Sunday (10-19-2008). Bonus rainforest adventure. Yankuam to Zamora. Back to Loja.

Instead of heading out early, we got bonus rainforest time because a group of Chinese students (some guests who had arrived later in the night) were taking a tour until 2 pm. So after another hearty breakfast complete with rainforest grown fruits, yogurt, granola, coffee and an omelet-- Carlos guided us to Cascada del Vino a waterfall with red waters.

He stopped along the way to show us some medicinal plants and let us sample sour sugar, very much like a bitter sugar cane that is apparently good for the intestines.

He left us alone with the machete and headed back. We spent our afternoon hanging out at the waterfall and then machete in hand headed back during a partial downpour.


We stopped to take another swim at a Black Lagoon—with very dark waters as a result of decomposing plants at the bottom. It’s also apparently rich in minerals and amazing for the skin.

I was a lot more timid about climbing into the cold murky waters than Ryan. By the time I had a toe in, he was already scaling a small waterfall.

And seconds after stepping in, I felt something pierce my skin. When I lifted my foot out of the water to investigate, a very sharp stick was jutting straight out of it. At first I was amazed that there was no blood, until I discovered that this was only because a large chunk of wood, splintered deeply in was damming it. This didn’t stop me from joining Ryan on the waterfall.

Later, I ended up performing minor surgery on myself when we returned. It didn’t hurt half as much then as it does now (might temporarily deter our mountain hiking plans). So, I didn’t escape the Amazons completely unscathed, but in a Malaria, yellow fever and dengue zone—if this is the least of my worries than I am not in bad shape. They didn’t even have us fill out a waiver before we entered the jungles. Very surprising given the hazards.

Carlos drove us to a bus stop in Zamora in his pickup truck and on the shaky road back we passed numerous indigenous and campo communities. Several times, Carlos stopped to let Shuar women with their babies bundled across their chests and their small children into the back of his pickup truck. He also, stopped by several of their homes to pick up supplies for the restaurant at Cabinas Yankuam . On one of the stops, I took this picture:

We dropped off a Shuar woman and her children just in time to see and touch a live Anaconda that several Shuar men had captured. Ryan and I gathered around with the villagers to watch it. Apparently they plan on transporting it in a wooden box via bus to Zamora where they plan on selling it for $200 to the local tourists board. You never know what’s aboard the busses in Ecuador.


From Zamora, we rode home and were exhausted enough to crash almost immediately. Thus concluded our rainforest adventure.