El Oriente: The Ecudorian part of The Amazon

First off, I went to the jungle with a group of guys i didn't know...(sorry mom) I knew one for a week and they invited me to see the Jungle with them.. So I thought.. why not?? =]

Well nothing bad happened and I'm still alive and Malaria free! (yahoo!) Most people in this country are so nice!

Our journey began with our flight from Quito. Since all the airports in Ecuador are pretty small (ok.. REALLY small) the only planes they fly in-country are small propellor planes with two seats on either side of the aisle. (bigger than most of the planes between RDM and SEATAC/PDX) But this group had never been on a plane so small.. go figure. =] (there was a lot of pictures taken of them with the crazy plane..) And since we asked fro seat next to each other we got the first four seats on the plane.. two of which were facing backwards... this made taking off and landing really weird...  All 8 of us on the flight made it to Tena safely to their very new state-of-the-art Airport, which was EMPTY, and they only supply power to small parts of it at a time. (AKA only the computer at check in)

We had a cab come and get us and take us to our hostal in Tena which cost a whopping 4 dollars a night and we even had our own bathroom between the 5 of us. Breakfast was an extra two, and they had beer in the fridge that we paid for on the way out, aka $1.50 per 22oz of Pilsner. (Yes)

Our tour guide company came to check with us, and after some confusion over whether or not transportation was included or not, we landed on a change of plans that was 1/2 the price. (SCORE)

The next morning we went to the next town over: Misayualli, where we met our tour guide and we went on a hike to a waterfall, where we took a much needed swim.. (SO HOT SO HUMID)

After the hike we tried some fresh Guava, and Guayabas! Very tasty! And we returned to Misayualli for lunch, and a walk around the beach to see the monkeys... who let people feed them etc. naturally.

We then boarded a boat and went to a small wildlife museum on the river, and after went 'tubing' (we floated for a bit on inner tubes) and ended at the compound where we stayed that night. Which after the walk up to it, seemed like it was in the middle of the jungle, but in fact was a kilometer from the airport, and we were able to walk to the road and buy beer. (score!) haha

Also i almost slept with this GIANT grasshopper... literally 4 inches long.... no thanks.

The next morning we went on a long walk around the jungle here and saw a bunch of plants and more bugs etc. rested, ate lunch, and went down by the river and learned about the Kitchwa traps for fish and game in the jungle. We held a baby Caiman, and learned to shoot with this giant blow dart they use with poison tipped darts.

We then went down the river a bit with dugout canoes to a Kitchwa family's house where we learned of her ways of making bracelets and bags with the fibers of a palm leaf of some kind. She also made all natural ceramic, paint, glaze and all.

The next day we went on one last hike in the jungle to see a giant tree, and then returned to Misayualli, ate lunch and retuned to the airport.

Successful first trip to the Jungle.

Whoops its about time for a Blog update..

Well if you hadn't assumed, the wrapping up of our TESOL course occurred very rapidly and was a whirlwind of papers and documentation! We said goodbye to our students and had a little party in celebration!

The following weekend we celebrated as a group of teachers out in San Goulqui at our classmate Kate's house. We ate ALL day and talked and had a great time together!

This week has been busy in another sense, because we are trying to do as many things around quito as we can while we have time! We went to the Contemporary Art Museum and walked around a bit in the Centro Histórico and Carla made a wonderful home-made black bean burger dinner! YUM!

Yesterday we went on a long 4-hour cramped car ride to Quevedo to look at the University there where there are 2 job openings. The town is small, but still about 200k people, so a much safer location, and the job had many perks. We would be working with University Students and on the Military base as well, where we have full access to their pool/workout facilities. and apparently anything else they decide to let us try... We will just say its a little more lax than the US military... HA. The job also comes with free housing and a food stipend on top of our monetary compensation, and plenty of exploring opportunities that are also free.. (sign me up!) Even though it is 4 hours from Quito, it is also 4 hours from Guayaquil and the Coast. But it is HOT and HUMID. So I did apply here even though I am still stinking of staying in Quito, or relocating to a mid sized city somewhere else.. There are just too many decisions!

I'll be doing more exploring this weekend and searching hard for more jobs/ thinking about the ones already on the table as well.

Staying in touch!

  (SMILE! despite everything in life, its BEAUTIFUL)