candles. The water came out (rain) water tank, water pump was also fed from the solar panels. Apart from the materials used and the type of energy I had was not the impression that the lodge its name could meet: Eco Lodge. Everything we were served during our stay, was purchased in Quito and Lago Agrio geschippert and then by boat through the jungle was! I would not complain: So good I had to date not yet eaten in Ecuador!
The first night went we with our motor canoe, in which the entire group took place at the Laguna Grande for a swim and view the sunset. That was beautiful: A sunset like on a postcard to a cheesy, plus all the strange noises from the trees that grow around the lagoon and in the lagoon!
On the second day, Friday was a walk in the jungle. We got big trees and small mushrooms to see poisonous frogs and colorful insects. Especially the "lemon ants" I found interesting: The tasted of lemon, "said Mariana - and we were all ants on food! Apart from an ant to me in the Tongue biting has been worth the snack, the ants actually tasted like lemon! After just over two hours we came back to the boat to return to drive to the lodge. The walk was one part interesting - on the other hand, I found it strange that we in the jungle on a dirt track running around, at which the medicinal plants lined up like a forest trail. So completely untouched and all this was not wild. But probably it was also very naive to expect something like this: Where there is a lodge and such organized tours, must have a certain tourist infrastructure put in place ...
afternoon we went again equipped with fishing the lagoon, we fished for piranha! Are to Marianas information not so aggressive and dangerous as I had known it from documentation. Of killer machines that devour each swimmer in a few seconds and jump into boats in order to eat the crew can therefore be no question. (We, however, held fast to this idea to lose the thrill is not!) Julian, who had been looking a long time for this program point - I almost think the only reason he came to Ecuador! - Was also the first with a Piraña on the hook! The second catch should be his, but this time a cat fish. All catches were again thrown into the Cuyabeno: Little Piranhas not provide enough meat for human consumption, and the big ones are often infested with parasites, so that may affect the enjoyment of Pirañafleisches heavily on the health of the connoisseur or the connoisseur ...
the sunset we saw again the water: We went into a branch of the Cuyabeno, watch cormorants and other birds and then went to the places where our driver suspected Mariana and caimans. Unfortunately, we should not have the good fortune to be able to see alligators up close. This had two main reasons: the high water level of the river, which allows the lizards to retreat deep into the undergrowth and to the full moon, the reptiles took the cover of darkness and it so it prevented to leave their hiding places.
the Saturday we used to visit a village downstream. We were shown how the yucca bread is made, a kind of tasteless and white pancake and Germany handle unknown. Much more exciting than this rather bizarre, because as routine acting performance - we were not the first group there ... - Was Nacho: This is the monkey of the village! A villager had bought it on the market in Lago Agrio, in order to release him into freedom, which does not seem to correspond to the plans of the young monkeys: He gets food in the village and a lot of attention from tourists, so he lives with the people the preference in the wild. Meanwhile It would be unlikely anyway that Nacho is still capable of surviving in the wild.
In connection to the Yucca bread baking and to the games with Nacho tried Julian, three of the Australians and I are in the football game at too high temperatures against the villagers and our driver. In the end the home team won with a seven to five, and we were completely done. But a dip in the river, also romped in (specified), piranhas, caimans and river dolphins, we could recover to some extent.
The last part of our excursion led us to a shaman. The priority seems to be of ayahuasca ( Yahe ), a potion that hallucinations causes, and to feed guando (angels trumpet) to put up with the animals, plants, earth and sky, and all other related and to be able to detect the diseases of his patients. The fact that he is actually to be found always how we got to know: With feathers, red face paint and lots of chains around his neck, I doubt it. Again, I suspect that tricked for tourists and a little cheating is. Distortion for the authenticity, or something.
An important activity for the shaman are the groups that go down into the jungle to try ayahuasca. A Russian group had all the way to Ecuador to be taken to meet the shaman at the Cuyabeno: The made to the draft in the traditional style, which provided space available, a ceremony led by its customers and administered the decoction. For such a procedure, per person, approximately seventy dollars are required - a considerable sum, deep in the jungle where there are few opportunities to spend money! In or near Otavalo, every year a meeting with three shamans from three countries and as the concomitant Ayahuascasorten. Participation in a meeting that will cost about three thousand dollars - if you're lucky, you get pleasant hallucinations, with a little luck you pass the whole night long.
Mariana has told us a little about their experiences. Ayahuasca was very pleasant, apart from vomiting before the rush. However, that was necessary and arrange for the cleaning of the body. (Symptoms of poisoning of the organism by the drug she did not interpret the vomiting.) The noise there then from a variety of hallucinations, auditory and visual nature. However, it was always able to distinguish between "vision" and reality. After a few hours, the end effect of ayahuasca, could "not be stuck on it. Anders was the angel's trumpet: The very call for strong hallucinations that put many of the rest of life no longer loswürde. Moreover, it could stop the noise twenty-four hours more. The taking of guando is part of the training as shamans.
The Sunday was spent swimming in the river and later in the lagoon. Rain had set in and forced us to spend the day quietly. That was us right - we had become accustomed to our environment and wild monkeys still were not really impress of river dolphins. How fast it goes!
On Monday morning we drove back to the bridge and from there to Lago Agrio. There is a bus to Quito was ready for departure, and we reached the capital at about ten clock in the evening. With the German-English women and with Águeda and Marco, who arrived in the meantime in the jungle and had completed four days with another group a similar program, we went to a nice hostel in the old town, only to go to Ronda allegedly oldest street Ecuador, where we wanted to drink to my birthday which was on Tuesday on the calendar. The task proved more difficult than expected, this time on Monday night had almost no more open bar! After a beer we started already on the way home, the man behind Thresen was closing time. On Tuesday, we adopted
Águeda, which now should be back in Galicia. Also with other travelers we said goodbye. We shot a small trip through the old town, we saw the impressive Compañía de Jesús with their walls and ceilings of gold and then drove to the north of the city. From there we drove the bus to Cayambe, to get from there to Tabacundo. In Tabacundo there is a farm, working on the numerous volunteers. What exactly is their job, I do not know, but the fact is that together we celebrated my birthday with them. I had bought the necessary ingredients for pizza, so we einheizen the pizza oven and the estate could take a delicious dinner for us! After the somewhat dismal start to the Ronda in Quito was my birthday so still a very nice and fun End ...
Wednesdays Julian and I drove to Otavalo and from there to Pucara. There, waiting, I have already mentioned, most terrible fall weather upon us: fog and rain and cold! There are only a few days together in Ecuador before us, on Saturday Julian travels on to Nicaragua. But we will make the most of the remaining time!
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