First, complaints. For this I apologize but if you can’t vent to your blog, where else is a girl to let out her shameful, vain admittance of the yearnings for “necessities”?
If my ankles aren’t suffering enough from the blisters I’ve formed wearing rubber boots around, they’re now decorated in small red scabs where my lack of self control has scratched them raw.
Its not chickenpox, its just the Amazon.
The eco-friendly woman I am, I’m beginning to understand why they put deet in bugspray in the first place; my “Herbal Armor” provides no refuge from the bedbugs. Maybe its my pheromones of mildew emitted from my clothes that I have come to realize will simply never completely dry in the humidity. I patted myself on the back at how light my pack was upon departure with only one pair of pants I thought I could wash each day – I’m beginning to regret my lofty attempts to be travel savvy. My hair is a ball full of frizz and tangles, also never completely dry. I sweat, all of the time.
Ok, now for the good stuff. As the majority of the tourists left yesterday, I strapped a lifejacket around my waist like a diaper and jumped into the Upper Napo River of the Amazon basin with some of the local guides and workers to let the current carry me along a spectacular, exotic journey through the jungle, one which could never be topped by any diesel-running engine. I hiked through mud, leaves, trees, vines and streams for a couple hours through the Yachana Reserve of the jungle a couple days ago, passing along the way a forest grazer snake, a screaming piha bird, and tasting some piton fruit cut down with a Machete by the illustrious Juan, our guide. I’m serenaded every morning by the male oropendula birds showing off their best call of the wild which sounds eerily like an loud, computer-generated water droplet. I share my living quarters with several species of insects, some wandering ocelots, and a pet tarantula we’ve named Terry living under the stairs. Our hike back and forth to the dorm has become refreshing in the morning and blissful in the evening when the unimaginable darkness provides a blanket of black upon which some of the best stargazing is to be had. At this moment, I’m swinging in a hammock pondering the odd behavior of newborn chicks in step behind their mother foraging for food. Mornings and evenings are the best, when views of snow-capped volcanoes in the distance or twilight encloses over the river, when the tranquility of the jungle is remembered most.
I am guided by a young man I now call my friend, Fabio Legarda. A promising graduate of Yachana who has just completed his first year of studies at Universidad de San Fransisco de Quito, there is pretty much nothing this guy can’t do. Between taking care of the gringos, reading the book 1492 IN ENGLISH (!), being at the beck and call of Douglas for any errands he might need, and writing a blog for the United Nations Environment Program, he assists me in learning Spanish. I hope he sees some good potential in this pupil because the frustration is compounding…
P.S. The food is incredible. 
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