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ECUADOR - FIELD UPDATES - THREE WEEKS IN THE JUNGLE
After two choices regarding our three weeks in the jungle, we ended up deciding on the Hasquila reforestation project over the Hatun Sacha, which was a more relaxing, slightly easier three week project. when we all clambered into the bus in Quito and started out on the four hour journey into the heart of the Amazon, we all had the ominous premonition of a baron waistland where we would be sleeping in concrete soulless boxes, spending the days ooing and aahing over tiny pot plants in sweltering greenhouses and being bitten to death by malaria ridden mosquitoes. Thankfully, I don’t think any of us had ever been more wrong.
When our bus pulled up below a selection of cosy looking, thatched cabannas all set higgeldypiggedly along a hill looking out on a view of gently rolling green terrain set below towering mountains covered in thick primary rainforest, i`m pretty sure the whole group thought we weren’t quite there yet. When we discovered that we were in fact correct and we had lumbered up the steps with our rucksacks and collapsed into the comfy sofas in the large open main cabanna with its well stocked bar, the picture was completed for us as three dogs raced round the corner, one throwing her overly large nipples around the room, the other, the largest jumping on each person in turn and the other cocking his leg and urinating on every thing in sight. And our three weeks had begun!
We were greeted in the morning by our swashbuckling yet vertically challenged guide come comedic mentor, Jose and were brought back to grim reality as he took us into the jungle and we embarked on our first day4s work of digging, machettiing, pick axing, sweating, bleeding, planting and chopping as before our eyes a path and a small selection of seed beds were slowly formed. The first week continued thus, each day getting slightly more difficult as it went from cutting a path in the earth to lugging heavy wheelbarrow loads of sand up the steep hill to form a respectable path suitable for plant transportation, and each day ending in an immense meal of surprising variety cooked by the heroic chef, Isabella, who we each took our turns to spend a day with in the kitchen and also who we all developed a small affection for.
The intention for us being in this small establishment was to make seed beds and plant a variety of plants which, after careful supervision would be eventually transported out onto the treeless hills in an attempt at reforestation. We were the beginning of a continuing cycle of volunteers who over a long time will hopefully return the grassy hills around the Hasquila lodge and the land beyond into the thick rainforest it used to be.
With all the hard work came many different exciting diversions to keep the group motivated and entertained. A trip to the many spectacular waterfalls around the land where a large group of girls marched across the land in bikinis and wellies, splattered in mud, much to the delight of Jose, a day of whitewater rafting through an extensive, Grade four river in the depths of the primary rainforest with an added excursion to a secluded rock pool where we climbed through a dark cave and through a waterfall onto a mossy platform thirty feet high which you had the option of hurling yourself off if you wanted. It also wasn’t long before we developed an addiction to losing spectacularly at football matches against the locals, regaining some pride only when we beat a group of wellie wearing jungle farmers who had never seen a football in their lives during a weekend trip into a secluded part of primary rainforest never before visited by any westerners.
With the second week, following our white-water rafting adventure into the bush, there came an opportunity to teach English to the kids in the local school. We were all greatfully welcomed seeing as the level of English teaching in this school was appalling. An English teacher who generally taught six English lessons a day became famous among us for whispering the wrong clues to members of the class in Spanish, such as "what is your name" when we were asking the question "how old are you". Kids seemed to know words such as aboriginal and dynamic and various parts of the body that none of us had ever heard of but struggled for hours over the difference between "how are you" and "How old are you". Nevertheless, we were greatly welcomed and most of the children were affectionate and eager to learn and when we left no doubt started teaching their English teachers a bit of English.
In addition to this we had the opportunity to make necklaces out of seeds, a cervesa ridden night in Tena plus another boozy night with the locals where we all got to practice our Spanish and then ruin any chances of making friends when they saw our "dancing". There were numerous perilous trips in the jungle version of a bus - the back of a pickup truck, and a highly comical trip to a small village called Misahualli where a particular member of the group got mugged of his insect repellent by one of the many monkeys who roam the town to the peril of the unsuspecting inhabitants, just before being reunited with his destroyed insect repellent and urinated on in disgust at the poor quality of the substance.
Anyone coming on this trip should seriously consider brushing up on their ecuvolley skills as many an excruciating embarrassment was endured in frequented games of volleyballs. Besides that advise, the whole jungle experience has been sensational, both entertaining and hugely rewarding, with a perfect combination of hard labour, good food and truly memorable recreational activities that led to an unforgettable two weeks in the Amazon rainforest, and there’s still one more to go.
