A week in the jungle
Another post already? I’m just as shocked as anyone reading this probably is too, but our week-long technical training trip to the Amazon was just too amazing not to blog about!
After the bus was an hour late, we finally started our journey to Tena at 7am on Monday morning. After 4 hours of crazy, winding roads at breakneck speed, we finally arrived. The heat and humidity instantly hit us and after about 5 minutes of hauling our hiking backpacks on the way to our hostel, we were all sweaty messes.
The week started out with a trip to the offices of Sumaco Bio-Reserve near Tena. We learned about national parks and bio-reserves in Ecuador and got to eat some of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted! The cacao it was made from was grown locally by farmers that live in the reserve.
On Tuesday, we visited RICANCIE, which is an organization that focuses on community based tourism in 9 different Kichwa communities near Tena. Kichwa is the largest indigenous population in Ecuador and I could be learning some of the language if I get placed in the Oriente (Amazon). Apparently a Business Advising volunteer is going to be working with RICANCIE so who knows! I could be back there in a couple weeks! We then went to one of the communities called Wasila that RICANCIE works with and participated in a minga, or community work day. They’re very popular in Ecuador and everyone gets together to work on something the community needs.
We hauled rocks from the river, hoed and made a new walkway/path to the community center. It was hard work in the hot sun, but we worked as a team and were all very proud when we finished the job an hour or two later. Apparently, the community was originally going to charge us for our lunch there but when they saw what great work we did, they said it was on them!
the path we made
me on our path
the group resting after all our hard work
before eating lunch
fresh yucca and plátano that were part of our lunch
Then we got to go on an amazing walk while basically eating our way through the jungle. We got to try cocao (the fruit on the pods is very sweet and very delicious but tastes nothing like chocolate, you use the beans within the pods to make chocolate), heart of palm (they literally chopped down the tree right in front of us, stripped off the bark and then we feasted) and guaba (another delicious fruit). We also learned a lot about the local plants that grow in the jungle and their medicinal uses.
cutting open the cacao pod
the beans with most of the fruit eaten off, which are roasted and then used to make chocolate
guaba
our guide stripping the bark off the heart of palm after cutting down the tree
chopping off some of the heart of palm to snack on
On Wednesday, we visited another group called FENAKIN that another PCV is currently working with. They do a lot with community based tourism as well so we got to visit another community that day called Kamak Maki. This community was a lot more developed and had cabañas, a museum of Kichwa culture and tons of animals. We saw ocelots, a boa, a capybara, coatis, a wild pig and an adorable monkey named Lucas! We also got to try the local cuisine called maito, which basically just means whatever fish/meat that is served was cooked in a palm leaf. We had tilapia maito. Delicious!
Lucas
our group with the boa
maito de tilapia with yucca and fresh heart of palm salad
On Thursday, we went to a very small, rural community called Campo Cocha and gave some charlas about climate change and deforestation to groups of jovenes and niños. It was a bit of an eye-opener since some of the girls as young as 5 were there taking care care of their infant siblings because their parents were out working in the fields. This is also a community that has asked for a volunteer so one of us might be placed there.
Later that day, we had more maito for lunch but this time some of us were very brave and tried maito de chonta cura, which is grub worms! They collect them with the same tree we ate the heart of palm from. They just cut it down, wait a month or two for the grubs to gather and then collect them and eat! I tried a piece of one of them. They weren’t as bad as I was expecting, but I don’t think I’ll be eating them again anytime soon. A very fatty taste.
maito de chonta cura
After lunch, we visited a really innovative organization called RUNA. RUNA works with local farmers to harvest guayusa, a local tea grown only in Ecuador with almost as much caffeine as coffee but much more delicious. RUNA was started by two Brown University grads, is certified organic and should be getting their fair trade certification soon. Their project is very developed because they won awards with their business plan, but their goal is to be a sustainable organization and get the business into the hands of the farmers. Check out their website at RUNA.org! You can buy it at Whole Foods and Wegmans in the US.
That night was our last in Tena so a couple of us went out to celebrate at a local bar and I had a very fresh and very delicious mango daiquiri. Then two current PCVs showed up and we ended up dancing the night away. Tena is and feels much safer than Tumbaco so it was really nice to be able to go out without worrying about getting home.
The next day, we visited one of the PCV’s home stays. It was nice to get to meet a local family and see where someone was living, even though we were warned that his was not a normal home stay experience - he had WIFI! After that, we were back on a bus and headed home to Tumbaco. It was an amazing week and I found myself hoping that I’d be back in two weeks for site visit! I guess I’ll find out in a week and a half…
