La Selva (part 2)

November 1st:

8h00: Desayuno

9h30: The cavernas (caves) de Jumandy was a really cool experience, however there were a lot of tourists inside which is not something I had expected. We started off by meetin our guide, who showed us a lot of plants and had us tasts some. Then we went inside the cave which involved stepping on a lot of slippery rocks and trying to see in the dark. We all got into the water and then kept on going until there was a part where the water had risen becuase of the heavy rain that came down the night before so we had to swim across. Now it should be noted that we were warned that this might happen, which is why we didn't bring our cameras, and I had to get the smallest size boots that the hostal had, but I guess they were still too big becuase while swimming across...they fell :( I finished the rest of this hike with my socks, and of course fell right before we got out and had a pretty noticable bruse. Once we got out of the cave we were surprised to find a pool with huge slides, and we of course got on them :)

12h30: We went back to the hostal (still no power) and had lunch.

15h00: Arrived at la comunidad de los Wuayra Churis which was this Quichua community and saw a few traditional dances. Dita volunteered to be in one that was suppose to be this dance that the groom and bride do when they get married. It was pretty cool.

Before the dancing began they drew on our faces to welcome us into their community.

The first dance was a salutation to the sun.

Here comes the bride...dum dum dadda!



18h00: Went back to the hostal, had dinner and then went on this night hike through the Amazon in search of nocturnal animals. We didn't really see much, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.



This is a common size leaf that you will find in the Amazon.


November 2nd:

8h00: Breakfast

9h00: Arrived at Proyecto de Turismo Comunitario "Petroglifos" in Cotundo

First petroglifo that we saw called “Yachak Rumi (Shaman).”

Petroglifo  "Rimak Rumi”

This is the pamphlet that told us all the images that we were supposed to be able to see.

Last petroglifo that we saw, the guide pointed out that it has one big shape (a frog) and
then other shapes of animals, like two snails at the top.

 



Group picture of the K students + Noah; new friend we made
that's here via the International Program for Service
Learning (IPSL) + a Dugadito.



11h00: Arrived at the hostal and had some down time. At first I was confused why we didn't get on the bus and go back, but I actually enjoyed this time a lot. We decided to do a little bit of yoga, Hannah was our instructor, afterwords we got into the pool and then headed to our cabins for a quick shower. Then we started to pack, had lunch, came back and got on the bus to head back to good old Quito :)