The Amazon, Ecuador

When I was 17-years-old, I spent a summer month in Ecuador. My favorite part of the trip was going down a river in the Amazon in a dugout canoe and camping in the jungle. I was excited to see the biodiversity of the rainforest again, however, we had our concerns with a 4-month-old baby and contacting any diseases. So, we decided to dip our feet into the edge of the jungle from Puno, Ecuador to see how we felt. (Secretly, I had hoped that this would inspire a longer trip in Iquitos, Peru in about a month.)

We booked ourselves on a day tour from Banos to Puno where a guide would take us to see the local Kichwa community and introduce the jungle to us.

Kichwa girls dressed in their garments for traditional dancing at festivals.

Our trip began with a ride in a dugout canoe on the Puyo River. We passed by thatch houses on stilts, locals fishing, and others washing clothes. The ride was calm & tranquil - especially with the sounds of the jungles surrounding us. I wish that I had some sort of app which would work offline to help identify the sounds of the Amazon.

The whole family in the dugout canoe (which leaked). 4-month old Zander is hidden behind the life jacket.

Next, we went on an hour-long hike through the jungle to a beautiful waterfall. We learned about the plants and their medicinal powers. We put on a natural mud face mask and smelled some herbs which cleared the sinuses.

Putting on the mud mask. Both Jonah and I went for it, but the kids skipped the fun. Baby Zander slept through it all, as usual.

Once we got to the waterfall, we enjoyed cooling off from the hot, humid, sticky hike. We didn't know that we'd have a swimming hole on the trip and didn't come prepared with bathing suits, but that didn't stop Jonah, Dashiell, and Imogen from jumping in. It gave me time to feed Zander too. (It's always tricky planning breastfeeding times on trips so timing doesn't inconvenience anyone else.)

After our hike, we ate lunch nearby at a local place serving trout cooked in a large leaf. "Almuerzos" - the set lunches served around Ecuador - always come with juice. We have fun trying to guess which type of fruit is in the juice. Often we can't quite guess, as the fruits in Ecuador are so different from ours at home - tree tomato, naranjilla, babaco (which is from the papaya family), yellow dragon fruit (tastes sweeter & looks very different from the fuchsia version in Asia), guava, granadilla (which is like a sweet passion fruit), and taxo (which is Ecuadorian Spanish for passion fruit). Even the local versions of the same fruit taste different, for example blackberries.

Next we visited the Kichwa community and saw how they lived, dressed, hunted, danced, and celebrated. The Kichwa are the most populous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon, followed by the Huaoroni and Shuar indigenous groups. We were treated like special guests at a celebration - the girls painted our face and the community danced for us.

From an early age, Kichwa learn how to hunt with a bloggun, targeting their prey in the highest branches of the forest. The darts are tipped with a muscle-paralyzing substance, extracted from woody vines. We tested our skills at their hunting techniques with a blowgun - both Dashiell and Imogen jumped at the chance.

The Kichwa also introduced a delicacy of their cuisine - a large, orange caterpillar. The French dude on our trip volunteered to eat one. It was fat and squirmy, but he chewed on it and then said, "it tastes better than escargot, but has a bad aftertaste." The French will eat anything!

Dashiell befriended a parrot who rested comfortably on his shoulder. Later, when Dashiell wrapped himself in a boa constructor, the parrot must have felt jealous, as he came right up to Dashiell and bit him on the ankle. He had a bruise there for a few days. Who knew that parrots could be so territorial?!

The rest of the trip was pretty touristy. All-in-all, I wouldn't recommend this day trip to anyone looking for an experience filled with deep knowledge. While it gave us a quick glimpse into the Amazon, it felt contrived - more like a tourist trap than an authentic experience. That said, we all walked away wanting to explore the Amazon more. We'll be back - next time for a longer trek deep into the jungle when the kiddos are older.

Next up - the Galapagos!