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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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and my mom and dad escorted me the rest of the way to my hut. they tied the baby up to a tree outside of my hut. i was at a loss. i wanted to pay them to release him. i wanted to go outside that night and release him myself. but i couldn't do either. i was a guest in their world and i had to respect their ways. i was relieved to see the next morning that the animal escaped and made it back to the forest. i saw the animal by my hut a few days later, he looked disoriented. i tried as hard as i could to scare him back in to the forest. if one of the kids passed by and saw him, he would be instantly taken back as a pet. i wanted him to remain wild. that next day, we had that sloth thing for breakfast and what was left of her for lunch.
after a few nights i felt comfortable doing the walk back from the village to my hut alone. however, it only took one night at it alone to freak me out. but i didnt want to be the scared tourist so i didnt say anything. one night we were sitting around talking and they informed me that there were poisonous nocturnal snakes found in the past on the path back to my hut. from that point on, i always had someone walk me back.

once i got into my hut i felt fine. the hut was raised about 8 ft off the ground, too high for anything to get me. they also gave me a mosquito net and once i tucked it in, i knew no spiders could get me. i slept well those two weeks. i listened to the birds and monkeys play in the trees. it would often rain hard all night and i would fall asleep to the down pours only to wake up to a beautiful morning sun. when i woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, i would rarely go any farther than the door ... there was no way i walking out into that dark abyss when i could pee off the stairs.

one night they took me night fishing with them. that was a wild experience. we put on our boots and started to walk upstream ... in the dark ... in the same river where the snakes lived ... i was a bit ...