The Amazon in Words

My last days in Ecuador are upon me and I certainly feel a mix of excitement for return and sadness for leaving great adventures behind. It has been the great adventures that have kept me from posting with frequency and regularity.

Tuesday night was Ami's last night in Ecuador and we had an amazing dinner in Mariscal (the newer part of Quito). The food was delicious, the conversation was long and deep, and the bill was higher than any we've had in Ecuador! But we left happy that we had at least dined in elegance in Ecuador, where it costs about 1/3 of what it would cost in the US. We also left amazed at the experiences we have shared together in this short time.

We watched our first surgery together: a laproscopic cholecystectomy at Hospital Milital with Dr. Cadena's brother...the other Dr. Cadena. Both of them are phenomenal doctors; they share a kindness in their eyes and a professional, yet personal bedside demeanor that puts patients at ease. We were accompanied by 3 third year medical students, and we were really impressed by their attitudes. They were very humble, pleasant, and accepting; very chill and very helpful. Quite different from the stereotypical stressed third yr student in the US who has a prominent superiority complex.

We started our Amazon adventure the day after the surgery. The Amazon is really what has kept me from the blog...surprise, surprise - there are no internet cafe's in the Amazon. But there is an amazing assortment of wonders to keep one from even thinking about a computer.

From the Amazon, I wish I could bring back the stars as they lit up the night sky. Our canoe ride back from a "night hike" through the jungle has to be my favorite part of the trip because we drifted down the Amazon River and stared at the spectacle of the night sky. The stars were amazingly numerous and bright and the sky was crystal clear. The more we looked into the darkness, the brighter it became.
Ami and Kenny saw the same shooting star and were too speechless to make a wish. I remembered all the people in my life and made a wish for each one.

My second favorite Amazon adventure was swimming in the Cuyabeno River (which eventually feeds into the Amazon River). The water was warm and soft, and our tour guide assured us that the piranhas, cayman, anacondas, and giant fish did not swim in this part of the river. I was the first to jump off the boat, after the guide of course.

We walked through the jungle for 4 hrs on the first full day we were there. Ami was a real sport during this time because we were romping through mud and balancing on logs as we walked through water-filled areas of the forest.

I caught an anaconda, we saw baby cayman (two of them), an anaconda, a giant grasshopper, a tarantula, squirrel monkeys as they jumped from tree to tree and ate fruit, black sacky monkeys as they lounged lazily on trees, marching wasps, lots and lots of insects, parrots, and prehistorical turkey birds.

We also saw a different kind of animal while in the jungle - the machismo man. Our tour guide was a perfect case study of the machismo culture among Latino men. Although I am no expert, I have come to know the idea: a macho man who is all talk and no follow through. These are also the kind of men who beat and abuse their wives.
Our tour guide, whom Ami and I affectionately named Pendejo, kept promising us that he was going to show us "the most amazing thing ever," and was not able to find any animals in the end. He found some insects and showed us a cool Sable tree, but we only saw an anaconda because we followed another group, Kenny spotted the monkeys, Ami found the snake, and I caught the piranha. Our guide was busy preying on some other things during the tour...

I'm writing as we watch the Mexico vs. France World Cup game at Archie's, an Italian restaurant in Plaza de las Americas. France is losing by two points and I am eating pizza with extra Parmesan cheese - two things a French friend we made in the Amazon would not be happy about. She was awesome - she had been traveling Latin America for 4 months and she is the first French person I have met who does not like cheese - heresy!

Our tour group in the Amazon was great: we had a 20 yr-old German girl, a 21 yr-old 1/2 Columbian & 1/2 "American" guy, our French friend (28), Ami, Kenny, and me.

A great experience.