rakish richard's rants...

Coming at you today from the rainforest of Mindo, on what at least on Spanish newspaper is already describing as 'Martes Negro', or Black Tuesday as we wake to the news of Obama's victory. Well done America, and thank you. I'd love to hear his acceptance speech, but the bandwidth here doesn't really permit it. I'm settling for a transcript instead, and find myself really sad that his Grandmother didn't make it to see him win this.

Anyway, it's been a while since a decent post, so we've made some time to tap out what we've been up to. After the sudden change of plans, decided on the day we were about to head into Lago Agrio to begin a deep jungle trip, we decided to head to the recommended town of Baños (which means 'bathroom') a few hours south of Quito. We were seated on the roof terrace of hostel Plantas y Blancas before nightfall with a beer and the company of some fantastic Canadians, who are very thick on the ground in Ecuador it would seem. To the left is a shot of the town from up on the hill, just a small place, and a huge relief after the clamour and slight seediness that is Quito.

We shopped around on our first day for a 3 day trip kind of into a national park, all very lovely although not technically 'deep' jungle, and after waiting to see if they could fill the other places on the tour we were booked to leave on Saturday. Woe betide us, we had to wait another day, i.e. another night up on the roof terrace with the Canadians, this time stretching much further into the wee hours with talk of empire, elections and the economy. Thanks be to Ray, who takes the trophy as the wisest conversationalist we've met so far.

We set off on our trip the next day, beginning with a 20km mostly downhill bike out of the town following the river past the huge hydroelectric dam. As soon as you get out of town you really appreciate just how lush and verdant everything in this country seems to be. Life springs from every surface, and it seems you just scratch a line in the dark brown soil for new growth to spring forth. The ride down was beautiful, and although I passed on the bridge swing I couldn't resist taking the 'cable car' across the ravine to look at this waterfall. It's a pretty hairy ride, you're just in a metal car that holds about 8 people and is strung from a single steel cable. Controlling it from one end is a guy with a car engine (complete with gearbox) that drives a thin line which pulls you across. Changing gears makes for an audible gasp from the passengers... Views were fantastic, and after missing my return ride our guide Eduardo managed to persuade Ana to come over and fetch me.

After finishing our ride in Rio Verde we were briefed on our 20km river rafting trip, joining up with Italian foodie/engineer/photographer/traveller Antonello. The grade IV rapids have been cancelled lately due to high water, so we took a fairly leisurely trip down the grade III sections. Twas much fun, and quite tiring, but I did manage to stay in the boat, unlike Ana who was actually pushed in by Eduardo! Admittedly he's a member of the Ecuadorian rafting team, so we were in good hands.

After a quick lunch in the town of Shell (yes, named after the oil company, it was the first place in Ecuador to strike black gold) we drove on to our camp, just an hour on from the town of Puyo. Deciding to skip on a 2hr walk to a waterfall, we slunk into hammocks to chat and relax before walking up the hill to our very loosely described 'lodge', at left. Perched atop the hill there were amazing views out over the valley, and we were treated to a shimmering lightning storm before dinner and bed shortly afterwards.

Our second day began a little late, after Angel our guide slumbered a little too long, but we headed out into the jungle to visit the Hola Vida waterfall. It stayed fairly dry, so we saw lots of creepy crawlies and birds, and the walking wasn't too bad. Angel (Mr. Black Eyed Peas at the right) talked us into smearing our faces with clay, telling us it was good for your skin. I'm sure he tells that to everyone...

The waterfall was well worth the walk tho, 15m of vertical spray and the perfect substitute for a cold shower in the morning. We stopped a while, washed and enjoyed the view and headed back to the camp for lunch, delicious fishes that we'd bought the day before at the fish farm. After lunch we did the obligatory trip to an 'indigenous community', which is all a little naff really and makes me kind of uncomfortable. At this point the first cracks in the organisation of our tour started to show, when the canoe taking us across the river started to sink. Not a huge problem for either of us, but Antonello with his $3,000 camera was understandably nervous. We made it back downstream, in a new canoe, and were parked up again at our camp by late afternoon to wait for 5 others who were joining the trip.

Grim faced and tired, they arrived just before dark; four Norwegian nurses, and a French baker. It sounds like the start of a dirty joke, but we stuck in the Gallic corner and spent most of the evening chatting with the baker, who had sold his shop and was travelling for 18 months. Day three and the skies had opened, proper Apocalypse Now type jungle walking, the sucking of gumboots stuck in mud, and clambering up 'paths' slick with greasy goo. Having been told we were 'taking a walk to a waterfall' we put on our last dry socks, only to be completely drenched an hour into the walk. Angel strangely took us back to the same waterfall we'd been to the day before (cracks? fingers? dykes?), and we walked waist deep down the river to get to camp for our final lunch.

Turns out our return transport to Baños had fallen apart, but we weren't told this until 4pm. So, slightly frustrated, and extremely smelly and wet, we were driven to Puyo to take a bus back to Baños, taking a reliably good room at Plantas y Blancas by 8pm, a little too late to get back to Quito where we had a hotel booking. Dabnabbit if I didn't find that sometime over the last 3 days and someone had stolen the $100 I keep in the sole of my shoe for emergencies... Well well, these things happen, and at least it wasn't a passport. We were both comforted by the rooftop terrace, and a delicious steak and wine later on, farewelling Baños the following morning.

So, yesterday was a travel day, 4hrs to Quito, then another 3 to the outskirts of Mindo, where (by luck or management I know not) someone with a van was waiting to drive us the 15 minutes in the dark down to the town. We walked around for 10 minutes before a local carrying a baby (if that's not a guy you can trust then I don't know who is) took us to a little spot backing onto the forest. They have cabins (another first in S.A. so far!) with hammocks and a comfy place to lay our head. No cable TV tho (not ften I have that stipulation), so a quick check of the election results last night was all we had until this morning.

We woke to find thousands of butterflies flittering around the cabin, and had our breakfast outside watching the countless hummingbirds while watching CNN Español's coverage of La Victoria De Obama. You could say it's been a pretty great day so far... Ana's just sent me The Onion's coverage of the election, which I also recommend. Think we'll head off to the flying foxes above the town later on today, zipping through the forest canopy, and we're back to Quito tomorrow night to stay before flying to the Galapagos on the 7th. Expect radio silence until the 14th, then some gushing reports of what the Japanese love to refer to as The Nature.

Until then,

A