As I am doing such a great job of being "Successfully Unemployed", a thought popped into my head a few weeks ago, (which happened to coincide with a four day weekend, where no one would be in the office,) that I would leave the title to someone else for just a short while and decided to go to Cuyabeno...Or for the non Ecuaphiles, the jungle.
So the story starts very late on a Sunday evening in mid February...Chilly evening, more so than usual, the streets are empty, which is a pain when you're trying to find a taxi to take you to the bus terminal, (the cab you called mysteriously disappeared).
The bus terminal is crowded with a mix of specimens from all walks of life...You stand outside to escape the mixture of sweat, perfume, and animal odours inside...Only to find yourself stuck with the smokers trying to get their last fix before their 7-10 hour journeys.
Two people stand out. They look like you; blonde hair, ripped jeans, fleece sweaters, the backpack and the dead giveaway - They speak English. However you decide not to approach; they are in conversation with a shady character...One whose best friends are the spirits, and not the ghostly type.
He's looking rather spirited at this moment too...You keep your distance.
On the bus, the two from the terminal occupy the seats next to you and they are joining you on this adventure to the jungle. Introductions: Emilie and Alan. Emilie is worried; she explains that the shady character is telling them that he is our guide...
You put this interesting yet slightly troubling thought aside as you try to find a comfortable sleeping position on the bus...Once done, try to drown out the gun blazing movie they are showing at a volume heard as far as Pluto.
The bus arrives in Lago Agrio, a small town close to the Columbian border....The shady friend tells his party to get off the bus with him...They do not heed his instructions, but wait till the bus arrives at the terminal, and while making their way to the meeting point discuss what his motives may be in trying to trick them, and...What if he really is their guide.....?
He is there....He wearing different clothes, but it is him. He is waiting for them. He sees them approach, a smile appears on his face, as he slowly places one foot infront of the other and makes his way towards their table. He lays his red raw eyes on you and again introductions: Hi I'm Diego, I'm your guide - We have another two to pick up from the airport.
The spirits ooze from his body.
He tells his party he is tired and needs to sleep. If they need him, he will be upstairs in the lounge area...You are not 100% comfortable, nor are your companions....Decisions are made to call the agency to confirm the guide's name, however mid-way through the conversation the call cuts out...Conspiracy...?
Another guide from a different agency comes to your table - "Your guide is Diego....Are you sure it is really him?" The party confirms....The guide insists on seeing him...Why?
According to him, Diego died two months ago.
Hence Diego being nicknamed The Spirit Guide....
(And in so many ways...)
And that is how my trip to the jungle started!!! Adventure, adventure!!!
So the other two belonging to the party were Tim and Teesh! Can I say at this point in time that only a fellow Austalian understands the benefits of an ice cold beer....Or five. We understood each other purrrrrrrfectly.
Our jungle lodge was another 3 hours by bus, and 4 hours by canoe....All of us found out at this point, that this was the dry season, so a lot of the animals we wanted to see were on a 'dry' holiday...They had left the area. Tim and Teesh were not pleased as they had their hearts set on seeing pink river dolphins...And my dreams of wrestling an anaconda - Shattered.
This is a great time to go to the jungle however if you are of the pampering type: Some of the best mud baths around!!!
We made the most of the dry season and instead of canoeing around the Great Lake, we had great times wading through the mud at the bottom of the lake.....Wading with mud up to our ankles, sometimes thigh-high, the guys pulled the canoes through the shallow parts, (which were getting shallower by the day,) toyed with the idea of catching baby caimans and went on nightwalks...Which by the way, I think is the most interesting part of the day to go checking out animals. It was on these that we saw tarantulas, wolf spiders, leaf insects, night monkeys, frogs (both the sweet green kind, as well as the poisonous type,) and I saw my first ever scorpion spider - Now they are sooooooo cool. Very evil looking.
We even tried our hand a fishing for pirhanas...In style: Beers, sunset, great company, a machete to cut the bait, and a sound system (Ipod and speakers...That is a sound system in the jungle!!)
Tim was the first to catch one and the next bite went to Teesh....Neither did a Rex Hunt on these little suckers....Biggest f-ing teeth I've seen!!!!
They were much nicer cooked.
We had a fantastic encounter with a caiman which would have been approx 3 metres...Beautiful. We had the canoe not even a metre from it's face...Poor thing felt extremely threatened and slowly lowered his face, did a 180 degree turn, (half of it out of the water,) and with a huge spurt, lunged in the only space it had to get away...Just happened to be towards the back of the canoe, which rocked, and for a small second I thought I'd be in that river swimming alongside the caiman. Hearts were thumping all round.
As for the Spirit Guide...Well, Diego proved to be a very lovely, very knowledgeable man, after being pushed and prodded......A lot. Most of the time he was more interested in snoozing back at the lodge. Poor man was stuck with an adventure focused group: No luck for him.
No lodge for us: The more mud the happier we were.
The most excited we saw him was on the last day on the way back to civilisation...As Tim posed it to him - "You can smell the rum and coke can't you Diego?"
No photos: In and amongst the fun of getting in and out of the canoe, (water levels were so low, the river was very, very, very shallow,) my camera decided it had had enough of my company...And promptly disappeared....
So definitely an adventure...And I met two fantastic people who are now kinda stuck with keeping in touch with me. Thanks for all the laughs both out there and here in Quito!!!
With this being such wonderful adventure, I decided the "Successfully Unemployed" title could be held by someone else just a little longer and I signed myself up for a two week advanced Spanish course, (really getting that grammar down pat!) and volunteering...
Volunteering-wise, I wanted something a little different...So I left the street kids to someone else and decided the stray animals would have to cope with me: I'm at a foundation that takes care mainly of strays that are brought in.
My first day was yesterday....I arrive, I introduce myself, I sit and answer questions:
- Are you scared at the sight of blood?
- Do you mind being in an area where there is blood?
- Do you mind helping during surgery?
Guessed I'd be helping with a multitude of things. And boy did my first day prove that to me...It went from, 'Alex, why don't you sit in on the ceasarian and help with the puppies' to 'Actually no, don't help with the ceasarian. A stray dog has just come in, with a very bad skin disease. We can't take him in and we won't be able to find him a home - Can you help euthanise it.'
Extreme joys and extreme lows.
So my last couple of afternoons have been spent helping clean eye infections out of kittens, practising my Spanish with the other volunteers (Vet students,) injecting underfed dogs with rehydration stuff, (technical talk,) helping the Dr with examinations, and bringing in animals before the foundation closes.
All of the animals at the foundation have come in off the street and they are looking for homes for them...They are constantly full, simply because they are extremely picky about the homes the animals go to...Anyone want to adopt?
Now, for those of you who know me well...I have to include photos for you to believe it, however I have spent my last two days playing with dogs and cats!!! With both species either jumping all over me or perching on my lap and my shoulders; found myself trying to pat three cats, two on my knees and one who decided my right shoulder was the place to be.
Because they are all from the street, playing with them gets them used to being with humans and therefore easier for them to find a home.
It is very sad though...You see straight away the ones that have been beaten...Breaks your heart.
So there you go...That's what I'll be doing for the next 10 days before I head into Santiago in Chile for my next adventure: Meeting with Daniel and travelling 3 and a bit weeks into southern Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay. Can't wait!
Really is a hard life...But hey, someone has to do it.
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