After a fun-filled week in Quito we decided it was time to make our way into the jungle.  After spending a day preparing for the trip, we hopped on a bus to Coca.  The bus left late in the evening and arrived around 5:00am, which is usually too early to find a place to sleep so we chilled/napped at the bus terminal for a couple of hours.  After the sun was up and things started moving outside we grabbed a cab to Hotel Florida ($12) near the river.  It was without a doubt the filthiest place we've stayed yet, but it was at least a place to take a nap, shower and keep our stuff while we wandered around town looking for options to get to Nuevo Rocafuerte (NR).  Coca is quite large and busy, and definitely not a tourist destination.  We eventually found a couple of tourist offices and asked for information about tours and/or boats heading down the river.  Tours into Yasuni National Park are expensive ($300 per person for 3 days) so we quickly ruled that out and decided to see if we could find a more affordable guide ourselves once we arrived in NR.  We found that there was a boat through one of the transportation co-ops by the port due to head to NR the next morning (perfect!) and was only $15 each (though we later saw that some of the locals had paid as little as $4 each... we'd been Gringo’d again… but what can ya do).

Right after talking with the tourist office and buying our boat tickets, we decided to head back to the hotel and rest.  We had just started down the street when a creepy looking guy on a motorcycle, who had been parked on a curb beside the tourist office, started his motor and began following very closely behind us.  When I looked back it was super obvious that he had his sights set on us (though, as usual, we weren't carrying anything valuable along with us - just a small backpack with our Lonely Planet and Mandrew's slimy handkerchiefs).  Before long, we noticed a little shop across the street with two big guys stocking the display, and we quickly crossed to duck inside.  We pretended to look around for a few minutes but when we looked outside he was still there, staring at us maliciously.  I smiled back as if to say “ok, we are on to you, it’s not going to happen so move on!” but he just stared back.  I went back inside and told the store guys what was going on - they agreed we should stay in the store, and found us a place to wait where we couldn’t be seen from the street.  We ended up having to wait over 20 minutes before the guy finally gave up!  It was brutal how obvious he was - what the hell was his game?  The storeowner said he was shocked by it, especially in this part of town, but we had been feeling a bit of an unfriendly vibe since we arrived.  For the rest of the day we left the backpack at the hotel and stuck to busy streets.

The next morning at 7:00am we departed on a CRAZY packed lancha (like a really big canoe) to NR.  We were told the trip would take 10 hours, so we arrived early and scored some seats near the front of the boat, maybe better for sightseeing.  At first there weren’t too many people or things aboard, but as we waited to depart we realized that the massive crowd of people on the street above, as well as the mountain of stuff piled on the dock, was meant for our boat.  To say the very least, it was insanely packed!  And the boat wasn’t all that big.  There were probably 30 or 40 women with newborn babies scattered in the crowd as well, and it seemed that no matter where you looked there was someone breastfeeding openly.  

Yes they are real, and we have seen them!  There is a story for the more manly in here too, don't worry.  It involves criminals and crocodiles... !

During our trip along the Rio Napo from Coca to Iquitos our first stop was in a tiny town called Nuevo Rocafuerte, the place to find a local guide to take you on a trip into Yasuni National Park (without having to pay the crazy prices quoted by travel agencies in Coca).

We met Roni Cox while walking around Nuevo Rocafuerte (NR) after only ten minutes.  He pulled his motorcycle over to us and asked (in Spanish, of course) if we wanted a guide (himself) to Yasuni National Park.  While that is exactly what we were looking for and he seemed super cool, we weren’t too quick to accept.  We had been reading a few too many horror stories about people going into the jungle with fake “guides” who essentially take people down the river to their friend’s place and rob and/or murder them.  I don’t think any of these stories came directly from NR, but after the weirdo motorbike robber encounter in Coca, we've been a bit more on our toes.  We told him that we were actually looking for Frederico (a guide that a Park Ranger recommended to us) but we would consider his offer and come by his house later that day to let him know.  We knew that there was a College in town (down the only street) that trains guides so we went there and asked if they knew Roni.  They sure did and said that he was great. 

Within a few hours we managed to meet a couple of solo travellers, María-José from Chile and Rodrigo from Argentina, who were also looking to go into the park and after some consideration the four of us decided to go for it!

Roni turned out to be a great guide, very enthusiastic and funny.  The four of us had a blast riding in the smaller lancha (boat with outboard motor) through the Yasuni River and into a large lagoon called Jatuncocha (Quecha for "large lake").  We spent 3 days and 2 nights in the park, hiking for a few hours each day, learning about the plants and birds, watching the pink river dolphins breaching in the river (SO COOL!!), and fishing for piranhas before dark.  After eating dinner and playing a couple rounds of cards (ninety-nine, or noventa y nueve en Español), we took the lancha out to do some caiman watching!  We really didn’t have too much chill time, always on the go and keeping watch for some rare creatures!  Mandrew had a great time snapping photos of birds as we passed by - he said it was a lot like the video game "Pokemon Snap" or something ... On the last day we did end up seeing the giant river otters, which was a great bonus! 

When we got back to NR we parted ways with María-José and Rodrigo, sadly as they were a lot of fun, and started looking into plans to get further down the river, eventually to Iquitos in Peru which we have been told can take anywhere from 3-11 days on a barca (cargo boat).  We had been hearing rumours that there would be one leaving from Pantoja (the first small town on the Peruvian side of the border) on Saturday or Sunday (it was Wednesday at this point).  It's always a bit hard to tell with this kind of info in these small, isolated towns - we actually thought near the end that we may have somehow started this rumour ourselves - so really weren’t too confident.  At any rate, we'd had enough of NR and decided to make our way across the border and into Pantoja to try our luck.

Our time in Baños and Quito has been a blast, but we’ve both been experiencing some serious nature withdrawal – we need to get back into the forest!!  Well, if things go as planned, in the next few days we’ll be setting off on a serious adventure deep into the Amazon jungle.  This trip could take anywhere from one to three weeks, likely without any internet or phone access – look out for our SPOT GPS updates letting you all know we’re still alive and kicking.  =)

Our original plan was to catch a bus from Quito and head further inland, over the mountains and into the area known as “the Orient”.  There are a few parks that are supposed to be great, Yasuni National Park among them, and since oil companies have begun to work on extracting the vast reserves found under the park, we figure there may not be much of it left after a few years.  Upon reading a bit about getting into the park (quite a feat in itself), however, we found that it’s actually possible (though not always recommended) to continue along the Rio Napo all the way deep into the Peruvian jungle.  We’re not exactly sure what this kind of adventure will have in store for us, but that’s part of the fun, right??

After spending the morning doing some research online, it seems the trip will be something like the following:

• 8 to 10 hour overnight bus from Quito to Coca
• One-day by boat to Nuevo Rocafuerte at the border of Ecuador and Peru.
• Two hours by boat to cross the border to a city on the Peruvian side called Pantoja.
• Four to five days by cargo boat down the river to the town of Mazán, with a handful of loading/unloading stops along the way
• Quick jaunt on a three-wheeled motorbike across a narrow strip of land (skipping out on 13 more hours on the boat), and then a one hour boat ride to Iquitos, Peru.
• From Iquitos, the world’s biggest city without road access, we will spend some time recovering and enjoying the surrounding jungle, after which we can either fly back to civilization or travel another five days by boat to the nearest town with road access and then catch a bus.

We spent the last week or so in and around Quito, the highest city in Ecuador (at 2800 metres above sea level).  With a population of about two million it’s a reasonably large city, though the surrounding mountains squeeze it into such a long and narrow shape that it can take hours to travel from one end to another.  Despite our general dislike of large cities, we actually enjoyed a couple afternoons wandering around and taking in the sights: epic churches, interesting museums, huge parks, artisanal markets, and interesting architecture - oh, and there’s also a pub with craft beer which is a much needed change from the usual boring Ecuadorian beer.

One of the main reasons we decided to visit Quito is because a friend of mine, Michael-Anthony (usually just “M.A.”) happened to be here for an IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience... phew!) conference.  M.A. and I have shared some other interesting coincidences in the past – on my first day of work during my IAESTE internship in Vienna in 2007, I walked into the office only to find M.A. (who was also taking Mechanical Engineering at UofT) sitting at the desk beside mine.  For whatever reason, we had to travel halfway around the world to become friends, and had soon drank half the beer in Austria and formed an impromptu band with a couple other interns... some great memories.  It was nice to spend some time catching up and taking in some of the sights.  He also snuck us onto a bus tour and scored us a free lunch, helping us pose as conference attendees.  =)

The center of Quito is located about 25 km south of the actual equator, and one of the more interesting stops on the bus tour was at “la mitad del mundo” – a site marking the location (or close enough) of the actual equator.  Our tour guide eagerly demonstrated some of the phenomena associated with being on the equator, most of which M.A. and I, being rational engineers, tried to debunk.  The one that really irked us was the demonstration of water draining in a sink, with the direction changing due to the Coriolis Effect.  The demonstration showed that the same sink drained differently depending on where it was placed:  directly on the equator (draining straight down), ten feet north of the equator (draining counter-clockwise), and ten feet south of the equator (draining clockwise).  At first we were a bit baffled, but upon looking closer we noticed that the guy leading the show was totally cheating!!  Before draining the sink on the equator, the water was left for a few minutes to make sure it was completely still, but right before the demos off of the equator the water was poured from a bucket in such a way as to already get the water moving in the right direction.  Poppycock, I say!  Once the demo ended, we stepped in and were able to, by pouring from the bucket in the right way, get the water to drain the opposite way it was supposed to.  BAH.  I’m not disputing the Coriolis Effect, I’m just saying there’s no way it can make a difference over such a small scale… anyways, maybe we were taking things too seriously.

The other reason we came to Quito is its proximity to Cotopaxi National Park, about fifty kilometres south of Quito and the home of Cotopaxi, Rumiñahui, and Sincholagua volcanoes, with Cotopaxi being among the highest active volcanoes in the world.  If you’ve been keeping up with our adventures so far, you’d know that we were way overdue for a volcano hike, though the high elevation made this one a much different experience from La Concepción and Telica (Nicaragua) and Arenal (Costa Rica).

Aaaaaahhhhhh hot springs…… There is NOTHING better than a day spent soaking in natural hot water with tons of happy strangers.  Baños was a perfect contrast from the loud and dirty Montañita.  Nestled high in the Andes Mountains at 1815m above sea level, Baños is a small, very green and picturesque volcano village with about 17,000 residents, literally located in the line of lava from the highly active Tungurahua volcano.  As recently as 1999 the entire town had to evacuate as a precaution, though luckily the volcano didn’t totally blow.

We spent two nights at a very nice “eco” hotel called La Casa Verde.  It was the most expensive place we have stayed so far on our trip at $50 per night, and it was totally worth it!  After the Dengue fiasco we decided it was time for a little treat.  Not only was the place itself very nice, the people staying there were fun to chat with, they had 100’s of DVD's, and they had amazing organic vegetarian food.  I wasn’t completely ready to enjoy full meals at this point but by the time we left I was feeling so much better.

On the first day we just wandered around the town and soaked in one of the many hot springs.  It was very “tranquillo”.  And on the second day we figured we could do some white water rafting since adventure travel is one of the main attractions in Baños. 

Rafting was much more exciting than we had anticipated!  We have both been on rivers in multiple countries and for the most part have found white water rafting to be somewhat boring at times between rapids, and exciting only for 5 or 6 quick rapids.  Neither of us had flipped a raft before, though we had both fallen out a couple of times in a relatively controlled manner.  This trip was different.  From the moment we entered the river until we finished the trip an hour or two later it was non-stop action!  And not just tame rapids either, but very strong currents and large boulders that we had to ram every time even though half of the people in our raft were terrified.  They were terrified for good reason too, perhaps! 

It started out as a very high fever.  I thought I was going to freeze to death but the thermometer said I was nearly 104°F.  In the middle of the night on day two of the fever we went to the hospital.  There were two nurses telling jokes to each other in the corner who were visibly annoyed that we showed up.  They woke up the pharmacist who took some blood, told us that I didn’t have dengue and sent us home.  No investigation into what it would have been. Just told us to go away.  Later we found out that you can’t test positive for Dengue until after 6 days of fever. 

The next day I went to a different pharmacist down the street from our hostel and asked for antibiotics because I thought maybe I had an infection or something.  They gave them to me without question or explanation of any side effects or anything.  I later found out that you can get as much of anything you want from any pharmacy here – for example a guy from our Spanish classes bought 20 or more vicodin, valium, oxycotin and some other mystery drugs that are apparently stronger than all of those.  He bought them all at once and took most of them in one day.  Apparently this is one reason that a lot of people come to Montañita.

The doctor recommended that I return for monitoring in a few days, however when we did return, no one there could find any record of me ever being there so after A LOT of persuasion we got them to run some new tests that we took with us and emailed to our health insurance providers in Canada. Luckily google gave us the heads up on my symptoms and nothing suggested the dangerous type of dengue (the one where you haemorrhage and your insides turn to mush) so I just had to wait it out. 

After 12 days of fever between 101-104°F I finally awoke without a fever.  For the next three days I had random full body hive flare-ups which google alerted us was normal for the recovery stage of Dengue.  It took another few days before I was able to eat a full meal again and about two weeks before the nausea finally left (now). 

Unfortunately my opinion of Montañita is not too good, likely in part based on the fact that I felt like crap the whole time we were there.  However I did manage to attend 20 hours of Spanish lessons at Montañita Spanish School, which were very good, and we did a couple of smaller day excursions as well.  I just had to get out of the hostel we were staying in.  

I can’t blame any of you for not knowing the proper way to celebrate New Year’s Eve, because until just a few days ago we too were in the dark.  But, now having lived through the festivities in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, we feel we must share with you what is clearly the correct way to go about it.  Follow these five simple steps, and we're sure you, too, will agree.

¡Prospero Año!
Mandrew & Chelsea

As one would imagine, a reasonable amount of work needs to go into getting ready for a serious celebration like this.  On this front, I’m sure we’re all aware of the obvious: stock up on liquor, invite friends over, buy some snacks, etc.  What I will focus on, however, are the things that will transform the event from something like an afternoon tea with your grandmother to, well, something like an Ecuadorian-style New Year’s Eve celebration.  You will need to procure the following:

• Fireworks.  A ridiculous amount of fireworks.  Big ones, small ones, loud ones, bright ones – buy them all.  Buy out the entire store. 
• At least two litres of accelerant, gasoline will do the job.  If you don’t have an approved gas container, have no fear – a plastic soft drink bottle is perfect.
• A paper mache model of your favourite character.  Bonus points if you make your own.  Extra bonus points if it’s really huge or ridiculous.
• A reliable lighter … I think you know where this is going.

Alright, you’ve got everything ready nice and early, why not get out and enjoy the afternoon before the serious stuff starts?  Remember to bring along some dinero so you can buy treats from the many street vendors.  Popular choices are beer or sangria, and if you’re thinking, “but it’s too early to start drinking!” then I recommend you keep your thoughts to yourself.