I clearly spoke to soon when I thought we were stuck for things to do but hang around between meals. That evening we met the son of the ex-president of Ecuador. Together with a semi-permanent Canadian reseller of Indian films we travelled off into his privately owned forest. I was fine up until the warnings about the puma and snakes hanging from trees. I didn't need to know that they try and strangle you from above! Aurore and I exchanged a very worried glance when we saw that our host was packing a gun. I decided it must be for the puma, but needless to say after 20 minutes driving away from all civilization it
wasn't just the snakes making us apprehensive.
It was a beautiful forest and much to our surprise we weren't executed but were treated to a tour of the plantations, cows, horses and potential site for a hacienda with jacuzzi. The drive was pretty fun too - a vietnam jeep that ran out of gas about 100 metres from the house. So myself, Mr. Son of President and the bollywood Canadian pushed the jeep whilst Aurore steered.
The next day we jumped off a cliff with a guy from London (Kentucky) strapped to our backs. Paragliding certainly requires a degree of trust. And I didn't trust him one little bit...I'm convinced brand new fathers with all the sleepless nights that entails are not the best guys to be in charge of checking your paragliding safety. Greg was a perfect tandem partner though, and the sea, buzzards and "wing" overcame my apprehensiveness. I even saw two iguanas making love from the air - that was worth the money in itself.
Too many Ecuadorian guys have approached me in the water asking if this is my "first time" on a surfboard. I daren't tell them I've been trying for years and say yes. So I'm having yet ANOTHER surf lesson tomorrow - I can use Aurore for an excuse though.
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