Welcome to the Ecua-Amazon: The Voyage to the Huaorani Ecolodge

-Getting to the Lodge and Waking Up in the Rainforest-

Never have I felt thunder so closely over my head. Never have I heard it rain so intensely as I did last night. What a journey it was to reach this place. Not often can I say that I was pushed to my limit, but this trek pushed me. Yet when I think about it, it could always have been worse....yet everything is as it is for a reason (as unclear as that can be at times). So all in all this trek into the Amazon was perfect with all of it´s trails. 

From Quito my Ecua-brotha-from-anotha-motha/guide/travel companion, Jose E. Zambrano, and I traveled to the oil boom-town of, Coca, located en ¨el Oriente¨....the jungle. After a 5 hour bus ride up and down and around the Andes, Jose and I hopped on another bus for a short two hour ride to the bridge on the Napo River, the entrance to Waorani Territory. 

I heard the canoe ride up-river would take approximately 4, maybe 5 hours. However, upon being greeted by Jose`s Wao-tourguide amigos with an icy cold Brahma beer, we were informed that there was an unusually early flood two days earlier where the river rose 15 feet in one night. Huge trees and branches now blocked the river so getting between points A and B would take a bit longer than usual. So, we ventured out around three in the afternoon and I thought to myself,. ¨Either way, it`s going to be a beauiful ride through the AMAZON (geek out a little in excitement)....so the longer the better.¨

Well, apparently it`s normal for the guides to finish with a tour and proceed to get inebriated before going back to the community. I stuck to my jugo de mora (juice made from a raspberry-blackberry relative) and looking back on it have made some notes to self: canoe rides in the Amazon are great as long as you´re not stuck for 9 hours on a wooden seat while your not-so-sober canoe driver(s)/guides drunkenly ramble your ear off and you stop every 15 minutes due to the dozens of toppled over trees from a flood....and you´re not navigating up a narrow and windey river in the dark.

Photo: One...of the times we had to get out and shimmy the canoe over fallen trees....once I saw them lay some pieces of balsawood bark over the trunk/branches to make a ramp of sorts. I was happy to watch these maneuvers from the riverbank....

All I have to say is thank the wilderness it didn`t rain and that we didn´t leave earlier in the week like we had planned...instead of waiting for a canoe Jose and I had talked about hiking along the river to the Wao cummunity. We would have been camped out along the river when it went up-up-up. We would have been in trouble-trouble-trouble, for sure. So yes, I´m thankful for The Wao Wild Ride versus being washed away with the trees down the Napo....

Photo: Ehwemi and this trusty machete clearing fallen trees from our path up the Napo River. I was told that the Huaorani here can usually spearfish in the river it is so clear but due to the recent flooding the water had been turned a rusty brown from the dirt, clay and debris.

Thankfully the clouds were feeling kind and moon seemed to be smiling down on us. The stars peeked out from behind the clouds and constellation after constellation began to take shape and I remembered how brilliant the night sky was in the jungle, free from the light pollution of the cities. And while we were going under a tree that was blocking the river I got bit/stung on my hand, by an ant I believe. While my hand throbbed I thought to do some reiki which calls for steady, deep breathing. In a matter of, well, not very long at all, I had forgotten about my hand and the other ¨rough spots¨ of the journey and simply, was. Really breathing (deeply through my diophram and abdomen- nothing like clean, fresh oxygen to fill the lungs, and it can´t get much purer than in the jungle). I was absorbing the night. Absorbing the jungle. Simply, being.

The trees glowing sliver in the moonlight, O´rien offering some sort of calm protection. Lightening bugs like you wouldn´t believe illuminated the riverbank. Mmm and the sweet smell of tropical vegetation- bugs buzzing in the distance, the cool night air whisping through your hair, an occasional chorus of frogs heard when the motor was hushed. It was....well, I don`t have a word that does it justice. It was the Amazon Rainforest.

We arrived at the lodge just after midnight, the community was- who knows how much longer it would take to get there so the Wao guides told us we could stay at the lodge. Jose and I laughed so as to avoide insanity after our long and tumultuous trek up the Napo. Covered in mud from head to toe, leaves and branches stuck in our hair, our clothes damp with sweat and 100% humidity, bones and muscles tired and sore from sitting in the same confined space on a wooden board for nearly nine hours. Finally, we were able to take a sigh of relief that we didn´t get stuck and have to camp out along the river. If I had a dime for every time I was sure we were going to tip the canoe and lose all our gear, I bet I´d have had around $5 bucks, easy. But we made it, safe and sound. And of course we did! I may have doubted it for a minute but I know better than that....

We climbed our way up to the landing at the lodge which had been damaged in the flood and therefore missing some steps. We found ourselves laughing in our bliss to find ourselves in the company of running water and a bed ready to sleep inl. Doesn`t sound like roughing it but the journey was rough enough for one night. And the next morning- after the most intense thunderstorm I´d ever experienced- it was almost too good to be true. Breakfast was waiting for us. And coffee!! I said to Jose with a ridiculously huge smile stretching from ear to ear, ¨This has got to be a dream!

Photo: From inside the cabin at the Huao Ecolodge. Waking up to earth-shaking thunder and rain like you´ve never heard before....and a wold of pure and perfect green and sunny sun sunshine!!

 

One of the quiaint little cabins at the lodge.

Photo left: Through the forest and over creeks to breakfast I go! :)

A hammock house damaged by the raging river during the freak flood two days prior to our arrival.

On the way to breakfast in the early, early morning. Stopped to take a picture by the river but a noise down the way caught my attention. Ears always open.

Breakfast at the lodge! What a dream! Never did I think we`d be so lucky as to have a cup of decent coffee at breakfast....the rest of the time in the jungle it was plaintain, yuca, and lentil soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But hey, there´s no complaining here! 

Food = Survival 

My reading material at breakfast.

Spirit of the Huaorani: An Amazon People of the Yasuni Region

And since I couldn`t take the book with me or buy everyone I know a copy I jotted down some quotes that caught my fancy. Hope you like them too.... :)