Into the Jungle ...

After meeting up with my new group and brand new truck in Quito we headed north to the market town of Otavalo. This town is famous throughout South America for the huge market it holds every Saturday and for the quality of the items you can buy there. After a little bit of shopping (I´m sure my poncho will come in very handy when I get to the Andes) we loaded up and headed east towards the Amazon Jungle. We stopped at Tena a town considered to be a gateway into the Amazon and it was from here that I decided to be very brave and brave the rapids again. After my disaterous outing in Guatemala - things surely could only get better? This time I went white water rafting down the Rio Napa, a tributory of the Amazon. Needless to say I was slightly nervous at first. The first few rapids we went through my heart was in my mouth but as I got used to it I slowly began to enjoy myself. In fact my the end of the day I was confident enough to join in stunt rafting. As you can see from the pic, the aim was to get the raft vertical and stable for as long as possible without toppling over or tipping backwards. Our raft was by far the best at this and we even managed to stay dry. By the end of the day, I was exhausted but I hadn´t fallen in once and was feeling incredibly proud of myself.
From Tena we went further into the jungle to stay for 3 nights at the Shangrila lodge. The view from my room is the one you see above - it was breathtaking. It would have been a lovely place to relax and wind down after the excitement of the rafting - but no such luck. We went hiking into the jungle and explored a series of caves. At one point we were scrambling up rocks and cliffs - having to walk up sheer faces with our legs on one side of an abyss and our hands on another. (Not easy when you are as short as me)! Crawling through other points where it was too narrow to do anything other than lie on your stomach. It was incredibly physically demanding - or so I thought until I started the following day´s activities. This was another full day climbing through the jungle but this time we had to climb up 4 waterfalls as well. The first couple were tiny but the third was huge and fast flowing but with the aid of a good rope I made it - alas the top of this waterfall only brought me to the bottom of another. My the time I reached the top I was dripping wet - not to worry I dried out on the following 2 hour hike up and down the steepest hillsides I have ever seen. Climbing through the jungle is not easy, tree roots and mounds of wet leaves try to trip you up at every opportunity. By the end of these few days my body did not know what had hit it! Luckily my next stop is the spa town of Banos, famous for it hot springs. I´ve also heard they do a pretty good massage ...