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My time in the amazon was easily the most extraordinary time of my life. nothing that i have ever done can compare to that time in adventure, uniqueness, and pure incredibleness . . . i imagine that this is what travel was like 100 years ago. there were many times that i felt like a national geographic explorer truly discovering the ways of the ecuadorian amazon.

La Amazonía: The Village of Wachimak

Andy Wunder
2007-04-19 22:35:13

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basically self sustainable, they lived a complete subsistence life. what they ate came from the river, the jungle, or a small cleared patch of
forest where the village cultivated some jungle vegetables. the only things brought from the outside was sugar, salt, and some candles.

i spent the next two days preparing for my time in the amazon. i was givin a shopping list which included a few pounds of salt, a few pounds of sugar, some rice, and a pair of rubber boots. as i walked through the city i was captivated by the change: i had left the cold andes and andean indians for the sweltering heat of the jungle and amazonian indians. the smells of tropical fruit lifted from the markets and filled my nose with sweetness. in the restaurants i was given food i had never seen before. one piece of food was so new to me, so different to me, i wasnt sure if it was cheese, a vegetable, or meat . . . it turned out to be the "potato of the amazon" which was to be my staple while with the tribe.

the journey to the village was long and tedious. i made the journey in with the wife and kids of the man that arranged my stay. we began at the provincial capital, tena,
which was pretty far in the middle of nowhere to begin with (it took me 7 pharmacies to find contact solution). from the city we were supposed to have a 6 hour trip on a beat up bus down a beat up dirt road. however, luckily, someone came across a truck and the 6 hours was shortened to 2 and a half. this dirt road dead ended at the rio napo (one of the main tributaries of the mighty amazon river) and from there i took a motorized canoe 20 min down the river. after the canoe dropped us off on the banks of the river we hiked 6 km through the jungle. we forged streams, climbed hills, crossed tree bridges, stomped through sinking mud (which on one occasion stole my knee high boots) all while carrying my big backpack and supplies. we arrived at wachimak in the middle of the sweltering day and i was ...