CloudForest and RainForest

Cloud Forest and Rain Forest

The ecosystem at Vilcabamba is called « Cloud Forest » …lush, semi-tropical vegetation often shrouded in mist, and ful of very exotic birds (feathered variety!) …not many animals. After a few days in the Podocarpus bird park we moved on. We drove through Zamora and Bombuscara to a hostel called Copalinga, run by a Belgian couple. Beautiful surroundings; very much « bird-oriented ». We met a group of American birdwatchers …strange creatures who spend their days rushing round the forest, dragging huge cameras, tripods, notebooks and binoculars with them. The objective seems to be to see the maximum number of species possible during the day …then spending the evening ticking them off on enormous checklists, and twittering about « Crimson-crested, Lesser-spotted Frooble Warblers » ….a bit like train spotters, but without the plastic anoraks …
Our next stop was supposed to be a little hostel on a riverbank in the forest. However, when we saw it we changed our minds! Picture if you can a derelict wooden hotel, falling to bits …with a dead rat on the front doorstep …chickens running about in the kitchen …and a humidity of around 120%! So we drove back to Zamora and on up to Cuenca …an uneventful trip until we decided to continue from Riobamba to Banos … we were warned that the diect road ran next to an active volcano (Tungurahua), currently on yellow alert, but a different surprise awaited us when we drove round one bend at the foot of the volcano …an enormous gaping chasm right in front of us! Heavy rain cascading down the volcano had taken the trail away completely. We had to return to Riobamba and take a more round-about road to Banos. The excellent and cheap little hostel in Banos is run by an English guy and is complete with three talking parrots who have learned to giggle exactly like a group of drunken teenage girls ….and they didn’t stop all day long! The hostel organised our Amazon trip …and a visit to the local steam baths! You sit in a sort of closed box, filled with eucalyptus leaves, and with just your head sticking out of the top …and there are steam pipes inside! The torture consists of 10 minutes steam, then ice-cold water is sponged over you …then another 10 minutes steam, followed by buckets of ice-cold water poured over you …then 5 minutes steam followed by sitting in a tub of ice-cold water …and finally another 5 minutes steam followed by a high-pressure, ice-cold jet of water sprayed all over you!!! …….AND you have to PAY for it!! We came out looking like boiled lobsters, and smelling like menthol throat sweets!!! Oh the things we do for fun!!
On our last morning, just before we left, we actually caught a glimpse of the summit of the volcano between the clouds …huge plumes of grey smoke pouring out of the top!
Living in Banos is like sitting on a time bomb …you know the volcano will explode …but you don’t now when!!
After banos we went on our 4-day Amazon Rain Forest trip (Rain Forest is like Cloud Forest ….but much wetter!) We drove deep into the jungle to the Gareno Lodge. We had to leave the car on a trail; the last part was on foot through the forest. We stayed in a wooden cabin surrounded by dense jungle; the home of lots of birds including toucans, humming birds and Harpy eagles, butterflies, …and of course snakes, spiders, centipedes, giant worms (we found a very large Tarantula in a tree), …and jaguars and pumas. We spent our time on jungle treks with a guide and a native from the Houarani tribe (only discovered 40 years ago) The Houarani was naked except for a sort of narrow belt that held his « dangly bits » in place …to stop them from dingly-dangling. He walked around with a huge blowpipe and a quiver of poison arrows. In the course of our short stay, he taught us how to use the blowpipe, prepare curare poison for the arrows (we tasted it, a sort of liquorice flavour but very bitter), made us taste Lemon ants, how to climb enormous trees to gather fruit which he put in a palm-leaf basket he made. We tasted the fruit later. All very impressive but I think I’ll stick to McDonalds!
We also had a trip down the Napo river in a large pirogue propelled by a duff outboard motor that kept stopping! I wouldn’t have minded but the river was in full flood after heavy rain, and was full of huge tree trunks!! We visited another village downstream where we sampled cocoa beans, various herbs, and a drink made from bananas and manioc roots (no ill-effects so far!) The natives made us headdresses to wear, plaited from palm leaves …they said the hunters wear them for camouflage in the jungle. I reckon they just do it to make the tourists look stupid! …so they can have a good giggle!
Now we’re relaxing in a village called Misahualli on the banks of the Napo river. They have tame Cappucin monkeys in the village square. One of them spent 5 minutes looking for fleas in my hair! …and pulling hairs out with his teeth!!! (I don’t have a lot of hair left anyway …even less now!!) Got to go now ….off to the beach to soak up the sun!
The next blog update will probably not be before November, when we get back from Galapagos.

Hasta luego!!

Jungle Jingle

Jungle Jingle

Deep in the jungle where nobody goes,
Where Creepies and Crawlies nip at your toes,
Where Lizards and Serpents slither past on their bellies,
Our Intrepid Explorer …….in her Bright Pink Wellies!!!

Anon, circa 2007

Inca Land

Inca Land

At the end of our last update we were about to set off for the Amazon …. Well, we didn’t quite make it. We drove through La Paz (getting lost of course …. We get lost in 9 out of 10 towns!), then started down a mountain valley along a road that drops from 3800 metres to 300 metres in about 150km. It has earned the dubious title of being the « most dangerous road in the world » (an average of 26 people killed per year) But we weren’t worried because we were assured that a new road had been built alongside the old one … no problem. Indeed, we went down about halfway with no trouble, to a village where we stayed overnight … super road. Next morning we set off again …..only to find that they hadn’t yet built the second half! ….it was still the old road. It is very narrow, with enormous drops (see picture), but the reason it is so dangerous is because hundreds of huge trucks thunder up and down it every day ….and you have to pass them!! Anyway, we got to the bottom safely, but then found that the « road » to our Amazon town, 400km away, was a diabolically bad mud trail. After adding up the days to get there and back, we decided to postpone our Amazon trip till Ecuador. So we turned round and drove back up the road again (ok, ok ….some people just look for trouble!) ….and headed for Lake Titicaca.

At an altitude of 3800metres, Lake Titicaca (see picture) is one of the highest large lakes in the world (176km long and 50km wide) To get to the town of Copacabana, on a peninsula, we took a ferry …..basically a large, flat-bottomed barge ….with huge gaps in the loose floor planks (see picture) …..great fun! We found a cheap hotel overlooking the lake, where they served free tea and biscuits all day. The tea is a herb tea ….made from coca leaves. It is perfectly legal to use the coca leaves in this way (see picture), and it’s a stimulant, and cures altitude sickness (actually, it doesn’t cure altitude sickness, but if you drink enough, you don’t care any more! …. Whoopeee!!) A 3-course meal at the hotel cost 2 euros!
We crossed over from Bolivia into Peru, and stayed in a village called Chivay in « Condor Canyon ». Next morning we drove up to a viewpoint overlooking the canyon …. And at 8am the condors arrived!!! El Condor Pasa!!! Magnificent birds with a 3.5metre wingspan, gliding on the thermal currents just a few metres over our heads (see picture). We were very excited because this was one of our main objectives in visiting South America. We watched them for about one hour, then they glided off to hunt for breakfast. We set off for Cusco over the mountains, a long, hard drive (getting lost again), and ended up sleeping the night at a toll booth on the main road. The guard at the toll booth gave us excellent advice on the route to MachuPichu ….so we drove through a beautiful green valley to a village called Ollantaytambo, where you can get a train to MachuPichu (no ….sorry ….we didn’t walk the Inca Trail) The little hotel where we stayed had an enclosure full of guinea pigs …..not for pets …..to eat (see picture) We caught the train to MachuPichu and climbed up to the ruins.
What can you say ……magnificent …..an incredible achievement by the Incas when you consider that they didn’t have any machinery or cranes ….just sheer manpower! They terraced and farmed all the mountainsides, even when they were almost vertical! One false step when you’re weeding your carrots and you suddenly find yourself in somebody else’s garden 2000metres lower down! When you look at all the Inca ruins (and there are plenty, not just MachuPichu) you realize that they are ALL built on the tops of incredibly steep mountains ….. WHY! There is plenty of land in the valleys ….but no ….they preferred to climb up the mountains and build in the most inaccessible places possible! When you think of all the hundreds of thousands of tons of stone they had to move …..
Anyway, we set off for Cusco ….with our car making more and more noise. When I looked underneath, the exhaust pipe was completely broken in two (thanks to the Bolivian « roads »). So we had to make an unscheduled stop in Cusco where a garage repaired it (one whole day’s labour by several mechanics ….and it only cost 16euros for their time ….ridiculous!) Next stop was the Nasca lines ….slightly disappointing as they are deteriorating rapidly …there is even a main road right through the middle! Then we drove past Pisco where they had the earthquake a few days ago. It’s tragic …..once again it’s the poorest people who suffer the most because their little mud houses can’t stand up to earthquakes. We saw whole families eating meals in their «dining rooms » which had no roof or walls. Some were living in tents.
The rest of the journey north towards Ecuador was uneventful. We crossed the border with no problems (the border police were even handing out tourist brochures!) and stopped in a valley called the « Valley of Longevity » because they claim some of the inhabitants are 120years old! …..its not done much for my wrinkles yet! We’re staying in a little wooden cabin on a site run by a real laid-back American. Perfect place to live if you want to opt out of society …. Just beautiful, lush green, semi-tropical vegetation with parrots, wild bananas, a river, hammocks ….and a local booze brewed from Yucca plants …..
Bye for now, I feel sleepy.