Ecuadorian buses are prone to turning up an hour either side of their scheduled time, particularly in the rainforest. Nevertheless, we sleepily boarded the bus with all our belongings and food for the weekend at 5am. The journey was initially a very bumpy ride through the rainforest on the road mentioned in the last blog. It was great to pass the many small villages, with latino music playing in the bus and the many hoots of the bus as entering the villages. The buses in and out of the rainforest areas are packed, even more so with 25 gringo´s and hot and sweaty! After 2 hours the road became tarmac more smooth as we passed larger towns between forested areas. If I remember rightly the journey to Coca took 4 hours in total. We had a few hours in Coca, a large oil industry town, needless to say the wealth of the oil does not appear to be entering the pockets of the locals.
We then met Hector, our host for the weekend. We all boarded a motorised canoe and which took us an hour along the Napo river to his island of 115 hectares. From the island´s main entrance steps you could see the flame of the nearby oil extraction burning off the gasses 24 hours a day which was really surreal whilst sitting watching a beautiful sunset over the Napo with a back drop of rainforest.
In his early years as an anthropologist he had made trouble for the emerging oil companies in his province. He had learnt the finer details of the legalities of the extraction and how the mitigations for the environment and the surrounding communities, both of which were not being carried out in full. He fought for the rights of local people as he could speak their native language and although he was influential the big oil companies eventually got the better of he and his coworkers and they were scentenced to 2 years imprisonmnent. From what I understood, he fled and lived with native tribes in the forest for those 2 years and on returning he decided to focus on his own life and eventually bought the island and set up a charity. The island has become a release site for 7 endangered species of monkey. He also has a school on the island for children who would otherwise not have an education. He also works towards protecting the 10 existing indigeonous groups in the ecuadorian forest. If you wish to know more about his work see; www.sumakallpa.org
Whilst on the island we helped Hector make some clearamces in the forest and planted some mahogony saplings. Now that is a species I have never planted before! In exchange Hector took us out for walks around the island, explaining the fruits which have been tradionally eaten in the rainforest, showing us the varied bird and monkeys and often rousing the latter by imitating the call of another male. He also showed us how to use a blowpipe and spear and we practised on a target - an orange on a post. Hilarious.
Island life was cool for the few days, although river washes do not really get you clean and my bikini has changed colour forever! I didnt sleep that well either as the second night in the jungle hammock (which I was now getting used to) there was a massive storm which went on for hours and Hector claimed had been the worst for 17 years. If you haven´t guess already....the hammock leeked and after one and a half hours of waiting for the storm to calm I abandoned ship, well hammock with an inch of water around my backside!
Mostly lit be lightening, I gathered my belongings and ran to the kitchen hut where I found another wet volunteer. I got into dry clothes and slept on the kitchen bench, wrapped up in a mostly dry sleeping bag as I hadnt needed it in the hammock. When I say wrapped up, I mean it literally. I did not want to let the mozzies dine out on me for the rest of the night! In the morning we realised there were loads of others who had jumped ship in the night who were scattered around the place. That following night, the Jungle Frog was bellowing out again which Hector claims is a sign of rain. Well the Jungle frog was right, there was more rain that night too but not as bad and I had chosen to sleep on the kitchen table anyway!
Anyhow this was meant to be brief, so for now goodbye and I will get back to you with the Quito adventures soon x
We then met Hector, our host for the weekend. We all boarded a motorised canoe and which took us an hour along the Napo river to his island of 115 hectares. From the island´s main entrance steps you could see the flame of the nearby oil extraction burning off the gasses 24 hours a day which was really surreal whilst sitting watching a beautiful sunset over the Napo with a back drop of rainforest.
In his early years as an anthropologist he had made trouble for the emerging oil companies in his province. He had learnt the finer details of the legalities of the extraction and how the mitigations for the environment and the surrounding communities, both of which were not being carried out in full. He fought for the rights of local people as he could speak their native language and although he was influential the big oil companies eventually got the better of he and his coworkers and they were scentenced to 2 years imprisonmnent. From what I understood, he fled and lived with native tribes in the forest for those 2 years and on returning he decided to focus on his own life and eventually bought the island and set up a charity. The island has become a release site for 7 endangered species of monkey. He also has a school on the island for children who would otherwise not have an education. He also works towards protecting the 10 existing indigeonous groups in the ecuadorian forest. If you wish to know more about his work see; www.sumakallpa.org
Whilst on the island we helped Hector make some clearamces in the forest and planted some mahogony saplings. Now that is a species I have never planted before! In exchange Hector took us out for walks around the island, explaining the fruits which have been tradionally eaten in the rainforest, showing us the varied bird and monkeys and often rousing the latter by imitating the call of another male. He also showed us how to use a blowpipe and spear and we practised on a target - an orange on a post. Hilarious.
Island life was cool for the few days, although river washes do not really get you clean and my bikini has changed colour forever! I didnt sleep that well either as the second night in the jungle hammock (which I was now getting used to) there was a massive storm which went on for hours and Hector claimed had been the worst for 17 years. If you haven´t guess already....the hammock leeked and after one and a half hours of waiting for the storm to calm I abandoned ship, well hammock with an inch of water around my backside!
Mostly lit be lightening, I gathered my belongings and ran to the kitchen hut where I found another wet volunteer. I got into dry clothes and slept on the kitchen bench, wrapped up in a mostly dry sleeping bag as I hadnt needed it in the hammock. When I say wrapped up, I mean it literally. I did not want to let the mozzies dine out on me for the rest of the night! In the morning we realised there were loads of others who had jumped ship in the night who were scattered around the place. That following night, the Jungle Frog was bellowing out again which Hector claims is a sign of rain. Well the Jungle frog was right, there was more rain that night too but not as bad and I had chosen to sleep on the kitchen table anyway!
Anyhow this was meant to be brief, so for now goodbye and I will get back to you with the Quito adventures soon x
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