I woke up at 5:50 am, 10 minutes prior to our 6 am alarm by some biorhythmic impulse I will never understand. We were out by 6:40 only to discover that we were completely gated in. We had to wake the head of the Hotel Ayamtaic to let us out. At the other end of the gate, we were greeted by Carlos, the owner of the Cabinas who drove us down a very slender dirt road, 45 minutes, past Zoonbie and other isolated villages to Cabinas Yankuam which sits in the rainforest, wedged between the road and the River Nagaritza, amidst the Cordillera del Condor mountain range.
AKA: Amazing.
We were served a delicious breakfast by Carlos and his niece and by 8:30 am, threw on boots and Deet and were on our way to the boat.
Our guides name was Asito, a 30 year old Shuar man with a machete who at one point when we were stuck in extremely shallow waters, hopped out and pushed us.
On our private tour, we boated through the rainforest, floored by the scenery.
We passed Shaime, a village of indigenous people.
This is how they do their laundry:
This is how they transport their cows:
And passed through muchos rapids!
We passed a spot where a tiger notoriously lurks, to the place where the clear Nagritza mingles with the black natural oil saturated waters of the Numpatakaime river Further we traversed by boat into the Amazons, until we docked an hour later at the start of our path towards de Labyrin de Illusions—a natural wonder carved out long ago by the ocean.
To get there, we schlepped through mud, muck and other such primordial ooze, climbed over and under and around more things than I have ever maneuvered through in my life.
Asito showed us some pretty cool things:
If you stab this tree, it actually bleeds!
The blood-like sap can be used to heal cuts.
Tarzan action!
The vine we swung on was totally natural too.
Finally we reached our destination which no photograph can really truly capture.
We climbed through moss covered rocks, formations so old that tree roots have grown around them.
We stopped at the border of Peru and had to turn back because there are still decade old active mines from a battle between Ecuador and Peru over disputed land.
Later we stopped for lunch in a clearing that overlooks the river and the mountains.
Then we were back in to boat and down the river, stopping for a swim when we entered the clear waters.
Next, we visited the Shuar people at Shaime.
The present generation’s attire consists of rubber boots, pants and t-shirts—very modernized—but previous generations sported loin cloths and tribal paints. Many of the tribes furthers out into the rainforest still do. But the Shuar, though modernized in their attire are by no means disconnected from their culture or the land. They survive entirely off of it—hunting for their food with a mix between blow-darts and guns.
Our next stop was to check out some petrified fossils on the banks of the river—apparently remnants of a volcanic eruption that took place in precambrian times.
We also saw some crazy awesome butterflies:
Then we stopped by Manto de la Virgen, a 90 foot waterfall that apparently while still pretty miraculous and gushing is at what they consider a trickle.
The entire first day we were in the rainforest, it didn’t rain once and hadn’t in nine days.
We ended our adventure by removing our muddy boots and sitting down for an amazing three course meal, followed by a cup of tea made from some rainforest root. It tasted like warmth. Ryan and I watched the rainforest fade to complete darkness and listened to the noises of the jungle. If there was a heaven, this would be a piece of mine. Our moment was only interrupted by Carlos who showed us a really awesome beetle with eyes that light up bright neon yellow.
We retired early only to discover more wildlife in our bathroom than we saw in the entire rainforest:
Frog on the toilet:
As adventurous as I like to think I am, I discovered that I definitely recoil in horror at the possibility of sharing my shower with a tarantula:
Giant cockroach! Giant!
Ryan wanted to take it out with the boots, but I was convinced that Carlos would scoop it up and place it somewhere safe in the rainforest. I was so shocked by how wrong I was that it was five dollar bet I didn’t mind forking over—it was the least I could do for Ryan’s damaged masculinity points. Carlos came and smooshed the spider and the cockroach with a broom and swept it outside.
Bugs, toad chirps and intrusive wild-life considered, beneath mosquito netting I slept well after our rainforest adventure.
Ryan captured this video of some giant ants carrying leaves:
For anybody interested:
Cabinas Yankuam is a gem of a place, geared towards eco-tourism and not remotely kitschy. It’s run by a family very passionate about the rainforest and very happy to share all kinds of interesting facts about it to their guests. It’s only open on the weekends because Carlos and his niece teach at a University in Zamora on the weekdays.
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