|
It was five days four nights in the Jungle. The first day started at 10 am. About five miles north of Tena, Ecuador, across the first stream of water and into the jungle. It took about two hours to get to base camp where there was a two story hut. Very nice, and since I was the only one on this adventure, I had the place to my self.
In '94 I was in a very nasty wreck in my eighteen wheeler that caused problems for me years later, One being in my neck and back and from time to time I get really dizzy and it makes me quite sick, it can last for hours and then I am all right for days or months. Well I was okay until that night, just as I was sitting down to eat a hot meal it hit me and I had to leave and go to my bed. After everything I had eaten for the last two days came out, I hit the bed and went to sleep. The next day I felt great and ready to take on the jungle.
After a hearty breakfast we took off for a four-hour hike, along the way we stopped off at a swimming hole and spent two refreshing hours playing in the water, and then went back to camp. The only thing about this trip that disappointed me was the lack of wildlife. The time I was there the only thing I saw was a handful of birds, a spider that looked like a cotton ball (very bad), lots of ants, and I could hear some monkeys and a toucan from time to time. I did not see anything for the five days I was there and this is the jungle man.
After my first real hike in the jungle off the beaten path I found out how hard it really is to stay on your feet and in my wreck I severely damaged my right leg and I can't always make it do what I want it to do. It would find every vine, stump and hole. For hours and hours I'd slip and slide and the helper behind me was just walking along like it was a Sunday in the Mall back home. And crossing a river, forget it, well later I made a five foot walking stick and that helped a lot.
After a very good meal and toasting bananas on an open fire with butter, a good night sleep and we went out for day three. We went to a nice waterfall standing about 150 ft. It took about three hours to get there and I was doing fine up to that point, then we were going to find a camp site for the next two nights in the bush. Let me tell you, around here you don't zig zag your way up the mountain, you go straight up, and the guide uses a machete to cut our way. The next three hours were the most horrifying, You have to almost get on your hands and knees and find anything you can to drag your half limp body up the mountain, and the guide had about 30 lbs. on his back and was doing all this.
Well I made it to the top and no sooner then we made it, my guide and his helper started to cut down every tree in a ten foot radius around us and they cut them knee high. To get water for cooking they had to go back down to the river to get it 3 times. I didn't say that we HAD to came on top of the mountain so…I spent the next two nights on some of the hardest and most uncomfortable ground I've never tried to sleep on but they would fall asleep the second their head hit the ground.
Our last day we spent walking back to base camp, all down hill and with my bad foot it was not easy, I could not put my heel of my foot into the mud I could not stop sliding down the hill. Well after working at it for several hours we made it to flat ground and back to the hut. We spent about an hour at camp cleaning up and enjoyed some sun and then we were off again. After two hours on the hike out we sat on the side of the road and waited for a bus.
It was a great trip and I learned a lot and I'm sure my next jungle trip will be better.
That's all -Phoenix