Oh how I Ecuador you - Amazon - Part 2

Seeing a friend whether you have known him or her for 10 days or 10 years is a always a great feeling. And it's even better when your friend is living in a foreign country! Like so many of new friends in my life, I met Kathleen in San Francisco. We became acquainted just like all my other new friends in SF.....from another friend. We connected a year ago at the Imagine Dragons concert, but really embraced our friendship after we swamped first-time burning man stories. I knew if I made this trip to South America, there was no doubt I would be visiting Kathleen.

Upon arrival into Quito after Quilotoa lake, I had approximately 10 hours to get ready before taking off on a night bus to the amazon. Let's just say the start of the bus ride was a small part of the journey to get to our summer oasis in the amazon. After a 8-10 hour bus ride to nueva loja (Lago Agrio), we had to setup at a local cafe/restaurant for 3 hours until our transportation to the amazon arrived. Here, I would run into fellow amigos (German guys) in which we discussed our trek into the amazon and hoping to hangout with each other. Little did I know our place was off the beaten track, and I didn't get to see those guys before they left for the states. Hope all is well there boys!

When the transportation arrived, it was another 5 hour bus ride to the river and the road wasn't paved after hour number two. One observation, while on the bus ride, were the many entrances we encountered of what looked to be natural gas/oil refineries. Later, I would find out that Ecuador has found a large amount of oil reserve in the amazon jungle of Yasuni and the president of Ecuador is trying to move forward with extracting it (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26980524). Cuyabeno, the part of the amazon we trekked in, has been extracting oil for quite some time.

Once we got to the river, we had to jump on a long skinny boat for 3 more hours. This boat ride could make or break your experience in the amazon, so I was told. With no cover (it was basically a large canoe), we had to embraced the fact that we might get soaking wet (we were entering the amazon during their wet season), but lucky for us the boat ride was pleasantly dry and quite lovely actually (not so much on the way back!). Strangely, it reminded me of Florida and what the Everglades national park must be like. We saw two things on my list of creatures to see, an anaconda and pink dolphins. I hate snakes with a passion and lucky enough this one was in a tree. Little did I know this would be one of the only snakes I would see for the next 5 days. Thank god! But the pink dolphins surprise the hell out of me. First off, they are not as good looking as the gray ones we see in the ocean (google it), but how are they pink and in fresh water??? Well, I had to look it up because I don't think my guide really every answered the question. Fact #1: they are very distant relative to the ocean dolphin, so they have been in the amazon for thousands of years. It's like saying I'm cousins with some Kellers in Germany. Dumb. Fact #2: the chemical imbalance of the water to the dolphin skin causes them to be pink in some spots, but there are many gray and brown river dolphins too. However, they say when the dolphin becomes more excited it turns more pink, like blushing. Sort of like me, when I see a very attractive Latina girl approach me, talk to me in spanish, I usually just smile and turn bright red. Let's just say the beginning of our journey into the amazon started off with a bang!

When we arrived to the amazon oasis, it really wasn't what I was thinking. I thought I would be roughing it out in a dingy shack in the jungle swatting away mosquitoes every 30 seconds. But, it was more of a summer camp retreat, like when I was 10 years old. We did nature walks to explore the jungle basically learning how to survive in the jungle if you ever got lost (we ate yellow worms that tasted like coconut, drink water from a branch, and snorted garlic flavored water to clear our nostrils), played soccer with the staff and other campers (soccer wasn't something I really ever played as a kid, so I resorted to playing goalie. The last line of defense...like a true 'Merican!), swam in the river along with swinging on a rope swing (yes, piranhas were among us), and was served three meals a day with snacks in between each meal. The only difference between summer camp at age 10 and summer camp in the amazon at 32....you could purchase alcoholic beverages. 

However, I would say the best moment of the trip, and don't get me wrong I loved hanging with our nature-crazy Australian friends, playing Ecuadorean's favorite card game cuarenta with the local shaman, swinging in my personal hammock next to my bed with no distractions (a la iPhone), reflecting on my past, present and future life experiences, reading a good book, seeing all the animals in the wild, and eating all the good food, but, taking the canoe out with me, Kathleen, her bf Andres, our english speaking guide, and our local shaman/Quechua guide down the river at sunset without a cloud in sky, no outside noises (phones, cars, people, music, motors, etc), and the sound of nature with the wild in background...ahhhh pure relaxation!! A beer was in hand while this was happening...the epiphany of really taking it easy. The amazon made me feel like a kid again and it's experience made me realize life shouldn't be taken so seriously. 

On the boat to camp

Anaconda in the trees

Best pink dolphin pic I could get

Pretty rare parot sleeping

Even big-eyed mice hang in the amazon

My buddy for the night

A natural

No motor needed here. Pure power

Team World against Team Ecuador

All defense

Eating worms...

..snorting garlic water..

...and drinking water from a branch

Nick getting the bad out of him by the shaman

I believe this was a type of Toucan

Monkeys or Sloths...probably Monos

Trying to blend in

Yucca and this bag is vibe these days

Fishing for piranhas

Swimming in the AguaRico 

Billy of the Jungle

Arts and Crafts

Trees, Nature, and Billy

Saba tree..biggest in the amazon

Our amazon oasis

My personal hammock

Tranquilo

The summer camp crew

The rope swing and the amazon

Just taking it easy....

Pure beauty at sunset

Ciao

Burner Billy

Oh how I Ecuador you - Cuenca, Banos, and Quilotoa - Part 1

I bought a night bus from Mancora, Peru to Cuenca, Ecuador with traveling mate Dave from Scotland, however two hours before he departure, he looked at me and said "I think I'm gonna stay bit longer in mancora." That basically sums up the Loki hostel in Mancora, it sucks people in. 

I, on the other hand, diligently walked away without looking back. Luckily, my new friends Charlotte, Wendy, and Steffi were cruising up to Cuenca on the same bus. This would be my second country crossing, but this time we did it at 2am...yikes! The bus ride was rather bumpy and getting up to go through customs in the middle of the night with awful morning breathe was not fun, but overall it was pretty painless. They didn't even check my bags, nor did they say much to me. Gracias and have a nice day.

Cuenca was probably the cleanest city I had seen so far on my trip. I really didn't do much as far as checking the sites outside of Cuenca (I heard Cajas National park is nice and there are some inca ruins north of the city, but I'm really bummed I didn't do go down to vilcabamba because I hear it's an amazing getaway that is muy tranquilo) because I needed to take it easy after Mancora. I went on a double decker tour bus where we stopped in Turi and got on this gigantic swing that took you over land's edge with an amazing view of Cuenca. Outside of that I had some pretty good food, enjoyed walking the city, and hungout with good company. I met Germans Lucas and Anton who will soon be venturing the US west coast by car and I will see again before trekking into the amazon, and then had a drink with Aussie Emma who told me you cannot buy cards against humanity in Australia. Sometimes people's stories are what make your trip memorable, however for this city, it was probably the amazing burrito and extra large Budweiser from chiplote that really sticks with me for Cuenca or maybe it was that "La Flaca" song by Jarabe de Palo that I heard at the bar. Who knows? Too many stories to count.

Baños, well it wasn't a bathroom, but more of a fun getaway in the depths of a rich valley close to an active volcano called tungurahua. Even though I could not see the tops of the many glorious peaks that cover Ecuador, I did partake in some activities in baños, first one being a biking and whitewater rafting adventure with a bunch of Argentina chicas. Outside from not staring at these girls, the hardest part was trying to communicate with them. Once again my shyness couldn't help me but say nothing to anybody in the group. However, I did rescue one girl after the other raft flipped, and later she did give me a wave and flashed her pretty smile on our car ride back to city. That's all the communication I needed. The other event I did was canyoneering and our guide could have been fred armisen's ecuadorian twin brother. He was absolutely hilarious and ecstatic to teach us about how much he loves canyoneering. It was a definitely a fun trek and afterwards, a group of us went to a delicious place to eat lunch, where we listen to Billie Holiday and swamped stories. But the day was not over yet, we had to do ONE more thing before I left Banos, and that required taking a cab to see the world famous "Casa del Arbol". It's a big old treehouse with a swing that overlooks the gorgeous mountains of Ecuador. Unfortunately, there was no swing this day when we got up there and clouds covered the entire landscape of what I am told are beautiful mountains. The treehouse was really neat though and reminded me of my childhood when my family and friends would climb around our neighbor's, the Bolles, treehouse (even though it wasn't really built within a tree. Ha). The atmosphere and serenity surrounding the treehouse make me feel like a kid again, when the only care in the world was making sure you were home for dinner.

I had been mulling around the idea of trying to go to Quilotoa before meeting Kathleen in Quito to do our amazon trip, but our guide book said "give yourself 2-3 days to explore this beauty". Well, I didn't have 2-3 days and pretty much wrote it off my list things to do....until I talked my German friend Annika. She was told you could see Quilotoa in one day starting from the city of Latacunga. I immediately backed my bag after our evening trek up to Casa del Arbol and joined Annika on her adventure to Quilotoa. And I'm soooo happy I did!! Quilotoa is almost identical to the beautiful Crater lake in Oregon and seeing it for the first time brought back the same emotions I felt when I saw Crater Lake for the first time...peacefulness. Approximately half the size of crater lake, me, Annika and our new friend Frank took off to walk around the whole lake in one day. Up to this point, it had pretty much rained everyday in Ecuador and if I was a betting man, I would have put money down that we weren't coming back dry. Well, mother nature was on our side this day. It actually rained while we were walking around, but luckily it was on the other side of the lake so we were dry and it give us some cool photos. The weather was a bit chilly up at the lake, but every step you took on the trail, you could just glance to your right and see the magical lake as your background. How cold it was outside didn't matter! We were the only souls hiking around the lake this day, and it's purity, vast openness, along with the remoteness made me feel like I was hiking along the PCT again. However, this hike had a hot meal and bed waiting for me at the of day and I wasn't carrying my life (at the moment) on my back! The bittersweet ending to the day was riding in back of the pickup truck to the bus station after our 5.5 hour hike around the lake. Sitting there I looked out to the beautiful landscape and open road, and I thought to myself "this seriously is how movies end". But this stories continues on and it brings us to beautiful jungle of what people love to call the Amazon!

Wendi, Charlotte, Steffi and I with Cuenca in the background

Swinging like a kid

Cool art in Cuenca

Banos

Acting like I know what I am doing...

Dad taught me well

All I could do was smile

Canyoneering Crew (look to the far right..Fred Armisen's twin)

No big deal 

Don't go chasing waterfalls...

Top of Casa del Arbol...the view for a split second

Casa del Arbol

Me and Quilotoa Lake

My hiking crew

The open road....

Ciao,

Burner Billy