My Last Week in the Amazon

Happy Spring Equinox to those in the Northern Hemisphere, whereas today marks the beginning of 'winter', or the rainy season in Ecuador.  Today I write from Tena, Ecuador, as I wait for the bus to take me south to Ambato and on to Cuenca where I will spend the weekend with friends before taking the plunge into Peru on Tuesday.  I had a great last week at Jatun Sacha, made all the more special by the arrival of some new volunteers from Germany and South Africa.  Our first act as new friends last weekend was to go in search of the Cascadas de Latas, a nice sized waterfall outside the nearby town of Misahuallí.  After a 40 minute walk, we were the first ones to arrive at the falls, and got to rinse off the sweat we made on the way to the falls.  On the way back, it was as if the falls were following us, as the rain came fast and hard, not stopping until after we made it back to the reserve.

On one of the many rainy days this week, we took on the project of preparing cacao beans to make chocolate!  The beans had been drying for a couple weeks (slightly neglected, but plenty dry), and the first step is to toast the beans so that the outer shell is easier to remove.  After peeling all the beans, we fastened a grinder to one of the dining tables and passed the beans through three times to make a fine powder.  Then we were ready to make chocolate!  At this point there is plenty of room for experimentation, in terms of how much milk or sugar you want, and if you'd like to add anything extra, such as essence of cinnamon or ginger. After heating the mixture on a stove, we poured it into a baking pan and put it in the fridge to cool and solidify.  Though we had plenty of room for improvement, it's hard to go wrong with chocolate!

On Wednesday, we were fortunate to spend the first half of the day walking through the reserve with 'Gato', a staff member of Jatun Sacha.  We saw all sorts of birds and insects, as well as a vine that when properly prepared provides a potent poison for deadly darts.  Above, a giant complex home to leaf-cutter ants spreads out beneath a tree.  The ants bring leaves to their palace to use to cultivate mushrooms - their main source of food.  When areas of the structure become abandoned, bees or rainbow boas are known to take advantage and move in.  

For the second half of the day on Wednesday, we took a bus and then a motorized canoe to visit a nearby animal rehabilitation center.  The center receives injured or 'problem' animals from the government, and will either give them enough care to release them into the wild, or if they are too acclimated to humans to survive in the wild, the center provides them with a more natural habitat and incorporates them into tours to educate locals and tourists on the dangers of taking in wild animals as exotic pets.  The pictures you see here are spider monkey, macaw parrot, caiman (related to alligators and crocodiles), capybara (the world's largest rodent), toucan, ocelot, and tapir.  

 Twice this week, volunteers wanted to take a sunrise trip to our observation tower, and I tagged along both times.  It is an amazing feeling to look over the top of the canopy of the Amazon, and even better to share it with friends!

 The last two work days were spent doing some cleaning in and around the botanical garden, interspersed with plenty of breaks due to downpours.  Today we found the perfect tree to take a break, it was practically begging for us to nap on it!

 I have had a wonderful month working at Jatun Sacha, but am looking forward to my next adventure to get to Cuzco.  I will be on the road pretty much every day for the next week, hopefully making it to Cuzco around April 1st.  From there I will drop back down into the Amazon basin for 2.5 weeks volunteering on a family farm with similar crops to what I have seen so far in Ecuador.  Next time you hear from me will be from Cuzco!