It’s crazy to think that we are already halfway through this
journey together, and that we have finished our longest expedition. It was
exciting, exhausting and absolutely amazing.
We began the last section with a 37 km
leg of biking which somehow was the hardest day yet, with Laura struggling
through an upset stomach, Harrison getting about five flat tires, the heat, and
overall low group energy. We did however see a double rainbow!
Despite our many delays and breaks we
made it to La Serena in plenty of time. Our campsite was across a very long
footbridge from the road, so we spent the evening portaging all our river gear
from the truck to our camp and then spent the next morning bringing our bike gear
back across the river to the truck. The rest of the morning was spent
practicing using throw ropes, swimming in the Rio Jatunyacu, and preparing the
cataraft, kayaks and little white raft affectionately called the schnitzel for
the journey. In the afternoon it poured as it does only in the jungle. Just as
the rain began to slow down we went up the river a bit to take some solo
reflection time on the most gorgeous beach I have ever seen. Across the river a
cliff covered in green leaves and jutting rocks rose above us and all around us
the mist from the rain was rising and the mountains were reaching up into the
far off storm clouds. We spent the night in La Serena again and left on the
rafts the next morning led by Thomas, Ango, Nicole, Laurel and Nadino. Parts of
the river were reasonably calm, parts were very rough and turbulent, and all of
it was hot and sunny and beautiful. At one point our river joined into the Rio
Napo, one of the main rivers that creates the Amazon. We arrived at our next
camp in the early afternoon after flipping the schnitzel raft only once and
spent the afternoon working on kayak skills and practicing flipping. That night
we slept on the beach, grateful for our tents to keep the jungle bugs away and
to provide some separation from the sand.
Our next
campsite, 25 kms down the river was even more beautiful, tucked away under the
trees where the riverbank met the jungle, surrounded by the sounds of the
rainforest.
On Monday
we took apart the cataraft, and sent everything possible back to Palugo so that
we could hike through the jungle into the community of Shiwacocha. We said
goodbye to Ango and Thomas and were rejoined by Mathias and Ayra. It was
amazing for us to contrast the grassy highlands of the weeks before with the
hot, humid, buggy rainforest as we hiked. The leaves were bigger than Ayra, the
sounds so distinctly rainforest-y and everywhere were plants competing for
sunlight.
In the
late afternoon we made it to our final destination: the home of Isolina,
Nadino’s mother. She fed us yucca and plantain, sang with us, and sent us to
sleep on mattresses in a beautiful room on stilts. We spent the next two days
hauling sand and carrying wood to various houses to help out, swimming in the Arunjuno
river, munching on sugar cane, getting eaten alive by ants and immersing
ourselves in such a totally different culture. With Nadino’s grandfather and
uncle we made baskets (which frustrated some of us more than others) and with
Isolina we made traditional pilche bowls out of the fruit that grows from the Pilche
tree. Our last night in the jungle we learned the traditional dance of the
Quechua, the biggest indigenous culture in Ecuador.
They next
morning we were up at 3:30 to experience morning in the jungle and to prepare
to leave. Some of us also chose to put hot peppers in our eyes as a traditional
way of gaining clearer sight, literally and figuratively, and it can only be
done in the early morning when the day is cool and the peppers less potent. After
breakfast on Friday we said goodbye to Shiwacocha and all 19 of us piled onto
the reassembled cataraft to float down the river to where we could get a bus
back home. It took most of the day since none of us really felt like paddling and
instead we spent the time floating on balsa logs or on the tube pulled behind
the raft.
We took
apart the cataraft one last time to get it on the bus, and then all piled in
for the five hour ride up the Andes and back to Palugo.
Today we
are cleaning up from expedition, sorting gear, and decompressing after the high
energy of the last 25 days. Tomorrow we will close this chapter of Semester and
switch gears to crafts and academic work for the next few weeks.
Hasta
Luego,
Mary Kate
Distance
traveled this leg: 105km
Total
Distance for the whole Expedition: about 450 to 473km
Reflections
The
Jungle
I can
remember drawing the colorful layers of the jungle in 4th grade with
pencils on my main lesson paper. I remember using browns and dark greens and
some reds to carefully draw in each layer from earthen floor to high canopy. I
didn’t know if I would ever actually visit the jungle but now I am here. It is
alive and different but certainly not as organized as my page drawing. Here the
forest floor crawls with insects of all shapes and sizes, insects so foreign to
me I am wary when our paths cross. Here the trees are laced with vines and the
leaves are ten times bigger than any leaf at home. I cant decipher the separate
layers from which the forest grows, the floor crawls into the middle layers of
small trees and shrubs and from there up to the higher reaches of the canopy
and finally to the wheeling birds in the changing sky. The jungle sings and
moves constantly to its own heartbeat.
~ Elsbeth
Sometimes we need to sit down and look and the
mountains and wonder
and hope to be inspired
Hope to be inspired be the quiet greatness of
things which are
The greatness of vast expanses of lakes, fields,
and the heights of
mountains
And like it came the falling of my soul, a blade
of grass in a sea of green.
Quiero ser mas paciente
I fell into my deep dream
I spiraled into the night
Until I unfound myself amidst the stars
and found myself again
watching the stars
For we are the manifestations of the wisdom that
is the universe.
The day will end.
~ Group
poem, each line written by a different person
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