Burner Billy Adventures: Oh how I Ecuador you - Amazon

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.