Ecuadorian Oriente: Amazon Jungle Junkie

The Oriente region of Eastern Ecuador is the biggest, taking up around half the country, made up of the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes and the lowland areas of rainforest in the Amazon basin. For me, visiting this region was the most exciting! Everything become more and more green as we drove away from the highlands, and I lost count of how many waterfalls there were. Our journeys on the road were often quite long so we passed the time playing the Spanish game of “Barco cargado de…” and “Who can spot the first toucan?” it wasn’t me, but I did catch the glimmer of one, and the Spanish game was great for improving my Spanish. This was scenery and sights that I’d only ever seen in colourful books or glossy travel magazines. Tena, Puyo, Mindo and Papallacta’s Hot Springs were among my favourite places in Ecuador; they were colourful, friendly and at the heart of mostly, pristine nature.

Photo taken from http://geography.name/ecuador/ http://geography.name/ecuador/ 

Our drive began at around 5:30 in the morning to Papallacta, a small town located at an altitude of 3,250 m (10600 feet) in the Andes near the Eastern mountain range, which leads to the Amazon rainforest. It’s a 1 hour drive from Quito, and known for its natural, mineral hot springs (from an active volcano) with healing properties. It is considered to be a holistic experience, so we headed up during sunrise to get the best of it. The spa resort we visited had a magical, misty High Andes landscape, and was subtly situated in the midst of a unique natural environment. It was very humid, but cool early on, so I rushed quickly into the comforting, warm water. We spent a couple of hours there, ate breakfast, and got packed up before heading down to the descent of the Amazon Basin.

Our next stop was a Guango Lodge located near the paramo and hot springs of Papallacta, where we wandered around admiring the beautiful hummingbirds or coulibrees. We observed many different species of the mesmerizing creatures. This small, cozy lodge is right in the middle of stunning forest-covered mountains. I had a glimpse of a sword billed hummingbird which was recently filmed for David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II, the bird has a remarkable beak length longer than its body. The little bird has to stand on one leg and scratch itself with its other foot in order to clean and preen, like a dog with fleas. But its 4 inch bill has a big benefit; “no other hummingbird can reach so deep into jungle blossoms to reach the nectar”. The cloudy day turned to a rainy day as it began to absolutely chuck it down, as we would say at home. The heavy rain meant some turned inside for a hot tea while others zipped up their waterproof jackets and continued to capture the beautiful creatures with their cameras or minds.

A while later we found ourselves in the vast, beautiful landscape, for a hike, somewhere else in the Napo province. We hiked in natural caves owned by a small community/family. Inside the caves, it was very muddy and damp, only allowing for restricted advanced, climber-style movement (I panicked a little!) When we left, it was humid among the tropical plants and trees, but very beautiful. There was a stream flowing and back at the community base, we cleaned our hands and boots then ate our picnic lunch, which attracted a lot of the local insects. Luckily, I insisted on reapplying my bug spray, sorry bugs!

After our visit to the lodge, we headed to our hostel on the outskirts Tena. Hostal Pakay was probably the most beautiful hostel I’ve stayed in. It was rustic, wooden and fitted beautifully into the Amazonian surroundings. The eco-friendly hostel is located on a beautiful farm/jungle-like property. The views of the town, the Llanganates mountains and the captivating grounds, plants, birds and agriculture around hostel were stunning. It was truly a relaxing and stunning hostel experience as a base for tranquillity, discovering and new experiences and adventures. The house is built with local materials and eco-friendly equipment, there were dry toilets and a biological waste water treatment. There was a delicious, big breakfast (coffee, tea, juice, fruit salad, granola, homemade jam and depending on the day toast with omelette, crepe, fried yuca with fried or scrambled egg, tortillas de yuca) included in the price, lovely people and a couple of friendly tarantulas and one tiny scorpion. My favourite part of Hostal Pakay was the beautiful, colourful hammocks on an upstairs balcony where you can lay and observe Ecuador’s beautiful green spaces.

“Why “Pakay“? Pakay is the Kichwa name of the multiple-species of tree genus found throughout the whole of Ecuador with especially many varieties in the Amazon. “Pakay“ or, more commonly, “guaba“, means the tree as well as its edible fruit, a pod which varies according to the different species. The most famous species of the genus is Inga edulis, with a fruit of about one meter in length, called “ guaba de bejuco“ which you can often find in Ecuadorian markets. But the sweet giant fruits, which look funny to foreigners, are not the only impressive thing about the genus Inga. It has various qualities as an unpretentious, fast-growing shade tree and firewood producer, a pioneer in deforested areas which helps to improve the soil quality, and a helpful element in agroforestry systems, maintaining fertile soil and providing shadow for the survival of other plants.”

We spent the night resting in the hostel and relaxing in the hammocks after eating at a yummy, local pizza place.

Songs of the trip:

Jarabe de Palo – El Bosque del Palo

RoCola Bacaloa – Chinese Rumba 

Ska-P – Cannabis