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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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now being used to bombarded me. they really knew how to get under my skin.

bath time was always a welcome time as the amazon is a very hot, sticky, and dirty place. i bathed in the river next to the village, often with others from the village. sometimes bath time turned into play time with the kids, other times i used it to wash my clothes. often the cool water of the stream was the only way that i could relieve the agonizing itching from my bitten up legs. a thing that i quickly discovered but wish i hadnt was that this river system contained the meanest looking species of spiders i have ever seen. the kids laughed at me but im telling you, they were huge. i also quickly discovered the spiders could swim. i once asked my father of the amazon about snakes in the river we bathed in. he gave me a very interesting response. he pointed a little bit down stream, maybe 50 or 100 feet, and said that over there, past that tree there were deadly water snakes ... but that where we swam, we had nothing to worry about. that was a bit unsettling, but all i could do was trust him, he hadn't let me down yet.

i spent the time that i wasnt eating, sleeping, and bathing exploring the forest. in the early mornings my dad and some of the other adults would take me on little adventures. i loved walking through the jungle, it was always so serene and peaceful. every time we went, my dad would point out new plants and describe all of their medical properties: this one has penicillin, this leave used in a tea protects against malaria. one day we went to an amazing view point. the rain forest opened up in a small clearing and exposed a jungle that went on as far as the eye could see. it was breathtaking. it was this view point that truly showed me how far away i was from everything. my first saturday we took a trip to the market. this market took about two hours to get to and involved the 6 km hike back to the river, catching a ride on a canoe and then heading upstream. ...