The sights, sounds, and.... flavors of Ecuador

"The power of imagination makes us infinite."  -John Muir

     I´m afraid I lied at the end of my previous blog post.  I said that this next week would be pretty routine.  I guess 2 weeks in the jungle isn´t enough to teach me that the word "routine" has no meaning here.  Fresh off my Ayahuasca experience we were back at work on monday, only this time it was not farming.  Marco threw us a curveball and we have been helping him build a larger kitchen.  I use the word "helping" loosely here.  Mostly we do the little things he doesn´t have time for while he builds the entire kitchen himself.  We help move wood, hold things, hand him nails, dig holes for posts, make a path out of rocks, etc.  The entire process has taken all week due to interuptions caused by the weather.  We still managed to work in the fields a few days also but most of the time is spent on the kitchen.
     Yesterday we ventured deeper into the jungle to gather palms leaves to make repairs to the roof which has been leaking.  It took about two hours, five people, three machetes, and thousands of bug bites but we got what we needed with time to spare before the bus rolled through so we went on a jungle walk to find fruit to eat.  There were definately a few interesting tastes out there.  The real meal was waiting for us at home though.  One of Marco´s dogs, Tony, caught an armadillo on Friday night.  Upon our return we were greeted with a plate of rice, beans, plantains, and deep fried armadillo.  Delicous!
     There was one moment that was quite surreal that took place earlier in the week.  After a long day of "working" on the kitchen, the clouds had thinned and to the west you could see Chimbarazo (the largest mountain in Ecuador) and the Andes.  Just behind that the sun was setting.  It was one of those moments when you forget everything about anything and just stop and stare at the scene in front of you.  Of course none of us had a camera to capture the moment and share it with you all but I suspect it would have been one of those intances when pictures don´t do it justice.  It was not something that had never been seen before, or that would never be seen again, but that moment felt special, as corny as it sounds.  None of us said a word.  We just stared.
     I find that each week that passes I am more disconnected from my life in the states and becoming much more used to the culture down here, though I am not really in either place.  I am floating somewhere in the middle.
     This next week marks our last in the upper Amazon, and we leave to rejoin civilization once more.  I have had this idea to make a video and put it on the blog to show you all what our lives have been like for the past month.  Perhaps I will get to that this week so keep your eyes open for that on the blog next weekend.  Everyday is an adventure and I hope it continues to be that way.  The world has so many sights, sounds, smells, and tastes (armadillo?) to offer that one lifetime doesn´t seem to be enough.  Books and photos only do so much so go out and see what this planet can show you!

Welcome to the Jungle

“We can’t let our future become our past if we are to change the world. Won‘t you tell me please, how many miles must we march?” -Ben Harper

                Life in the rainforest is as you would expect… very wet.  It rains everyday.  Sometimes rain falls for only 10 minutes and sometimes 10 hours.  Nothing in the rainforest is wasted.  Rain water is used by all living things, including humans.  We wash our clothes with it, bathe with it, clean and prepare food with it, but only consume large amounts of it if boiled or filtered.  There is no telling what sort of bacteria lives in the water so it is best not to chance it. 

                As with any area where rainfall is this abundant, vegetation is dense.  Where there is vegetation, there is wildlife.  We haven’t seen any large animals yet, but there are enough birds to play us a symphony each night.  The birds hang around because food is easily available for them.  I have heard that it is unknown just how many species of bugs live in the rainforest, and after a week here I certainly believe that.  There are bugs of all sorts: spiders, beetles, cockroaches, ants, mosquitoes, and bugs unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.  Legend has it that a mosquito exists with a second needle protruding from it’s chest.  If poked by this needle you have to have sex in the next 30 minutes or else you will die.  Whether or not this is true is yet to be determined but the locals stand by it.  To me it just seems like a pretty desperate pick up line, but needless to say if you are in the Amazon make sure you have a few good looking women near… just in case.  There are huge trails of ants around the jungle too.  Some are dangerous and others just hard workers.  Leaf cutter ants carry bits of leaves hundreds of meters to form a pile.  Out of these piles grow fungi, which is the ants main source of food.  They have been cultivating longer than human beings.  Not all bugs have a strong work ethic or play the jungles version of Cupid, though.  Both Jackie and Angelica received a not-so-welcomed gift from mother nature on Christmas Day.  A nigua (a kind of flea) burrowed into each of their feet.  Jackie’s was removed shortly after it entered but Angelica’s appeared to be in her foot for a while because when it was removed a large amount of eggs came out with it.

                I have been hiking near Tahoe and come across lakes where I have been the only human for miles.  You just sit there and enjoy a silence so pure it almost seems like a dream.  There is no such silence in the rainforest.  Noise is the only thing more plentiful than water.  Birds with varying songs call out, crickets saw on their violin-like legs, frogs croak, and all of this blends into such a deep and wonderful song that you tend to pity the consumers of the CDs they sell at stores titled “Sounds of the Rainforest”.  No imitation can come close to the depth of this sound.

                We live on farm with a shaman named Marco.  His family lives a few kilometers down the road but we see them often enough.  Marco is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and quick to share his knowledge.  He has taken us to a few fiesta’s in town and the towns people are just as friendly.  When you think of Ecuador you may think of great amounts of poverty.  I think that perception is wrong.  There isn’t a constant struggle to put food on the table, they just live a very simplistic lifestyle.  Sure, money is not great in these areas, but its also not greatly needed.  They are happier than you and me and have gotten there by living a much simpler lifestyle.

                A few days ago Marco took us on a trek through the jungle.  I say “trek” because it certainly wasn’t a hike.  We had to wade across a few rivers, venture off the trail, and even swung from a few vines.  All of this lead to a waterfall where we had lunch and swam for a bit.  Marco might be the most intelligent person I have ever met.  Not in the way we often think of intelligence with math, science, politics, etc.  His intelligence is much more useful.  He can feel the Earth.  He knows how to use everything it gives him.  He knows what leaves cure different ailments, and the other day we needed another hoe for the field so he cut down a small tree using only a machete and trimmed it down until the diameter was small enough to fasten the end of the hoe onto it.

                We work Monday through Friday starting at 8 am.  We get to take breaks when it rains because being in the fields when muddy can hurt the crop.  The workday is long but rewarding.  You sleep better each night after a long day of tilling soil and picking weeds.

                The tranquility of this jungle paradise has been broken in recent days though.  A few nights back a German woman, her father, and her two young children showed up to stay with us.  They brought no food or water with them so they just helped themselves to what little food we still had left.  The children are maniacs.  The oldest boy was jumping around until the late hours of the night and spilled water on the floor above me so it leaked into my room.  A really charming kid.

                Each day is a little bit different and we learn a little bit more about the jungle and this simplistic lifestyle.  It really isn’t much of a nuisance at all which makes you wonder why, as Americans, we feel the need to have so much crap.  Also, there will be some delays in my posts since internet access is tough to come by.  Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!      P.S. GO LIONS!