Pancakes, bananas and dash of maple syrup for breakfast. This was a lovely surprise and was consumed in record time, ready for our 9 o’clock bus journey. The bus took us to our motorized canoes ready to take us deep into the jungle. After around 25 minutes of a wobbly journey down the river and an exhausting walk through the jungle we found ourselves in Amazoonico. For those of you wondering, wow AmaZOOnico?! It was an animal sanctuary for exotic animals that have been confiscated or rescued. We encountered spider monkeys, wooly monkeys, an anaconda, a cayman crocodile, parrots, an ocelot, a puma family and a wild pig family. It was amazing to see how animals that have been removed from their habitats can be reintroduced to the wild. After seeing the animals in the cages it was great to see how the monkeys had been successfully released. We then had a longer journey back travelling up stream where we stopped off at the boat driver’s restaurant for lunch. He is married to a German woman who had met him on her travels to Ecuador many years ago. We had soup to start and chicken and rice to follow with a veggie option too, which was very tasty. When we finally arrived back at the boat station where Sharon treated us to an ice cream!!!!!! We got back onto the bus and drove to Misahualli, which was also known as ‘The Monkey Town’ where we saw wild monkeys monkeying around – and we’re not talking about the leaders!!! We went back to the bus and arrived back at the homestay, where we had many activities planned. Delphin used ground plant seeds to form a pigment to draw typical Kichwa symbols. Some of them represented the mother earth, the water and ancient jungle survival kits. We were fitted with our home made head dresses and then all had a go shooting darts through a traditional blowpipe. Ella managed to hit the target in the middle and win the prize, which we later realised was maybe not as good as we anticipated. She was presented with 5 wriggling grubs, the size of cocktail sausages. Emily jumped to the challenge and put one in her mouth without any hesitation, to the sounds of gasps of horror and described how it was not dead after the first bite. Some of us also tried the grubs deep fried so they were definitely dead and some of us stayed well away especially the veggies. We then made chocolate using cocoa beans from Delphin’s back garden aka the Amazon Rainforest. We started by heating them up till they popped like popcorn, then we removed the skin and ground them up. Milk and sugar was added then boiled and left to cool down for our dessert. We then had dinner and was treated to a side of chips!! Estella brought out more chips which we gobbled down. Pudding was our melted chocolate as a fondue dip with bananas. A tarantula scuttled across the restaurant floor which added excitement to the proceedings. We then had time to reflect on our time in the Amazon Rainforest staying with our Kichwa family in their home and I think it's clear to say that we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! With the rain coming down on our tin roof and the wind blowing in the east, we settled into a deep slumber.
Yours Truly, Grace and Katie H
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| Don't be surprised if it rains in the rainforest |
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| Our lovely family cooking for us in the kitchen |
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| Last meal |
Beautifully written I felt like I was actually there with you all x
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