Eric Ault’s Galapagos Report (Cont.)

The next day we took the canoes down river to tributary of the Napo. A short ride up that river brought us to the local animal rescue station, sort of like Willowbrook just by College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. Despite the pouring rain, we saw monkeys, birds, wild pigs, ocelots, jaguarondi, and capybara, the world’s largest rodents. Fortunately, the rains let up in time for some intrepid visitors to do some tubing down the river before returning to the resort.

After lunch, we visited the home of one of the local Quichua families. The house was on stilts to avoid flooding and had a thatch roof made of palm leaves. Cooking was over an open fire. Most of the walls were about waist-high with the rest open to the air. The owner was a woman about 40 years of age who told us she has ten children. One of their staples is drink called chicha which is made by fermenting boiled manioc anywhere from three days (for kids) up to eight or nine days for special occasions. We all survived a taste of this brew, but I don’t think I’ll be giving up beer for it just yet. After the visit, Clever gave us all an opportunity to try our hand with a blow-gun by shooting at a wooden monkey hanging in a tree. I hit the target on my second try but I don’t believe I’m quite ready to give up my day job to become a blow-gun hunter. Next we next visited a local potter who is keeping alive the traditional ways of producing Quichua earthenware. Seeing how these people live certainly makes you realize how much we all really have. We should all be very grateful.

Our Quichua Indian Guide seemed to take quite a shine to Colleen. As she puts it: “During our rainforest trek, I was crowned Queen of the Jungle or La Reina as I preferred to be called. My ceremonial headdress would make anything from Tiffany’s pale in comparison. It was a stunning corona of palm leaves. On the second day I was prepared for marriage with the traditional face painting, unfortunately or fortunately no groom showed up. Eric speaks of his prowess with the blow gun. It was only on orders from La Reina that my subjects participated in this event. Some had the temerity to hit the target when La Reina’s shots sent the neighbor children running. Of course they quickly returned to sell us some beads. It was a short reign but one of which I am proud.”

Early Wednesday morning under threatening skies we boarded the canoes for a voyage back up river to retrieve our bus and head for Quito. Heavy rains had been falling in the mountains for several days. What were scenic streams and rivers had become raging torrents of boiling black waters. Climbing the muddy roads through the cloud forest, especially where road crews were working, proved tricky, but bus driver Jorge knows his business well and managed to keep the bus from getting stuck. After several harrowing hours we finally climbed into the high Andes where the roads are at least paved.

Only a couple of hours from Quito traffic suddenly came to a halt. Ominously, no traffic was coming the other way, either. Jorge and Romiero went to investigate. They soon reported that a mudslide had closed the road about 100 yards or so ahead. We all trooped up to assess the situation to discover that the road was covered by a layer of mud and rocks about three to five feet deep and perhaps 30 to 45 yards wide. Nobody was going anywhere for a while. The good news was that in the line of traffic was a car belonging to the Ecuadorian Army Corp of Engineers. They phoned for assistance to clear the road. The bad news was that the nearest equipment was about two hours away so we hunkered down to wait. At the end of two hours, just as promised, a large front-end loader rumbled by the bus. I figured another hour or two to get things moving. But after only twenty minutes or so, traffic on our side of the road at least, began to move. They probably get a lot of practice clearing the roads. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived back at our Quito hotel. We all gave Jorge three cheers (and a big tip) for doing such a great job.

On to the Galapagos »