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Travelog part 3: Tena
Again, the images are laid out in pairs, so you might want to make your browser window nice and wide. Lots of photos, but there are even more I uploaded to Flickr but didn't put inline here.
Wednesday, July 27 (Tena): in which we get wet
The next morning we slept in, since we'd had to wake early to catch the taxi and stayed up late at the karaoke bar. Well, Britt and I slept in; Michelle was so excited about us being here that she showed up outside Rolfe and Kristen's door at 6:15am. Britt and I woke up to the sound of voices and wondered who could possibly be so rude as to chat loudly on the balcony while most sensible people were asleep. Heh. Fortunately we went back to sleep and woke up at a more sensible 7:45, had breakfast with Rolfe and Kristen, and then bought some picnic lunch ingredients before heading to Michelle and Gary's house.
Tangentially, I want to say that food in Ecuador, in general, was OMG YUM. And cheap, too - I'd say that in general, we paid half to 2/3 the price we would in the US. For our picnic we got some cut fruit of various exotic types, bread, cheese, an avocado, and mysterious pastries, by which I mean what I got when I went into a bakery and pointed randomly at things that looked good, as my Spanish was not up to more than affirming whether things were savory or sweet. (Spoiler alert: the pastries were yummy, some kind of corn cake with a fruit jam filling and chocolate glaze, and cost 30 cents each.)
On the way to Misahuallí the previous day, Gary had pointed out a trail he said was a nice hike to some waterfalls and some good swimming holes, Las Cascadas de Latas. (If you speak Spanish, you will be bemused as I was at this name, which translates as "The Waterfalls of Tin Cans". It turns out that "Lata" in this case is Quechua for a type of fish trap that was used on this river.) We'd decided to make a picnic of it, along with Gary, Michelle, and Sofia - as with the previous day, Gary's sister agreed to watch the twins. Gary had warned us to wear sandals, but mindful of my still-healing foot (I was diagnosed with a stress fracture earlier this summer) I decided on boots. Fortunately, though, I'd brought my sandals along; the trail began with a knee-deep water crossing, and so I swapped shoes and left the boots behind.
This turned out to be a smart decision, as not only were there several water crossings, but as it had rained all night (and rained for quite a bit of our hike), the entire trail was a mud-hole. All of us slipped and slid and I think nobody escaped a fall or two. Sofia demanded to be carried over the worst of it, and I secretly envied her. By the time we reached the most dramatic cascade, we were all covered in mud. But of course, there was plenty of water to wash off in, and we ate our (awesomely delicious) lunch with clean if somewhat wet hands. (In the rain.)
The return hike was mostly downhill. It turns out to be a lot harder to maintain one's balance going down a muddy trail than going up a muddy trail, and by the time we got back to the lowest water crossing we were ready to strip off our clothes and wash off in the conveniently-located swimming hole.
Back in Tena, Michelle kindly offered to launder our muddy clothes; we went back to the hotel, showered, and changed. We met again for dinner at a funky little restaurant located on a building's second-floor patio. They were out of nearly everything on the menu, including wine, but as it happened we had bought a couple of bottles at a liquor store earlier that day, and they brought out glasses and a corkscrew, and the two dishes they could make were just fine.
Thursday, July 28 (Tena): in which we get wet
As I mentioned before, Tena is known as Ecuador's whitewater rafting capital, and Gary happens to be a river guide. We had carried four 2-person inflatable kayaks with us for Gary and Michelle; it was time for their maiden voyage. Originally we had hoped to do a two-day trip, but it turned out that stretch of the river was currently being heavily dredged by a company looking for gold. Instead, Gary set up a half-day trip on the Misahuallí starting just below the town of Archidona, not far from Tena.
It's really nice, especially when paddling unfamiliar boats, to start out with a stretch of flatwater, so that one can get a feel for things. Then maybe a riffle or an easy rapid or two, before heading into the meat of the river. Alas, the Misahuallí was set up all wrong! We started right out with a bit of rock-dodging, and almost immediately hit a series of relatively challenging rapids, culminating in a sort of diversion dam where we had to zig-zag around to find the navigable chutes and not get swept over the falls. We worried about Rolfe and Kristen, who were the least experienced of us, but they made it through right-side-up, as did we all.
Of course, the waves thoroughly splashed us, and the supposedly "self bailing" inflatables quickly filled with several inches of water, which we had to sit in until we could get to the side and dump them over. On the other hand, the water made the boats heavier, which meant that instead of flipping when we accidentally chose the wrong line and went over a large rock instead of around it, we just sort of slithered over it like a big rubber snake. But we all got very, very wet. On the other other hand, we hardly noticed when it rained.
It wasn't long until the rapids ended, though, and the majority of the river was flat and scenic, for "green jungle" values of scenic. (There were big mountains out there behind us, but they were mostly shrouded in cloud.) We saw a few kingfishers swooping by, and various interesting trees and flowers, and a few curious people on the river banks.
After lunch, we took a different kind of boat trip. Gary drove us (along with Michelle and Sofia) to a ferry terminal on the Rio Napo, where we boarded a long, skinny motor canoe for the 15-minute or so ride to AmazOOnico, a wildlife rescue center in the Selva Vida preserve. This center rehabilitates jungle animals that had been (illegally) bought as pets and discarded when they outgrew their cuteness, animals confiscated by government raids on black market pet operations, and baby animals orphaned by hunters. Half of the animals at the center are not able to be released into the wild, so it functions as a kind of zoo (and has received some criticism for this), giving tours for a fee. The staff are volunteers, mostly German, who pay for the privilege of working there.
Capybara, the world's largest rodent, and a depressed woolly monkey
A toucan, and a bunch of turtles with a caiman (like a small alligator)
The center is a maze of narrow pathways among fenced-off areas and large cages, draped with the lush greenery of jungle plants. It feels very isolated, especially since the only access is by boat, from the ferry terminal where we boarded or from one of several lodges along the river. In fact, it was rather strange just getting to the ferry terminal; we turned off the main road onto a huge and gleaming divided four-lane highway, with modern streetlights arcing high above the pavement. This lasted only a couple of miles - past an "international airport" which is either not yet completed, or abandoned due to lack of traffic, depending on whom you ask - and then Gary swerved through a gap in the median into the "oncoming" lanes, just as the road petered out and the streetlights vanished. By the time the road ended at the river, it looked no different from any other rural road in the area.
After returning from AmazOOnico, we picked up our stuff at Michelle and Gary's, stopped at a liquor store for a couple of bottles of wine (since we'd drunk the ones we'd bought the day before), and then Gary drove us out into the country, to a "cabin" owned by a friend of his. It was not really a cabin, more of a rustic lodge, with a basic kitchen and large common room on the ground floor, small sleeping rooms with bunkbeds above, and a three-holer outhouse a short walk away. It also had a small resident population of cats, who demanded to be fed but shied away from being petted, and a truly awesome swimming hole out back. We ate the backpacking food we'd brought in case of an overnight hike (which we never did manage), drank wine, and frolicked in the river the next morning until Gary came to collect us.
Friday, July 29 (Tena to Papallacta): in which we get wet. Are you detecting a pattern here?
Over dinner the night before we had debated our options for the few days we had left before our Sunday morning flight out of Quito. Originally we'd planned to do another mountain climb, but one of the peaks we had considered was erupting (!) and another apparently had regulations which required hiring an expensive guide. We decided to go instead to Papallacta (or "Paparazzi", as Kristen called it once when she'd forgotten its name - we all immediately took to calling it that from then on!), a small town along the Quito-Tena road, which is famous for its hot springs. Gary and Michelle decided to give us a ride there so they could come soak in the hot pools as well. We were all for that idea, especially as Michelle, who drove, was a much more sedate driver than the taxi-driver we'd had on the way to Tena.
On the way there we stopped in Archidona to see the attractive town square and the old church, and incidentally to taste a local delicacy, fried chontacuro - the larvae of the rhinoceros beetle. Or rather, Rolfe and Britt tasted it. Kristen and I could not bring ourselves to put what was basically a slimy brown worm into our mouths, so Gary cheerfully ate our portion. (I think Rolfe took a photo - if I get a copy, I'll add it, because it was truly disgusting looking.)
Our second lunch stop, near the highway junction in Baeza, was much more appealing. The mountain rivers of the east slope of the Andes are excellent trout habitat, and every other restaurant along the road offered "trucha" cooked twenty or so ways. The restaurant Gary chose looked like a typical highway rest stop in the US, just a step or two above fast food, but it served us one of the best meals we had on our whole trip. Britt and I split a trout cooked with little slivers of red onion and tomatoes, along with "smashed bananas", or fried plantain rounds.
The town of Papallacta is right on the road, but the hot springs, along with a variety of hotels and restaurants, are several switchbacks higher along a side road that leads to the Reserva Ecologica Cayambe-Coca, a park where we plannedto hike the next day. Michelle took us to La Choza de don Wilson, an inexpensive hotel she'd stayed at some years ago (although prices had risen since) and we dropped off our bags; then we drove the rest of the way to the fancy hot springs resort about a mile up the road, and spent several hours blissfully soaking in the warm water, enjoying the last of our time with our friends.
29 photos at Flickr
Wednesday, July 27 (Tena): in which we get wet
The next morning we slept in, since we'd had to wake early to catch the taxi and stayed up late at the karaoke bar. Well, Britt and I slept in; Michelle was so excited about us being here that she showed up outside Rolfe and Kristen's door at 6:15am. Britt and I woke up to the sound of voices and wondered who could possibly be so rude as to chat loudly on the balcony while most sensible people were asleep. Heh. Fortunately we went back to sleep and woke up at a more sensible 7:45, had breakfast with Rolfe and Kristen, and then bought some picnic lunch ingredients before heading to Michelle and Gary's house.
Tangentially, I want to say that food in Ecuador, in general, was OMG YUM. And cheap, too - I'd say that in general, we paid half to 2/3 the price we would in the US. For our picnic we got some cut fruit of various exotic types, bread, cheese, an avocado, and mysterious pastries, by which I mean what I got when I went into a bakery and pointed randomly at things that looked good, as my Spanish was not up to more than affirming whether things were savory or sweet. (Spoiler alert: the pastries were yummy, some kind of corn cake with a fruit jam filling and chocolate glaze, and cost 30 cents each.)
On the way to Misahuallí the previous day, Gary had pointed out a trail he said was a nice hike to some waterfalls and some good swimming holes, Las Cascadas de Latas. (If you speak Spanish, you will be bemused as I was at this name, which translates as "The Waterfalls of Tin Cans". It turns out that "Lata" in this case is Quechua for a type of fish trap that was used on this river.) We'd decided to make a picnic of it, along with Gary, Michelle, and Sofia - as with the previous day, Gary's sister agreed to watch the twins. Gary had warned us to wear sandals, but mindful of my still-healing foot (I was diagnosed with a stress fracture earlier this summer) I decided on boots. Fortunately, though, I'd brought my sandals along; the trail began with a knee-deep water crossing, and so I swapped shoes and left the boots behind.
This turned out to be a smart decision, as not only were there several water crossings, but as it had rained all night (and rained for quite a bit of our hike), the entire trail was a mud-hole. All of us slipped and slid and I think nobody escaped a fall or two. Sofia demanded to be carried over the worst of it, and I secretly envied her. By the time we reached the most dramatic cascade, we were all covered in mud. But of course, there was plenty of water to wash off in, and we ate our (awesomely delicious) lunch with clean if somewhat wet hands. (In the rain.)
The return hike was mostly downhill. It turns out to be a lot harder to maintain one's balance going down a muddy trail than going up a muddy trail, and by the time we got back to the lowest water crossing we were ready to strip off our clothes and wash off in the conveniently-located swimming hole.
Back in Tena, Michelle kindly offered to launder our muddy clothes; we went back to the hotel, showered, and changed. We met again for dinner at a funky little restaurant located on a building's second-floor patio. They were out of nearly everything on the menu, including wine, but as it happened we had bought a couple of bottles at a liquor store earlier that day, and they brought out glasses and a corkscrew, and the two dishes they could make were just fine.
Thursday, July 28 (Tena): in which we get wet
As I mentioned before, Tena is known as Ecuador's whitewater rafting capital, and Gary happens to be a river guide. We had carried four 2-person inflatable kayaks with us for Gary and Michelle; it was time for their maiden voyage. Originally we had hoped to do a two-day trip, but it turned out that stretch of the river was currently being heavily dredged by a company looking for gold. Instead, Gary set up a half-day trip on the Misahuallí starting just below the town of Archidona, not far from Tena.
It's really nice, especially when paddling unfamiliar boats, to start out with a stretch of flatwater, so that one can get a feel for things. Then maybe a riffle or an easy rapid or two, before heading into the meat of the river. Alas, the Misahuallí was set up all wrong! We started right out with a bit of rock-dodging, and almost immediately hit a series of relatively challenging rapids, culminating in a sort of diversion dam where we had to zig-zag around to find the navigable chutes and not get swept over the falls. We worried about Rolfe and Kristen, who were the least experienced of us, but they made it through right-side-up, as did we all.
Of course, the waves thoroughly splashed us, and the supposedly "self bailing" inflatables quickly filled with several inches of water, which we had to sit in until we could get to the side and dump them over. On the other hand, the water made the boats heavier, which meant that instead of flipping when we accidentally chose the wrong line and went over a large rock instead of around it, we just sort of slithered over it like a big rubber snake. But we all got very, very wet. On the other other hand, we hardly noticed when it rained.
It wasn't long until the rapids ended, though, and the majority of the river was flat and scenic, for "green jungle" values of scenic. (There were big mountains out there behind us, but they were mostly shrouded in cloud.) We saw a few kingfishers swooping by, and various interesting trees and flowers, and a few curious people on the river banks.
After lunch, we took a different kind of boat trip. Gary drove us (along with Michelle and Sofia) to a ferry terminal on the Rio Napo, where we boarded a long, skinny motor canoe for the 15-minute or so ride to AmazOOnico, a wildlife rescue center in the Selva Vida preserve. This center rehabilitates jungle animals that had been (illegally) bought as pets and discarded when they outgrew their cuteness, animals confiscated by government raids on black market pet operations, and baby animals orphaned by hunters. Half of the animals at the center are not able to be released into the wild, so it functions as a kind of zoo (and has received some criticism for this), giving tours for a fee. The staff are volunteers, mostly German, who pay for the privilege of working there.
Capybara, the world's largest rodent, and a depressed woolly monkey
A toucan, and a bunch of turtles with a caiman (like a small alligator)
The center is a maze of narrow pathways among fenced-off areas and large cages, draped with the lush greenery of jungle plants. It feels very isolated, especially since the only access is by boat, from the ferry terminal where we boarded or from one of several lodges along the river. In fact, it was rather strange just getting to the ferry terminal; we turned off the main road onto a huge and gleaming divided four-lane highway, with modern streetlights arcing high above the pavement. This lasted only a couple of miles - past an "international airport" which is either not yet completed, or abandoned due to lack of traffic, depending on whom you ask - and then Gary swerved through a gap in the median into the "oncoming" lanes, just as the road petered out and the streetlights vanished. By the time the road ended at the river, it looked no different from any other rural road in the area.
After returning from AmazOOnico, we picked up our stuff at Michelle and Gary's, stopped at a liquor store for a couple of bottles of wine (since we'd drunk the ones we'd bought the day before), and then Gary drove us out into the country, to a "cabin" owned by a friend of his. It was not really a cabin, more of a rustic lodge, with a basic kitchen and large common room on the ground floor, small sleeping rooms with bunkbeds above, and a three-holer outhouse a short walk away. It also had a small resident population of cats, who demanded to be fed but shied away from being petted, and a truly awesome swimming hole out back. We ate the backpacking food we'd brought in case of an overnight hike (which we never did manage), drank wine, and frolicked in the river the next morning until Gary came to collect us.
Friday, July 29 (Tena to Papallacta): in which we get wet. Are you detecting a pattern here?
Over dinner the night before we had debated our options for the few days we had left before our Sunday morning flight out of Quito. Originally we'd planned to do another mountain climb, but one of the peaks we had considered was erupting (!) and another apparently had regulations which required hiring an expensive guide. We decided to go instead to Papallacta (or "Paparazzi", as Kristen called it once when she'd forgotten its name - we all immediately took to calling it that from then on!), a small town along the Quito-Tena road, which is famous for its hot springs. Gary and Michelle decided to give us a ride there so they could come soak in the hot pools as well. We were all for that idea, especially as Michelle, who drove, was a much more sedate driver than the taxi-driver we'd had on the way to Tena.
On the way there we stopped in Archidona to see the attractive town square and the old church, and incidentally to taste a local delicacy, fried chontacuro - the larvae of the rhinoceros beetle. Or rather, Rolfe and Britt tasted it. Kristen and I could not bring ourselves to put what was basically a slimy brown worm into our mouths, so Gary cheerfully ate our portion. (I think Rolfe took a photo - if I get a copy, I'll add it, because it was truly disgusting looking.)
Our second lunch stop, near the highway junction in Baeza, was much more appealing. The mountain rivers of the east slope of the Andes are excellent trout habitat, and every other restaurant along the road offered "trucha" cooked twenty or so ways. The restaurant Gary chose looked like a typical highway rest stop in the US, just a step or two above fast food, but it served us one of the best meals we had on our whole trip. Britt and I split a trout cooked with little slivers of red onion and tomatoes, along with "smashed bananas", or fried plantain rounds.
The town of Papallacta is right on the road, but the hot springs, along with a variety of hotels and restaurants, are several switchbacks higher along a side road that leads to the Reserva Ecologica Cayambe-Coca, a park where we plannedto hike the next day. Michelle took us to La Choza de don Wilson, an inexpensive hotel she'd stayed at some years ago (although prices had risen since) and we dropped off our bags; then we drove the rest of the way to the fancy hot springs resort about a mile up the road, and spent several hours blissfully soaking in the warm water, enjoying the last of our time with our friends.
29 photos at Flickr