Home » Ecuador » La Amazonía: The Village of Wachimak

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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were spent talking or watching tv. i hated the nights the generator worked. the tv and generator noise drowned out the beautiful noises of the jungle and the lights attracted an obscene number of bugs.

around 9, i became to tired to stay up. i began my 2 weeks by getting an escort by one of the adults along the 5 min walk from the village to my hut. on my second or third night in wachimak i was walking back with my mom and dad. along the way we heard a noise and my dad darted off into the forest. we followed him in to the trees to discover that he had chased a sloth looking animal up a tree. it was a mom with a kid attached to its back. i was amazed as they were beautiful and very large ... mammals are hard to see out it the wild. my amazement turned into sorrow as i realized they were looking at me and asking my permission to kill it for food. i said yes, of course. its their lifestyle and way of nourishment. hell, its a million times less damaging to nature than our way. so, my dad ran off and came back with another guy who had a shot gun. he aimed and took a shot. the deafening sound echoed through the jungle and i wanted to cry. the shot had missed but had taken off a huge chunk of the tree. after a few more shots the animal drunkly stumbled down the tree with the baby still clinging on. the next few minutes were a bit shocking. the mom was the size of a large dog. it laid on the ground dead for a few minutes and then hopped up and came at us. instead of shooting the animal again and taking it out of its misery, the man with the gun beat it over the head with the butt of the rifle until the animal fell over limp. i was heart broken. my dad held the unharmed baby by the tail and proudly announced that he was taking it as a pet. all i could think of was how the kids were going to brutalize this poor thing. my heart brook again. i tried arguing with my dad to let it
go, but my dad was set on having a pet. the man with the gun left with the animal and ...