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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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all the water needs to be boiled and there was only a few mouth fulls to be found. we had a canoe to catch (if we missed it then id be back at wachimak for the night) and there was no time to boil any. by the time we got to the river, i could hardly stand and i had to lay down. after that point, i have a few recollections of tito putting up palm leaves over me to keep the sun of my body and face. i vaguely remember being carried into a canoe. my next memory is trying to make it off the canoe to some clinic where i was only able to make it half way. from there, i collapsed and all i could do was just lay there. i had never experienced anything like it before. i was conscious, but did not have the energy to even move my head. my brain worked and my body shut off. tito got back with three water bottles and i downed them instantly. soon i was able to make my way up to the clinic where i rested and slept and shit my pants. it was a fun way to go out ... but at least i made it back to civilization alive. if it was not for tito, i honestly would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere, unable to move with nothing to drink. thank god for tito.

as incredible as my experience in the amazon was, i also encountered my share of difficult times (not counting almost dieing on the way out). the village of wachimak, the amazon, and its people were things i had never experienced before and nothing i could have done would have prepared me for some of my trials and tribulations. the people of wachimak were incredible. their kindness and hospitality has gone unmatched. however, i was living amongst a relatively isolated people in a completely isolated setting. my communication with the people of wachimak came on a very superficial level. their primary language was quechua and they only really spoke in spanish when speaking to me. at the time my spanish was fairly poor and we probably did
better communicating with body language and hand signs then we did with spanish. after ...