Almost home

Message for family, friends & loved ones (you figure out if you’re one of them)

Unfortunately for me (and maybe some of you guys) I’m coming home soon. After 1,5 years it’s almost over, two weeks from now I’ll be back home. Of course we have to drink to that (or at least I think so), so what is left of my travelbudget will be put behind the bar of Hotel Restaurant Het Hof van Marken (www.hofvanmarken.nl) – if it’s gone you’re gonna have to pay for the rest yourself – on the 23rd of May 20.00 uur. Coincidence has it that at 24.00 o’clock I will be turning 33 as well, so I’ve already arranged for some bubbels.

I’ve tried to invite you guys personally, but seem to be missing some e-mail adresses, so if you belong to my family, friends & loved ones, please feel free to come and join me! Just send me an e-mail to let me know if you’re coming.

Afrika!

A little over a week ago I arrived safely in South Afrika (with a short detour that allowed me to see my lovely niece) & I met Gea in Cape Town a view hours later. After some catching up – which took about 2 days and heaps of beer, we set out to do some sightseeing. Right know we are enjoying some lovely weather, so I will let you guys know all we’ve been upto soon (you better hope it starts raining )

 

Ready for the jungle????

So we went back to Cuenca, because that was the easiest way to visit Ingapirca some 2 hours away. But that became a bit of a challenge … with a decent nightlife Cuenca suited us quite well, (much better than anything we found in 3 months in Guayaquil) and catching the 9 o´clock bus to the ruines proved to be quite hard. When after 3 days everybody started laughing that we would never actually make it to the ruines, I got tired of it… I chartered a taxi for the rest of the day … and with the (very humorous) help of Willy we made it to the ruines, had a gorgeous afternoon, lots of laughs and got a complete explanation on the how and what. With the ruins checked of our list, it was time finally time to move on.

Baños was the next stop. We went for a nice (but strenuous) walk to see the volcano, had a lovely cold & well deserved beer after that and figured that the hot springs sounded like a great plan for the evening… Little did we know that when the lady at the entrance told us it was busy that meant we were gonna be standing in a pool packed up like herrings…. right… relaxing thermal baths??? (unfortunately my camera didn´t fit in my bikini, cause I would have loved to show you that!

Baños being at 1800 meters in the Andes and our next stop being the Oriente (the Amazon basin) at 850 meters, we decided to make the next journey by bike. We made an amazing 61 km bike trip (of which most was down hill… but not all of it ) passing waterfalls, small villages, heaps and heaps of orchids growing like weats along the way and stunning views. But most amazing of all was that we actually cycled from the Andean Mountains strait into the Amazon basin… 2 things you´ve learned about in school, heard about for ages and then you´re right there on your little bicycle breathing it all in!

Fortunately, we had arranged for our bags to be dropped of at our end point, so we moved straight on (after some cold beer and a good night sleep) further into the Oriente. Having changed our modes from partying completely (well almost completely), we went for a four day jungle trip. The night before we left we went for a few beers with our guide and some of his friends (I said almost completely right?) so we had a slow start, but made it to our cabaña and into one of the many rivers to bathe all before lunch. Before we could go for a stroll in the jungle we, according to ritual – and to entertain the guide and the hostfamily – , had to get our faces painted to protect us from harm (animals, diseases & mosquitos). The rest of the day and evening we filled with a walk, explanations of community life, life in the selva (jungle), dinner & a visit to the ecobar (again, almost completely – leave it to us to find a place in the jungle where there is a bar). Hmmm quite relaxing that selva life!

But the next day we went for the real deal. 3 days & 2 nights of camping in the jungle. Again we had to go to the ritual of getting our faces painted, but this time we decided that we were not gonna be the only ones The first day was not hard, but it was great. A hike to where we would set up camp, late lunch, setting up camp, and going fishing at dusk. The walk back in the dark was a bit challenging (but would later turn out to be good practise). Back in camp we decided to give a tea brewed of some roots (awaWHAT???) a go. It is supposed to make you hallucinate and is used a.o. by indigenous shamans. Misael did warn us about possible side effects, but we thought it couldn´t be that bad (why else would people take it?).

As most of you know I never take anything other than beer & sigarettes, so I wanted a small ¨cup of tea¨, just to be on the safe side. After about 10 minutes Naemi (over a period of another 10 minutes) announced she was hearing sounds, seeing ants crawling out of her continuously growing fingernails, saw a man and started throwing up. So far I didn´t notice anything, but I wasn´t so sure I wanted to anymore… Watching somebody getting really sick while you are waiting for the same drug to affect you is not exactly encouraging. Unfortunately for Naemi the side effects effected her strongly and she spent the rest of the evening puking and seeing really scary stuff.

Somewhere amongst all this I started seeing really beautiful leaves nearby. At first I thought the drug still hadn´t affected me, but then I started hearing women singing (we were in the middle of nowhere). From there on my first night on any kind of drug started, for about 3 hours – according to the guide, I wouldn´t have a clue – I sat there in the middle of the jungle seeing all sorts of stuff (that obviously wasn´t there). I saw a tiger several times, a wolf, a puma, I kept seeing a road in different settings, a sunset, several people, faces & an angel. Completely opposite to Naemi my experience was not scary (well sometimes a little), but interesting and mostly very beautiful. For some strange reason everything was very realistic, but at the same time I was very aware of the fact that I was hallucinating – which I might add is a very weird combination. Part of this might have had to do with the fact that Misael had drunken normal tea in order to make sure that we were both ok. Being very aware of how he was helping Naemi and keeping an I on me, I had the oppurtunity to completely let go & just enjoy the ride….. (I just wished Naemi would have had a similar experience).

After all that excitement we spent to morning in the river, bathing, sunbathing and swapping war stories. Then lunch, and another hike onto the next camping spot, arranging camp, dinner and spending the night by the campfire. The next day we were supposed to go and see a lagoon, ancient rocks & then head back to the starting point of our trip. But something went completely awire here. We started way to late, for some reason Misael kept running of into the jungle leaving us waiting to get going. For some reason he miscalculated the time completely, so by the time we started it must have been 3 (and we had a 6 hour walk to go). Misael couldn´t find the lagoon he had been talking about for 3 days and we ended up watching it from a hilltop at a couple of hundred meters away. After the lagoon (well, sort of) and the stones we walked for about an hour and a half when darkness fell. Misael now happily announced that we had to walk another 2,5 hours along the river. Having only had one meal that day – I desperately asked him if I could have some sugar, at which point he not only gave me the sugar, but also very proudly presented some marmalade! He made it appear as if it was completely normal that we were walking in the pitchblack, but as soon as we started again, he landed flat on his face in the mud . Apparently all the warnings and explanations on snakes and other dangers of the jungle now didn´t count anymore. So when we finally made it back at 9 pm we were pretty done with him when he couldn´t even say sorry, but made it seem like we were a hassle for wanting to eat and above all as if we were to blame for arriving so late.

Truth be said though, we have to admit we actually really enjoyed the long hike in the dark (now that we are safe & warm of course). Especially crossing a river in pitchblack under the stars, using bamboo sticks to balance yourselve while your crossing a stream filled with snakes on an instable, slippery tree and just listening to that amazing piece of work mother nature gave us.

Now that we have travelled safely to Quito today, we dare say that our little jungle trip (Naemi´s first) was the experience of a lifetime! And we are ready for the jungle anytime!