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We woke up at 6:30 a.m. and got ready for the day. We walked over to the dining room and met the boys for breakfast. We were served canteloupe, fried egg, a slice of salami, cheese, yucca, and bread, and we had juice to drink.
Shortly after 8 o'clock, we got a ride upstream in the lodge's motorized canoe to the start of the mirador trail. We were finally wearing the rubber boots that had been stowed in our kayaks for the last 3 days. Craig and I were a bit skeptical as to how well we could hike in a pair of large rubber boots, but they ended up being quite comfortable. They came in handy because the trail was ankle-deep mud near the river. We were immediately enveloped by the shade of the jungle. Although it was humid and we were sweating instantly, at least we wouldn't have to deal with the strong Equatorial sun. There was a nice trail and Ñame led us along. Soon we heard a snort and a crash and could see a white collared peccary scurrying through the vegetation. It startled Ñame. Felipe told us that if it charged at us, the best thing to do would be to climb a tree. With my skinned fingers (which were healing so well with the sangre de drago that they hadn't even bothered me through 3 days of paddling) and the knowlegde that I can't support my own body weight, this was not encouraging to me. I hoped it wouldn't come to that. As we continued through the forest we could smell the peccary's musky foul odor and I was a bit edgy. Ñame spotted a second small group of peccaries. “So that they can surround us, no doubt,” I muttered. Craig was rather amused by my over-reaction and fear, but I must admit I was feeling pretty vulnerable and I kept looking around nervously. Ñame led us uphill on our walk through the jungle, and stopped often to point out various plants and explain their uses. He showed us the curare vine which is used as a poison in blowdarts. It can also be used in careful doses for heart surgery, as it slows down the beating of the heart. He had us smell "jungle garlic" which didn't smell much like garlic to me. We saw the sangre de drago tree, which I praised for its healing properties. Felipe pointed out a palm tree whose young leaves are red. This is to protect them from being eaten, because they look like they are already dead. Some other plants had much more obvious defenses such as sharp spikes protruding from their bark. Mushrooms proliferated in the damp darkness. Ñame showed us raw tagua, or “vegetable ivory”, a palm nut which, when its shell is removed, looks like ivory and is often carved into various shapes and sold to tourists. After having seen tagua carvings for sale in the Otavalo market and in Quito, it was interesting to get to see the raw materials in the wild. Everything had a very interesting texture. There were long narrow green leaves which had Braille-like red dots on ther underside. We saw a ceiba seed pod, a brown teardop shaped pod with white silky tassles on one end.We got a good photo of one. We got to the mirador, a hillside lookout which had a very small clearing from which you could get a nice nice view of the jungle canopy. We could see the tops of trees extending into the distance until they merged with muggy haze on the horizon. The jungle extended for miles in every direction, and I started to feel a bit uneasy about our isolation. What if the canoe didn't come back to pick us up? We were miles from anywhere. It was totally irrational, but I felt vulnerable. We ate our snacks and a huge ant carried off an entire peanut all by itself. After our break, we continued along the loop trail, downhill this time. We saw a red tree which sheds its bark as a defense mechanism. There was also a plant that looked like a single stalk until Ñame shook it and it unfurled into many palm strands which could further be separated into strong fibers. The Huaorani use it for weaving and Ñame's sisters had made Felipe a hammock out of it for Christmas. The Huaorani use this for weaving fish traps, hammocks, bags, etc. It’s amazing how much the jungle provides if you just know where to look. Even though the Huaorani have been influenced by western culture (especially by oil companies who try to bribe them to get at the oil underneath their lands) and some no longer live in the traditional way, it is evident that their age-old knowledge of the forest is being passed down to the younger generation, with 16 year old Ñame as proof. Ñame spontaneously wove me a bag out of palm fronds, and I carried my water bottle in it. He gave Craig a palm headband. We knew we were close to the river when our boots began to sink in the mud. We popped out at the river at around 12:30 and the lodge's motorized canoe was waiting for us. It delivered us downstream to the lodge. Arturo and Ñame played volleyball on the grass in front of our rooms. We were much too hot and swweaty after the jungle hike to participate. The only thing we could think of was a nice cool shower! Just as Craig was about to get undressed, the lunch horn sounded at 1 o'clock. The showers would have to wait. We went to the table and were served a tomato stuffed with tuna, some beef stew, radishes, and lentils. After lunch, Arturo and Ñame disassembled the supply boat and squeezed the air out of the pontoons while Felipe took us on a short hike to see leaf cutter ants. We had seen them before in Guatemala and Belize, but never to this extent. We watched them as they carried pieces of leaf home to their nest via wide, clear-cut paths that their tiny feet had worn through the forest floor. Each ant carried leaf pieces much bigger than itself, sometimes with one or more small "inspector" ants riding on the leaf. The ants cultivate fungus in their nest, and bring back the leaves to help to fertilize it. The inspectors make sure that the pieces of leaf being brought back are of the right type and won’t contaminate the fungus. We followed the trail of ants back to the nest and were amazed at the size of it. As we walked along the ant mound we had visions of falling through into their massive underground network of chambers (and finding ourselves before their 8 foot tall queen – ok, so maybe the peccary scare had set my imagination running wild…) It was amazing, though, that this huge structure existed just steps away from the lodge grounds. Felipe and I took pictures and videos of the ants as they worked away. After that, we went back to the room and took showers. The river water was refreshingly cool after our morning of hiking. We popped the cork out of last night’s wine bottle and each had a glass, accompanied by an “oatmeal chewie” bar which was left over from one of our flights. Feeling sufficiently relaxed, Craig and I sat in the hammocks in the common area. Ñame came over and asked if we wanted to fish for piranha (!!) with him off of the dock. I have never been fishing in my life (a fact that Craig can never seem to get over, somehow). Craig and his brother used to fish near our house when they were young. This sounded like a fun opportunity for me to give it a try. When Felipe and Arturo are around, Ñame defers to them and doesn't really speak much. It was nice to have some one-on-one time with him. Ñame told us his Castillian name is David. He was carrying a butcher knife, some scraps of meat from the kitchen, and two fishing poles made of branches with fishing line and a hook attached. We walked down to the dock and sat in a dugout canoe that was parked there. Ñame baited our hooks and we put them into the water. Almost immediately piranha started to take the bait. They were very strong and pulled hard against the line. However, they were very good at stealing the bait without getting hooked, which led us to joke that we were "feeding the piranhas" rather than fishing for them. We could never really see them through the silty water, though. After a little while I actually caught a fish! It wasn't a piranha (Ñame called it a “sardina” - but at around 6 to 8 inches it was much bigger than what we typically consider sardines to be). I was very proud of myself for my first catch ever. We joked that unlike Anthony Bourdain in any fishing scenes on his shows, I didn't need a "stunt fish" - I had actually caught one. Ñame unhooked it for me and tossed it back into the river. We continued fishing until our bait was gone, and Ñame even took a turn to see if he could show us a piranha, but it was not to be. As we sat there, a boatful of tourists pulled up to the dock, returning to the lodge. A local boy got their attention and jumped into the river from high up in a tree whch had fallen across the river, hoping for tips from the tourists. Afterwards, we walked back up the wooden steps up to the clearing. We went to the common building and Craig made a cup of tea. We sat in the hammocks. Ñame brought us some pineapple and Arturo brought us some chocolate. They were spoiling us! Felipe told us that they had made "a plan" - we would go on a cayman watch and an insect walk after dinner. For dinner we had thin steak, salad, avocado, rice, and cheesy mashed potatoes. Dessert was a tree tomato. We had drunk its juice before and liked it just fine, but this presentation was very sour and I couldn't finish it. After dinner, at around 8 o'clock, we grabbed our backpacks and headed to one of the lodge's motorized canoes. We went upriver in the dark with just a spotlight to light our way. We were looking for eyes glowing in the spotlight that they shone on the surface of the water. They found a cayman and Ñame said he wanted us to be able to get a photo of him holding it, but it disappeared into the water. That was ok, we hads seen one up close during daylight yesterday. Then the boat took us a little farther upstream and let us out at a trailhead so that we could walk back to the lodge in the dark while observing insects. As the motor boat disappeared into the darkness and its sound was obscured by the sounds of the jungle, we experienced a feeling of isolation. We were on our own to walk back to the lodge; it wasn't a far distance, but we were in the jungle, and anything could happen. We were ready for an adventure. We stopped to look at insects along the way: grasshopper, praying mantis, spiders, crickets...they were everywhere. The guys were eagle-eyed and could spot any insect instantly. They lit the insects up with flashlights so that we could photograph them. Felipe was taking as many photos as I was. Craig spotted a spider. We passed a tree with a hole in the trunk about 6 feet up and inside was a large frog. Very cool. He was paralyzed in the spotlight but the instant they took the light off of him he disappeared into his hollow. We saw spider webs and a large black scorpion. We wouldn't want to be stuck here in the dark without a flashlight; there was plenty of danger lurking everywhere. We came to a bridge made of a single thin log that we needed to walk across. There was another log nailed up as a hand rail, which made crossing a lot easier. Craig and I wondered if it could even support our weight. He went first and was successful, and I followed. We both managed to cross safely. A bit later we came to another bridge which was a wider flat-topped log, and much less intimidating to me. After two hours of hiking we emerged from the jungle directly behind our dormitory. Shiripuno certainly does have a nice network of trails. Felipe and Arturo pointed out a hole in the ground where there was a very large spider inside. It seemed there were creepy crawlies everywhere. When we went back into our room, we realized that we hadn't rinsed out our wine glasses after this afternoon's drinks. There were now HUGE cockroaches inside the glasses. One was on its back with its legs sticking straight up in the air'. It looked like a cliche. Another cockroach was sitting on my toiletry kit, on the same shelf as the glasses. I'm not normally squeamish about cockroaches. I know they're a fact of life in climates like these. But to see it on my toiletries, where I kept my toothbrush, etc. really freaked me out a little bit. It was an indication of how truly wild this place is, as if nature is lying in wait to reclaim any vain attempts at civilization. Craig disposed of the roaches outside and rinsed out the glasses. Thank god for bed nets, as the head of my bed was inches away from the shelf where these cockroaches were found. We went to bed at around 10:30, and, grateful for my mosquito netting, I tried not to think about all of the creepy crawlies that surrounded us. View Larger Map |
          
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