For the Love of the Amazon (& Baños)

Since there isn’t much time left, we are trying to pack in as much adventure as possible in the ending weeks, both work wise and travel wise. So fair warning now, this is going to be a long post. A few Thursdays back, Hannah and I headed out to Esperanza to do some community visits with the local physical therapists. I headed out with one PT, while Hannah headed out with another. There are no occupational therapists for the local government, but we were happy to get out of Ibarra and into the hills of Imbabura volcano. After taking the bus there, PT Jesica and I took a bus another 20 minutes up, had a 30 minute walk up a gravel road, and saw a few clients from there, living rurally off their land. One man had a TBI from a motor vehicle accident years ago, and now he is suffering effects of vision loss, hearing loss, gait instability, and increased difficulty with ADLs. The second person we saw had a very very severe case of scoliosis, and was being treated essentially just for pain and contracture management. The third home we went to, the woman was sick and requesting for a raincheck. Even though we only saw those 3 houses, the transportation in between locations took up the majority of time. If I had to have a dream job, this would probably be it but instead practicing community OT with home modifications and home programs for ADLs. To my knowledge, there are positions similar in the USA but it’s not the same feeling as it is here in Ibarra. I’m so glad I got to go, especially since I don’t have time to go again.
That Thursday afternoon, Gina, Corri, and I headed out to Baños, Ecuador, a 6-7 hour direct bus ride to the “adventure” capital of the country. We had a fantastic hostel, Casa de Molino Blanco, where we got an included breakfast which was so delicious-it even had pancakes! We walked leisurely down the hill into town and rented $6 bikes for the day. It was a 15km bike ride, mostly downtown, where there were a bunch of stopping points for waterfalls. At one point, we took a gondola basket across a gorge and back, Corri thoroughly scared but also excited. We had beautiful scenery for the entire ride, as if we were in the bottom between two mountain ranges. Despite Gina almost falling off the road a few times, no injuries were reported; I even found 2 sub-stations for my dad to check out: one of his favorite things is to research power lines and electricity anywhere outside of Michigan.

The last stop was Pailón del Diablo, a gigantic waterfall with steps that lead you right into/next to it. It had a very high water level, and the park happened to not be populated at all- what a wonderful surprise. We got some amazing pictures while getting soaked at the same time. We hitched a ride back to city centre in the back of a truck, met some wonderful people from London who said Medellin, Colombia has been there favorite place in the past 6 months of travel (I HAVE to go), got a delicious burger and beer dinner, and headed out to dance. We found a bar called Leprechaun and entered the salsa room where we danced for over 3 hours and for once actually learned some moves from the locals. It was such a relaxing and fun night and worth the 4am bedtime since Gina almost met her dance skill goal.


The next morning, we ate our breakfast, went to a delicious coffee/hot cocoa shop, walked around town, and let Corri head home for a nap. She woke up very very sick with stomach problems, but she is a true champ when it comes to that stuff. She had to use the bathroom in the TINY coffee shop, and afterwards she walked out, put $1.50 on the counter, told the barista quote “Lo siento. Enferma. Tu baño,” and walked out the door to go home. Once of the most priceless moments of Ecuador. Gina and I attempted the hot spring for which Baños is known, but it was way too crowded with kids. That afternoon, we headed to La Casa de Arból, which has the swing overtop a mountain cliff that is famous all over the world. We got there, we could see not an ounce of the volcano view due to heavy clouds, and the amount of tourists was insane. Safe to say, we just left and didn’t do the swing. We headed back into town, had an Italian dinner, and called it a night. The next morning we lazily lounged around before grabbing a sandwich and heading to the terminal. One the bus, we met an 8 year old boy wanting to learn English, and at the end had a photo with him because his parents were so happy. We had the traveling bus gods working in our favor, as we caught a bus direct to Ibarra from Ambato (1 hr from Baños), when we thought we would have to wait hours. We also met a nice family from Esperanza on the second bus, and they shared capuli berries with us while their kids also practiced English. Our experiences with Ecuadorians have been very timid and reserved, but these bus rides we met the most open and friendly people yet.

That following week, a new group of OT students arrived from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They headed up to the older adult center in La Esperanza to do feeding evaluations on the adults from an occupational therapy perspective. I went with them also on Tuesday and Wednesday while they finished that up and brainstormed other ideas for the older adults. They had a lot of activity analysis embedded in those few days, and even though they were level 1 students, they were willing to jump right in and attempt minimal Spanish- something that is awesome to see. Also, Hannah and I managed to extend our tourism stay here after running around between the immigration office and bank to get it figured out. Since everything thus far has been very confusing and nothing has added up, we welcomed the simplicity. And in other good news, Corri got an interview with Creighton University for an OT fellowship (post-graduation) in pediatrics- we so hope she gets this position as she fully deserves it!
Now onto the Amazon adventure: On Wednesday afternoon after work, Hannah, Corri, Gina, and I caught a bus from the Ibarra terminal to south Quito terminal Quitumbe which took 4 hours. After waiting 1.5 hours, we caught the next bus 8 hours overnight to Lago Agrio, the point of entry into the Amazon. The bus was not crowded, so we each could take 2 seats to lay down, but movies played all night on volume 100 while winding through the hills and mountains, so safe to say it was difficult to sleep. I even made the drivers stop for me to pee since the bathrooms on board are never to be used. From 5:30 am-8 am, we drove through the jungle until we arrived at the Cuyabeno river port. From here, we caught a canoe 20 minutes to our lodge, Cuyabeno river lodge. After breakfast, we headed out for a 2 hour hike to learn about the flora and fauna of the area. Of course being exhausted, we ate lunch and took a nice long nap in the afternoon. We met a group of 3 from Italy who were there with us for most of tours, and we went out that night after dinner to do a nighttime canoe ride searching for Caimans, which look like small crocodiles. We saw a few of those as well a giant guinea pig. I don’t remember what it’s called, but we didn’t even know that animal existed so it was pretty neat.

The next day, we woke up to an early breakfast, then headed out paddling on the canoe for a few hours upstream, then floating back. We got to tube for a bit, and then jump from a platform into the river on a swing. The first few times, I handled it fine. But one time later, I dragged my feet on the platform and landed flat on my stomach and legs into the water. It hurt, but we could’t all help but laugh at me for doing that. Over the next few days, a huge bruise developed on my whole right thigh- but hey at least it’s a good story!

In the afternoon, we went on another jungle hike with our guide Rambo, who is from an indigenous community on the river. It takes him 7 hours to canoe to his home and he goes there once a month. We were lucky to see a few species of monkeys while also learning a lot about plants. That night, we plucked some fresh cacao and ate the fruit, then went on a shorter hike to find the insects. Hannah found a wicked awesome red tarantula- probably the coolest animal from the whole trip in my opinion. We also saw some really cool walking sticks. We headed to bed at a decent time because we had to be up the next morning at 5:45 am.

Saturday morning was a long day, as we headed out around 7 in a motor canoe for a 3 hour ride. In this time, we saw a plethora of monkeys and birds (big and small), beautiful, huge, blue butterflies, an anaconda (!), river dolphins, and many medium size turtles. It was so fortunate that we saw all this wildlife! After 2 hours, we reached Laguna Grande and went for a quick swim- it’s a bit eery knowing about all the creatures you are swimming with!!! We ended up at an indigenous community where one of the local women showed us how to make yucca bread over a stove- no water, no additives. We ate lunch there and piled on the sunscreen for the ride home.

It was a peculiar feeling being in this community. On one hand, it is good for foreign travelers to be exposed to these cultures, but at the same time, it feels a bit like exploitation. We as tourists are providing the indigenous communities with income, but at was cost does it come? Though I enjoyed this part, I felt leaving a bit sad for our reason of being there. On the 3 hour ride back, it started POURING with 1 hour remaining. We had heavy duty raincoats, but wow was that an amazing experience. To be in the Amazon jungle on a canoe, headed home in the pouring rain with some great company.  When we were back we drank some hot chocolate after meeting 2 Argentinian tourists (whose favorite NBA player is LeBron), showered, and enjoyed a well-deserved relaxing evening sharing stories, dancing a small bit, and going to bed early. That night, we had the strongest rains I have ever experienced- it honestly sounded like a tornado or hurricane in our cabin. I loved it.

Sunday morning we had a relaxing time eating breakfast, hanging out canoeing with Rambo, jumping in the river one last time, and preparing for our departure. We headed out after lunch to the bus drop off point, and got really lucky with it passing by after only waiting 10 minutes. After spending 17 whopping hours bussing to the Amazon, we decided we needed a more efficient way to return. So once we arrived in Lago Agrio after 2.5 hours, we found a guy who wanted to take us to the north Quito terminal Carcelen- a 6 hour ride. It was great, because we spent less than 5 minutes in Lago Agrio before hopping on that bus. We had a few stops for border checks since we were so close to Colombia, but we got to Quito at 11pm. We transitioned to one more bus headed to Ibarra that left at 11:30pm and we got home at 1:30am. When this bus started, one man was selling chocolate truffles at the front of the bus. We were in the very back, but Corri put her hand up as if hailing a taxi to get those truffles!!! The power of chocolate when exhausted.  It was late once home, but we thoroughly expected to not get back until 8am and roll straight into work- plus only 11 hours of travel time. So at least we got a few hours of sleep!!

These two trips were another two for the books, especially the Amazon. And you know what the best part was? NO mosquitos… I can’t even begin to comprehend how lucky we were. Not only did we see all those animals, but I ended up with only one bug bite in the whole 4 days. We also had no Wifi service for 4 days, and that was a much needed disconnect from the world. It’s amazing how much mental health can improve after doing something like turning off your phone. All in all, the past few weeks have lived up to every expectation, and I’m sure the ending 3 weeks will do the same. We still are planning one last hoorah trip, but the best thing is not even knowing where. We shall see!