Whiteout In Banos

We drove the short journey through the jungle from Misahualli to Tena on the 29th January. Changing buses was a bit of a pain in the ass as the bus station in Tena was small and hopeless, but we managed it and continued on our way to the extremely touristy town of Banos. Well known for many years as a backpacking mecca, Banos is full to bursting with tourist shops, tour agencies and hotels galore.

We found a pretty cheap hostel and walked around the town center. Banos was the first town center we saw that was completely encircled by mountains and waterfalls. In the middle of the town we found a pretty little plaza with a gothic church in it – this was called the Basilica Agua Santa, named after a ridiculous local Catholic myth. Apparently the Virgin Mary appeared in a local waterfall, a ‘fact’ backed up by numerous paintings in the church that tell of miracles performed at times of crisis when Mary turned up and saved the day like Wonder Woman. One such time was in 1999 when the local large volcano Tungurahua exploded and forced the town residents to evacuate. Other tragedies were also depicted in the paintings, including flash floods and bridge collapses. More recent events were not so distastefully exploited, such as when an American tourist died doing zip lining in the jungle canopy a few years ago.

The next day and Francesca decided to rest up after we had been travelling so much recently. I went on a very long and arduous hike up through the mountains to a viewpoint overlooking the volcano to the South. The trail, called Sendero Bellavista, climbed up and out of the town, and was supposed to take about 4 hours to the viewpoint. It was fairly easy to get lost, but I asked around and found the right way eventually. It was very tiring to climb up the steep roads and pathways to the top.

I saw Hummingbirds, lots of Horses, Cows and Dogs, and the views over Banos were very nice. The walk itself was totally overrated though, and when I arrived at the famous Casa de Arbol, the views of the volcano Tungurahua were totally obscured by cloud. Pictures of Banos are inevitably of people sitting on a large swing, swinging outwards at the top of a hill with Tungurahua in the background, but there was no chance of that when I was there. Total whiteout.

A busload of tourists were sitting around looking extremely glum. The entrance to the area with the swing advertises an orchid garden, zip line, museum and much more – none of which were open. Still, with all the exercise and the fact that it had cost me nothing to get up to the top, I still felt much better than the tourists who had paid loads of money for the tour.

I decided to walk back down. The trail looped around to a different part of the mountains – one which supposedly had a statue of the Virgin Mary. I did get lost on this part though, and unfriendly locals who are using the trails and surrounding lands for agriculture do not give directions very willingly.

Further down towards Banos (I never did see the Virgin Mary, but then, who has?) I managed to score a lift when I hitch hiked back down to town.

By this time I was exhausted as I had walked over 10 km through the mountains, and so I just relaxed for the rest of the day with Francesca in our hostel.

There was little else we were interested in doing in Banos, but no doubt other people might get more out of it if they were interested in lame bungee jumping, or dangerous zip lining. There was even rafting near the town, but it would never match up to our experience in Southern Chile. We left Banos, not much the wiser, and looking forward to some culture and fun in Ambato.

More Jungle At Misahualli

We decided not to stop at Tena in Ecuador, and instead changed buses there for a visit to the small town of Misahualli. We arrived on the 26th January and were quite shocked to see that the whole town was just a few blocks squared, with the main plaza completely dug up and under construction. Mud and bricks were everywhere, the heat was pretty unbearable, and so we soon found the nicest place in town where we soon dumped our stuff before going out to get food.

We had a nice surprise when we realized that a troupe of Capuchin Monkeys had found their home in what was left of the main plaza. They were fierce little buggers who were playing with lighters like sadistic sharp-toothed fire starters on crack. The owner of the restaurant we were in had to chase away a few of the hungry brazen Monkeys, and they eventually left us in peace to go down to a fully-furnished house just off the plaza where the Monkeys lived at night, as though they were fully fledged residents.

After a nice lunch at the restaurant on the plaza (the town has restaurants, a few shops and an ATM) we found out about a nice walk North and West of the town to a huge 50 meter Ceibo tree. We walked along the road out of town and crossed a long bridge where two men struggled to get the largest pig we had ever seen onto their truck. It’s screams followed us into the jungle until we saw the large tree, also called a Kapok, just off the road. The tree was truly huge, and if you visit it, be careful of the vines hanging down – they are extremely thorny.

We walked back across the Misahualli river and headed back to our hostel. It was a good nice sleep along with a lovely breakfast at Hostal el Paisano (make sure you keep your receipts of payment if you stay there) – we saw loads of Hummingbirds flying around too, alongside the Capuchin Monkeys who we visited again in the main square.

We had enquired about doing some tours in Misahualli, but in the end we decided we could manage without one. We walked out of town across another long bridge which crossed the Napo river and continued along a route which headed down into more jungle away from the town. After about twenty minutes we found a small lagoon which had some tourist information. The sign read Laguna Paikawe and in the middle of it were two little islands where we saw a friendly couple of Spider Monkeys jumping and frolicking in the trees. We saw loads of birds, such as the Moorhen and Egret. On the information board there were loads of animals listed, and when the owner of the property, Pedro, came over and offered us a boat ride for a very reasonable price for about 30 to 45 minutes to see Hoatzin birds, we took him up on his offer.

The boat ride was awesome – not only did we see Hoatzin, but Kingfishers, Herons and lots more. We would come back for more.

We continued down the road away from Misahualli where we got the bus all the way down to the Jatun Sacha biological reserve. We got off at the wrong stop (the botanical gardens had been closed for some time by the look of it) and the gates were locked. We decided to jump over the gate and go in anyway. The place looked like a horror movie with empty, dusty buildings sitting in the rainforest covered in spider webs. The trails were overgrown, and for the long trail through the jungle, impassable with trees and bushes.

We saw some bushes and plants that had been labeled – stuff we had seen before – but we did see some wild Black Agouti who bolted once they realized we had dared disturb them. We left after half an hour when a huge downpour started.

We hitched back to the road to Misahualli where we found another deserted lagoon where we saw some large birds that we thought might be Umbrellabirds, and also some Brown-mantled Tamarin Monkeys. We did not hang around long before making our way to the Shiripuno tourist community. This was a bit of a tourist trap and certainly not recommended as the whole place was infested with biting fleas. The place was built for the native community to show off their traditional way of life, with dancing, clothes and the obligatory gift shop.

We ate there and saw some of the dances, but the experience was not really worth it. What was worth it, however, was the night walk we had planned to do with Pedro that evening. Two Argentines also had come along – we first headed across the same lagoon where we had seen the Hoatzin and headed into the jungle through Pedro’s banana plantation.

The evening walk was awesome. It was supposed to last a few hours but ended up being over three and a half hours. The most memorable moment was when the guide, Pedro, spotted a Coral Snake heading towards us in the four inch water we were wading through. He skillfully stopped the snake with his machete, pinning it down for photos. When he let it go, it headed towards us again, but with an expert flick of his wrist he spun the snake the other direction, and it swam off unharmed. The Coral Snake is one of the most deadly snakes in the world, and pharmaceutical companies have stopped making the unprofitable anti-venom. We did not know that at the time, but as Pedro lived right across the road and often had to deal with these kind of dangers, we were in good hands anyway.

The Argentine couple were good company, and the guy, Luis, even spotted a Scorpion for us! I had been hoping to see one the whole time we were in the desert regions of Chile and Peru, and finally I saw one in the jungle of Ecuador! Unexpected!

We saw all manner of bugs: Frogs, Stick Insects as big as my hand and loads more. We even saw two different Opossums and loads of Arboreal Boa Constrictors (their eyes shine in the dark). We heard a Great Potoo and saw some Caiman in the water too. Overall, the whole experience was one of the best we had in the jungle – if you are in the area – make sure you go see Pedro.

The next day, the 28th January, we headed back up the road towards Jatun Sacha. By then we had realized our mistake about the botanical garden, and wanted to see a few more places along the road there. This time we were more lucky with the weather too, and we got a taxi to the Jatun Sacha reserve itself (about five more minutes drive along the road from the gardens). The place was loaded with volunteers who were all painting the welcome center with noxious paint and no protective gear at all. It made me wonder why they would do that work – volunteerism is a growing trend in the backpacking community. The sad fact is that the volunteers actually pay to do the work, so it is not really volunteering – just unpaid work that people pay to do. Ridiculous.

We were given a brief introduction by a European blonde girl who then gave us a printed self-guided walking tour. There were lots of stops along the large looped trail with explanations about each one. Most of the forest there was new secondary forest and so we did not see many animals, but some of the information was interesting nevertheless.

We saw plants that are symbiotic with Ants, translucent Spiders, Armadillo holes and loads of Fungi. We could see the reserve had taken an inventory of the trees we were passing, and the most fascinating were the tall tree ferns. These are often mistaken for palm trees, and have been around for millions of years, pretty much unchanged in their structure.

The trail was nice enough if not a little boring, and when we finished we headed down the road a little ways by foot to an area where we heard they had some jungle traps set up to show off to tourists.

We asked around and eventually found some little huts down near the school’s football field where some guy had set out some 20 or more traps. He was unavailable, but we managed to persuade his nephew who lived across the street to show us the traps. Obviously this whole thing would have been impossible without knowing some Spanish and a little charm.

We walked for ages to get down to the riverside where the traps were. Our young guide walked us down there, showed us around for about an hour, including a blowgun demonstration at the end, and then bought us back to the road. Some of the traps were fairly simple – a hide made of palm leaves, for example. And some of the traps were much more ingenious, with hidden entrances that funneled mammals into a particular trap made of wood, with little wooden triggers that, if pushed, would set off a complex chain of events that ended in a large log being dropped on the animal, or a shotgun being discharged at it, close range.

The traps were left unarmed in between viewings for obvious reasons, but our guide did tell us that these traps were in common usage among many hunters from the local villages who would often spend days in the jungle on their own. These traps do not discriminate, and we wondered how much they affected endangered animals.

We shot the two meter blowgun at the end, but everyone missed the target. It also started raining about then so we all waited for it to stop before we boarded the bus back to the road for Misahualli.

On our walk back we saw loads of birds (our guide from the trap place had come with us as he was visiting friends, and so he helped identify them). We even heard a very shy Little Tinamou, but it escaped before we could get a good look.

We were passing by Pedro’s place, and we could not resist another boat ride to see the Hoatzin again. This time we were more lucky, and we saw lots of the so-called stinkbirds sitting on a branch above us. It is the only bird of it’s genus, but it’s ancestry and scientific taxonomic position is still in dispute. The Hoatzin apparently is pretty pungent, hence the name stinkbird, and also tastes so bad that even the indigenous people do not eat it. For this reason it is not endangered. They reminded us of dinosaurs, a relic from the past that shows what all birds true ancestry is.

Puyo: A Nice Diversion

The Pastaza department is located in Eastern Ecuador and it’s capital, Puyo, is the administrative and political capital of the area, and is one of the country’s fastest growing cities.

We found a simple hotel in Puyo’s busy and dirty center, and after a small investigation we headed out into the small city. We went over the road and sat down in a chifa, which is a knock-off Chinese restaurant popular in Ecuador and Peru both. After some cheap grub, we headed a few blocks down to the Museo Etnoarqueológico, which was basically just a room of curios and antiquities, run as an extension of the local university. We did not learn much, but the number of big Cat skins, such as Puma, Jaguar and Ocelot hanging up all over the place was pretty depressing.

The museum was really tiny, with almost no explanations in English or Spanish about anything in it. Ceramics lay scattered about cracked and broken, and many displays looked like they had never been cleaned or put back after the last earthquake! The awful taxidermy must have been done by a rank amateur many years ago, and it was not the big Cats who were the only ones to suffer either. Giant Anteaters, Anacondas and Giant Armadillos were all represented by the skins. And no natural deaths here either as the buckshot wounds in the Puma coats testified to.

After this we jumped in a taxi and headed over to the University Museum on the other side of town, but it was semi-permanently closed. Another site we had heard about called AMWAE was also closed permanently – this was supposed to be an artistic co-operative set-up by Huarani women, but apparently it was no more.

Our last disappointment was a planned dinner at El Toro Asado, a BBQ place that we had heard served quanta – a rodent that was supposed to taste like pork. This was also long-closed – proof, if ever any were needed, that Ecuador sorely needs a better tourist board.

We had better luck the next day, the 24th January, when we headed over to a botanical park called Omaere which gave us a guided tour around some reforested rainforest. We were joined by the owner, Chris, who was a hippy biologist from the States who had married a Shuar woman sometime before. He said he had been working in Ecuador for 24 years and was now dedicated to the Omaere park and the projects undertaken there.

Entrance was free (they guide for tips), and the tour was very informative indeed. After meeting Shuar people in Macas, it was nice to get an English speakers explanation of the tribe, particularly an ex-pat who was married to one!

Chris first showed us some Tent Making Bats which had bitten through the vein of some banana leaves, thus folding the leaf over forming a sort of tent shelter (hence the name of the Bat). The Bats were huddled underneath the banana leaf that they had manipulated.

Next up was the eco part of the project, which was Chris’s dry toilets. These babies separate numbers 1 and 2 removing them away to be naturally composted by the ground. Can’t see it catching on in the city, but Chris was crazy about them – “they are the future”!

A nice tour then around the jungle trails – completely regenerated from cattle pasture land! Now the secondary forest was populated by loads of trees, including many with medicinal properties. Chris even told us that his wife was practicing Shuar medicine with patients who visited from near and afar, apparently through word of mouth only. He mentioned that she had had success with curing cancer and so I asked him about it. He told us about one lady who had visited from the coast with an advanced stage of cancer – Chris’ wife prepared some stuff for her, and after several trips to the park for these natural remedies, apparently she is totally cured – and she is not the only one.

No evidence of this treatment was provided of course, because the woman lived miles away. So what is the cure for cancer? Well, Park Omaere are not going to be sharing that anytime soon. Why? Because apparently the Shuar don’t share their medicine with their enemies – basically anyone from the West who would come and mow the forest down and overuse the medicines there. If they really do have a cure for cancer (which I doubt), then it seems at best pretty dumb not to realize they could sell the cure which could then be grown naturally elsewhere (proceeds could go back into forest regeneration if the Shuar are so concerned about it), and at worst pretty selfish when you realize the world is in the middle of a cancer epidemic.

In fact, Park Omaere have many treatments for sale, and this seems to be where the park is focusing it’s efforts these days. Much of the tour was pointing out plants and trees used in the natural medicine of the Shuar. No doubt this is where modern medicine is from, and the home remedies of the Shuar certainly have a huge value – and it is extremely important to retain the knowledge they have gained and passed on over generations. The tour did become a little tired though when our biologist guide starting asserting that Shuar men can take these “big medicines” and astral project themselves across large distances and speak with people many miles away. Stick to the facts guys, not the hogwash paganism. We know drugs make you real high, and you can feel you have flown and stuff, but they are just chemicals after all.

The better aspects of the tour were the more factual and historic information about the tribes in the region. The Shuar, the Huarani and the Kichwa peoples. We were shown Shuar tools, such as nets and spears made from local trees from the jungle. We even got to see some traditional style Shuar and Huarani huts that they had built in the park.

The Shuar people used to be known as savages (Jibaro), and were the headhunters we learnt about when we visited Cuenca. We met a Shuar family when we visited Macas and we can testify that they don’t do that anymore! They now live in scattered communities with schools, plazas and fairly decent houses. There is a thriving trade in tourism amongst the Shuar communities, and they even have political representation through the Shuar Federation. In the past the Shuar used to live as individual family units scattered throughout the forest. Each house would be at least several kilometers from any other and would be populated by one guy with all his wives and children. They were egalitarian, having no leaders, but they did have shamanism and ritual.

When a Shuar man was married off he would leave his home and move in with his wife’s family. Men would weave and hunt whilst women would tend the gardens. Chris showed us the formal introductions that the Shuar would initiate if they went to visit each other – men would have to stand at the very edge of another man’s property and call in a special way and then wait. They would always carry their long bamboo spears and blowguns with them – and when their neighbors came to answer any visits, they too would be carrying arms. If a visitor got no reply, he was not allowed to advance any further, as any unpermitted approaches would be met with violence.

In fact, the Shuar are well known as a warrior race. There is even a special wing of the Ecuadorian special forces that were reserved for Shuar warriors, and they specialized in jungle lore (although this is now opened up for non-Shuar applicants).

The Shuar would only visit each other when necessary. To sue for peace during feuds, to ask for help, report complaints or to forge alliances. Historically they have managed to form armies, however, so they were by no means defenseless. In 1527 they defeated the Incan advances – the Incans never conquered them. Then in 1599, after attempts at taxation, the Shuar then kicked out the Spanish too. Unconquered, they eventually fell to Evangelist and Catholic missionaries and came out of the jungles to centers where they now live. Because of these centers they have managed to somewhat successfully defend their lands from the state, but in most cases they have completely lost their traditions, knowledge and culture.

It was cool walking around the park and asking Chris all kinds of questions about the place. His wife and several other Shuar women bought the place 16 years before from the cattlemen and have been developing and refining the project ever since. The regeneration was so successful that we were told they even had a Jaguar roaming around for awhile. This was surprising seeing as the park is located in a little crook on a river, and so access would be difficult – and besides, Chris said, the neighbor shot it a few years ago. Typical.

The tour ended with the guide trying to sell us some medicines, but we got bored and so left. All the medicines seem to be based around urine therapy along with two types of trees – sangre de drago (dragon’s blood on account of it’s thick red latex sap) and unas de gato (cat’s claw after the shape of it’s thorns).

We left the park with a couple traveling with their young son and shared a taxi with them to an animal reserve nearby called paseo de los monos (Monkey’s path). There sure were a lot of Monkeys at the ‘reserve’, including Wooly Monkeys, Spider Monkeys and Capuchins – but it was pretty obvious that this was just a zoo and the Monkeys were a permanent fixture. The coolest animals though were a large (caged) Anaconda, and a curious Coati that followed us around.

Our next stop was, again by taxi, to the Jardin Botanico las Orquideas. This family-run reserve was again repopulated from cattle pasture and made into a natural reserve in which the owners guide you around. They focus more on the natural world though, and specialize in showing guests their huge collection of natural orchids. Some were so tiny they had to be viewed through a handheld microscope.

There was an exhibit of photographs taken each year since the reserve’s inception in 1980. The photos show the different animals and plants that the owner found as the forest grew back over the time. It was nice to see some larger mammals finding their way back into the place towards the later years of regeneration. A really great plant our guide showed us was wild garlic which, when you ball it up and rub it on your fingers, smells very nice - of garlic!

We got the bus back from the botanic garden reserve which was easy and much cheaper than the taxis. The next day, the 25th January, we went to a local exotic bird reserve (Parque Real de Aves Exoticas). It was quite a shock to see that what Ecuadorians call an exotic bird reserve, for us, is not quite so exotic. Chickens, pigeons and pheasants were the order of the day. Anyways, many of the birds were very pretty, or were just so huge that they were still interesting to look at.

One thing we definitely noticed in Ecuador was the outstanding beauty of it’s natural world. Loads of birds, forests and other landscapes – the cultural side is extremely interesting, and if you put a little effort in, it is quite accessible too.