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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 that i wanted, i wasnt really able to eat it. part of the difficulty came in my throat. it was incredibly sore, which i think could have been attributed to my sever dehydration from earlier in the day. however, i also had horrible heart burn for a few days. i wasnt even able to eat what i wanted. i think that is what you get when you go from good, fresh, healthy food to nasty, processed, rich grease. after a few days back in civilization, my clothes were clean, my bites were healing, and i was able to put down as much grease as i wanted.

towards the end of my time in wachimak, as i learned more and more about its future, i began to feel sad about the direction the village, and the ecuadorian amazon as a whole, was taking. when i asked about a sloppily cut linear clearing of trees, my father told me in excitement of plans the government had to build a road through the jungle that would pass close by wachimak. i also noticed a small clearing next to my hut. my father told me they were
planning to build more huts for tourist, enough to house 7 or 8 at once. they also had plans to build and run a bar for the tourist. what the fuck? A BAR? in my wachimak. they were planning on turning my secluded and real and pristine wachimak into something of a tourist thing. all for what? so they could get a few more dollars to buy a few more dvds and a bit more gas for their generator. so they could feel more modern. did they realize what direction they were headed down. they haven't needed it for thousands of years. why did they decide in the last few years that they needed all this? why? i almost felt that they werent even interested in having me teach english. i think they were happy to have me there and show me their way of life ... i mean they treated me like a guest of honor. but i think ultimately, me teaching english got me out to the village so i could make a donation. me staying there cost them nothing, but in the end i gave them 200 dollars for taking ...