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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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worms prevented me from finishing. i think my family was insulted. oh well, too bad, i tried.

i spent a lot of my time with the kids. actually, the whole stated reason for me going out there was to teach them english. for me that was just a way to get out wachimak and for the kids, well it was a joke. i worked with the kids for three days. it was hell. they were like wild animals. there was one class room that was apparently built not to long ago by the govt. the government also brought in a teacher to teach them, but i dont think anybody was very concerned with math when all they needed to know was how to get away from a killer snake. luckily for me, the teacher that i was supposed to help, left the week that i was their. it was impossible teaching these kids for a number of reasons. first, kids ranging from 4 to 16 were all put in one class. secondly, they had a classroom but no one had any supplies. only a few kids had pencils. next, the kids were more concerned with climbing trees for fruit and killing the humongous lethal tarantula that attacked me in class then they were with learning english. so after three days, i was fed up and the adults were fed up with me being fed up so they canceled it. i was ecstatic. that meant i got to go explore the jungle for a few extra days.

i had this love hate relationship with these kids. i would play with them in the river and they would paddle me around in the canoe like i was king. sometimes they would stroll by my hut and take me fishing with them. or they would randomly climb a tree and grab me some awesome fruit. i could always count on them to protect me and laugh at me when i need them to scare a way a spider or lead the way down a new path.
however, i could always count on them to mess with me too. i would be reading away in my hammock in the late afternoon sun listening to the jungle and the next thing i knew, i was being ambushed. the same fruit that only yesterday they were feeding me was ...