Ecuador, part one, The Amazon

We were in Coca, waiting for our luggage to be loaded on the motorized canoe to go up the Napo River to Mondaña.  We hung out at this open air restaurant where they keep (illegally, I'm pretty sure) some monkeys and birds in cages until the tourists come.  There was also a toucan who tried to steal food out of our backpacks.

This is Robert, our local guide at the Yachana Lodge.  Yachana is a neat organization that is trying to provide education to young people who live in the rain forest.  The education is focused on sustainable energy, ecotourism, and other vocations that allow the kids to be employed in the communities where they grew up.  Robert is holding a rainbow boa.

I was the first to try to shoot the blowgun at the papaya and hit it with my second dart.  The gun is longer and heavier than I would have thought practical.  The local men are the hunters and can shoot monkeys and birds in the top of the forest canopy.  Pretty impressive accuracy.  The poison put on the darts is made from poison frogs here. 

We are stringing maggots to have for dessert.  First we crushed the head with our fingernail, then skewered them.  Then we ripped a little hole in their skin and let the guts hang out.  Then we salted them and cooked them over the campfire.  They got pretty crispy and tasted like bacon.  Mmmmm!

Salted fish, baked plantain, boiled yuca, and chopped hearts of palm.  The hearts of palm is raw with salt and lime juice.  Everything else was cooked over a campfire. 

Nature walk in the rain forest.  Wet and muddy and truly amazing.

This is a baby river otter that was rescued from the black market pet trade.  The employees of the lodge catch little fish for it every day in hopes that it will start to catch some by itself and be able to live in the wild some day.

Tubing on the Napo River.  I have mixed feelings about recreating in this river.  Anything biodegradable gets thrown in.  However our three little tagalongs dared me to get in and show them that I could swim, so I did.