Stonehill Montana with the boys .... again!

 With her shoulder injury nearly recovered, Janice was psyched to get down to Stonehill Montana and do some early season rock climbing. Dragging Jason kicking and screaming, they headed down to Eureka, Montana with Chris, Chris, Andrew, and Marko. 

The weather was great, the home cooked food was delicious and came in gigantic proportions, and company from old and new found friends was the perfect weekend break.

Thanks to the boys for a great weekend out! 

Puenting (bridge jumping)

Our Ecuadorian friend Jose has a bridge jumping business as part of Afuera (an outdoor film company), so of course we went with Vivian to take in this interesting local sport.


Janice was scared so Jose devised a system where Janice and Jason could rappell down from the bridge so that the fall was shorter. Stay tuned for Janice´s video.

After watching Janice and Jason jump, Vivian decided to also took part in the adventures that day. Our friend Jose was so excited that she broke the record for oldest person to jump! He made a video as a tribute to her bravery.

Vilcabamba

Stay tuned

Cuenca

Designated a Unesco World Heritage Site, we weren´t sure what all the fuss was about. The old architecture is beautiful and we loved the potable tap water, but perhaps we missed something.

To give Vivian the full backpackers experience, Jason and Vivian picked a $6 a night hostel in downtown Cuenca (Janice was not involved in the selection process). Although the views were nice and the people were really friendly, it was obvious why it was only $6 a night. However, Vivian enjoyed the novelty of the whole experience and could handle it for the few days that we were there.

While in Cuenca we took a day trip to Incapirica, one of the largest Inca ruins in Ecuador. Although much smaller than the ruins in Peru, we thought Vivian might like to see remmants of the ancient civilization. Although the Incas were only in Ecuador for less than 100 years before the Spanish arrived, the still managed to make their mark on the people here.

Yarina Eco Lodge, Ecuador

   

We booked a four day tour at Yarina Ecolodge in the jungles of Ecuador with Jason´s mother. Expecting budget accommodation and hordes of mosquitoes we were pleasantly surprised to have hot water, comfy beds, gorgeous bungalows and only a handful of bites. 

Day 1

Can you find the frog?

After doing a lot on our own, it was nice to be picked up from the airport by the tour company. We then took a scenic boat ride to our jungle lodge and were treated to the sight of 50 of more monkeys eating and jumping from tree to tree. They were the first of many amazon animals that we would see. It was very hot and humid, but not as bad as we thought it might be. When we arrived there was no one else there, amazingly we had the whole place to ourselves as they are not very busy during the rainy season. After lunch we went on our first jungle walk and saw many different amazing things: carpenter/leaf cutting ants, a tarantala, frogs, toads, insects, the list goes on. 

Our guide also asked us if we wanted to try lemon ants; ants that live in a tree that is acidic and thus drops acidic leaves on the ground around it so that other plants will not grow underneath of it. We were shocked to see Jason´s mom lick the ants into her mouth without hesitation! After witnessing this, we had to try some as well! Days later, we found out that she did that because she could not see the ants without her glasses on!

After sunset we took an evening boat ride to look for caiman (alligators). Unfortunately all we saw was a pair of eyes glowing orange-red in our flashlights. Although we didn´t see one swimming next to our boat, we were ok with that. We did end up seeing fireflies and luminescent larve in the lake; floating like stars on an inky black sky around the boat. 

Day 2
We awoke early to the load raucous noise of howler monkeys proclaiming the territory and a multitude of birds that arose with the morning sun. After trying to sleep through loud cicadas, frogs and toads, and other creatures of the night, we were a little groggy to say the least. However, we were glad we didn´t sleep with ear plugs so we could listen and experience the night and morning sounds of the jungle. 

That morning we headed out for another jungle walk. This time, we tried some tasty sweet fruit that had the consistency of phlegm with bitter seeds; perhaps that is how it propagates as most of us spit out the seeds as we walked. At the end of our walk we arrived at a bird watching tower on the edge of the lake. Climbing up 15 meters we saw grazing capybaras, swimming and basking turtles and of course lots of birds. See our photo album for pictures! We started to understand why people birdwatch, especially in a place like the amazon with so many interesting and beautifully colored birds. It was fascinating to be able to match and identify the birds with the guidebook. Of course we had help, but it was still a lot of fun. On the way home we spotted more wildlife, a huge caiman iguana sleeping in a tree.

For our afternoon activity we went piranah fishing, although we ended up donating as much meat as we got back in fish. We caught five different types of fish including piranah, catfish, little blowfish, and more. We realized that advanced fishing equipment makes a big difference as we just used a single prong hook, no weights and no reel. However, maybe they didn´t want us to catch to many fish so quickly..... It was a lot of fun, but we were glad we didn´t have to fish for our supper, although the catfish was very tasty.


That evening we went for a walk in the amazon after dark as many species are nocturnal. We saw crickets as big as Jason´s thumb in a myriad of different colors and shapes, various tarantulas, lots of spiders, colorful butterflies and moths, as well as two tiny snakes (we were happy just seeing baby snakes). Our pictures are ok, but now we understand just how difficult it is to take night shots of insects without a tripod and constantly being careful not to touch any dangerous insects/plants/snakes/etc! We all really enjoyed the night walk and all the interesting and colorful insects. The amazon is filled with a lot more insect activity at night!


Day 3
Overnight we awoke many times to what sounded like someone pouring buckets of water on the roof. Luckily, the rain tapered off for our morning activity, but we were amazed at how much the river had risen, before there had been eight steps from the dock to the river, now there was only two!


In the morning we went to visit an indigenous family. They grew many types of plants: coca beans, papaya, bananas, platanos, and a myriad of medicinal plants. As per usual we had snacks with our morning activity: roasted ripe platanos, white coca beans, fish baked in leaves and a squirming insect larva roasted live on the fire. Vivian eagerly munched her portion while, as per usual Jason and Janice timidly nibbled on theirs. It wasn´t too bad though, it kind of tasted like roasted pork skin ..... interesting!

In the afternoon we went to look at the old bird watching tower that fell down. It´s too bad it fell as the view would have been incredible! We ran into a pack of red howler monkeys, which was very lucky as they don´t move often and thus are rarely seen in the wild. We were also lucky that the red howlers did not sense any aggresion from us as they are famous for throwing their feces and urine at anyone who gets too close! 


Our guide demonstrated hot to make a trap for catching live birds and animals. Then Jason gave it a try and he caught a stick! Alive!


When we returned we were amazed to see that the river had gotten even higher! When we first arrived there were 8 steps up to the dock but at that moment none of the stairs were visible! The river had risen about 1.5 meters in less than twenty-four hours! Now that is a rainy season!

That night we just talked in the dining hall for our evening activity. However, we enjoyed looking at the nocturnal insects so much we asked our guide to help us find ones around our cabanas. What a mistake for Vivian, we found tarantula nests under every cabana! Although these ones have a fairly harmless bite and don´t bite unless provoked, it still made Vivian nervous to sleep alone that night. At this point, Jason and Janice were pretty used to seeing tarantulas and slept peacefully through the loud jungle night.
Day 4 
We were all sad our amazon adventure was coming to an end. Our last activity was a combo boat and walking tour. With water levels even higher than yesterday, piles of fallen tress and debris, and fast currents, navigation involved a lot of ducking and tight maneuvers. Although we all got thoroughly soaked and waded through muddy water just and inch below the tops of our boots we had a lot of fun splashing through the warm amazon rain.

Want to find out info about the lodge? Click here

Travelling with Jason´s Mom

We went to pick up Jason´s mother Vivian from the airport on March 31st. The plan is to travel through Ecuador with her for the next two and half weeks. Stay tuned for adventures with Vivian!

Quito, Ecuador

After stumbling our way through Spanish for the last four months, we decided it was time for more lessons. We moved in with our friend Jose and his mother, which was a welcome change from hostel life. 


Our two weeks of lessons at Vida Verde were really good and for us things are not only in the present, now we can talk about things in the past and future! Maybe one day we will be able to read the paper .........