Our bus trip to Tena was quite and adventure. The bus terminal in Quito is already quite scary. There are hundreds of people who are interested in people like us and of course they came and interogated and we didn't feel one bit safe. 5 minutes after our bus trip had started, our bus driver decided to crash into another bus in front of us. He definitely needed glasses because we all saw it coming and he had plenty of time to react. However, he went straigt into the back of the other bus and didn't even bother to stop. He shouted something out of the window and drove off: windscreen cracked, dents all over and windscreen wipers totally knackered. This wasn't the end. We had to stop to change a tyre and then got stuck in a landslide. How much bad luck and 4 people have? Finally we got to Tena and didn't even expect to be picked up. But there he was, Sergio. Sergio is a friend of Sven, who we met in Quito. He is a local and his parents live in the jungle. We didn't have to look for him, he found us immediately. We went to his house and were at once surrounded by a whole crowd of sweet little kids. Amongst them Silvana, Veronica, Jessica, Jose, and many more whose names I can't remember. Silvana was extremely fascinated with Matthias' dictaphone and Veronica took all our stuff apart in search for some bombas (balloons). We stayed at Sergio's house in Tena, played with the kids, drank beer and had a chat with a real family. It was great. They made us feel extremely welcome and we had a great time. Their house was made of wood and didn't have much in it. Some hammocks, a table with some benches and a kitchen.The rooms were mostly empty with mattrasses on the floor.
The next morning we got served breakfast which consisted of a hot drink which tasted slightly of tomato, some fried bananas (platanos, for those who know the difference) and bread and jam. The children surrounded us immediately and were fantastically hungry. They ate everything they could get which made us think that all these goodies (like jam, bread etc) were specifically bought for us and that they never really get those things.
Then we got our rubber boots and off we went in a pick-up. Two of the children went with us to go and see their parents in the jungle. We drove a fair bit and then suddenly in the middle of nowhere we had to get off and start walking. Unfortunately the wellies that were packed for me had the right size but where both for my right foot. Well, there was nothing I could do about it and I just put them on, looking like a child who hadn't understood yet. (watch out for it on the photos). We walked through masses of mud and had to fight our way through grass and plants. That wasn't even the real Amazonas rainforest yet, it was only secondary jungle.Thank you very much, it was hard enough. We carried everything, including several gallons of water. Sergio carried by far the heaviest load which was probably most of our food. Sometimes the mud was so deep that we got our wellies stuck and had to get rescued by Sergio. We climbed and walked and after 3 hours of wading through rivers, balancing on tree trunks to get to the other side, climbing landslides, mud and all sorts of plants, we arrived at his parents house. Of course the kids were a lot faster than us, after the first half hour we couldn't even see them anymore.
These guys live in seriously basic conditions. The wooden house stood on legs, so you had to climb up a ladder. In the middle was platform with a roof and a big fire place/kitchen in the middle. There is no electricity, plumming or anything vaguely luxurious.
Once we had arrived we took some rest in the hammocks. Sergio's mum went to get water from the river and vegetables from the jungle and prepared lunch. After a very good meal we went to take a swim in the river Puni. It was quite a big river and we felt like Indiana Jones talking a bath in there. I have to say, we could have spent the whole day lying in those hammocks. It was very hot and sticky and we were tortured by millions of little mosquitos. Neil was immediately absolutely covered with bites. In fact he looked remarkably like a strawberry. Although we had brought loads of mosquito repellent, we couldn't even apply it quickly enough. Sergio's mum had finally mercy with us and decided to give us a rest. She dug out a termite nest and burnt it right next to our hammocks. It smelled appallingly but the mosquitos didn't like the smell neither so we had some peace.
Sergio took us to meet a Shamane this evening. We had to cross the big river again.This time we took a canoe (which was just a tree trunk that you could sit in) and arrived safely on the other side. We had to climb a bit before we reached the next settlement. Immediately we were welcomed by even more kids and a couple of women. They told us the Shaman was asleep. After a while he joined us and had loads of questions. Somehow I had expected a feather-decorated old weirdo jumping around murmuring all sorts of wholy stuff. He was just an old man with a big family who apparantly had a good relationship to a snake which gave him his Shamanic powers. All very interesting. It got darker and darker and soon I felt completely blind, whereas the family was walking around happily, doing whatever they were doing without even being bothered by the darkness. We had brought some balloons with us and the kids where all excited. Even the adults wanted to try. They had never actually inflated one of them and it was quite amusing to watch the adults trying to blow air into the balloons. They paid us back though by making us drink their beer equivalent. It was a milky kind of liquid, of which an adult man can drink about 8 bowls a day (according to Sergio). Neil was the only one who didn't give up after the first sip. For me, it tasted a bit like milk that had gone sour and I took another sip, smiled and declined politely. Poor old Sergio had to empty all our drinks. We walked back in complete darkness, our way mainly lit by thousands of stars. Fortunately we had brought some torches but their light was somewhat pathetic in the big scale of things. Sergio guided us back safely. We had to climb down some stones and we took the canoe again. He had to take it back on the other side for the others to use it as well and had to swim back. By then, the river was quite wild and I was happy to see him reach the shore.
We got back, had dinner and went to sleep in our little house. It was like a stage with a roof. To Uli's horror, it didn't have any walls. We did get supplied with mattrasses, sheets, pillows and blankets and lucky enough with mosquito nets. This made a great little tent and we were able to sleep undisturbed and well sheltered. It was great falling asleep with all the jungle noises, some of which I had never heard in my entire life.
The next morning, we were woken up for a fantastic breakfast. In the night a giant bat must have left the biggest poo ever on my mosquito net. First I thought it was a snake, so big it was. Sergio thought that was very amusing.
Matthias fest cold coming up and complained about his bloked nose. Sergio's mum suggested a bit of a jungle prescription: squashed ginger liquid into the nostrils!!
It must have burnt like hell. I just saw him jumping up and hanging his head over the balcony. I better refrain from more description but it wasn't pleasant I believe.
After breakfast we went on our Amazonas basin tour. Again we were equipped with our boots. We got to know all sorts of plants, fruits and animals on the way. It was extremely interesting and a very enjoyable walk. We climbed piles of plants, crossed rivers and balanced of loggs (again) and even had to climb in a canyon. It was filled with water which was too deep for our rubber boots. So Sergio, equipped with a huge knife (I think it's called machete) cut into the soil in order to provide holes in which we could stick our feet on both sides of the canyon. There we were with on foot in one was and the other foot in the other and the river running under us. It was quite a bit acrobatic and all of us ended up in on way or another with one boot filled with water. It was fun though. This was all suddenly interrupted by me getting in contact with a green hairy caterpillar which decided to give me a really hard time. According to Sergio it was a poisonous caterpillar which was proven immediatelly by me throwing up big time. I was dizzy and sick and just wanted to lie down. Not so easy in the middle of the rainforest, surrounded by creepy crawlies. So we had to cut our trip short and go back to the house. It took some time and I can't say that I enjoyed stopping every now and then, throwing up and feeling light headed. Finally we arrived at the heavenly hammock. His mum came to my rescue and gave me some aspirin (oh yes, really pills, none of this jungle stuff) and after an hour I felt much better. Sergio told me afterwards that they expected me to get pretty high fever. But no, that little caterpillar beast wasn't that successful.
TBC
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