Spanish, Monkeys and the Jungle Tour

Many colorful parrots of Ecuador

A surprise last minute 2 night jungle tour to Puyo offered more than just one challenge for me. The Spanish speaking tour agency offered me a free trip for the weekend,  if I´d be willing to be the English interpreter for the tour group, who did not understand or speak Spanish. Although my Spanish is limited at best, perhaps the agency thought that having me was better than no interpretation at all. Admittedly, I was feeling some trepidation and feelings of  inadequacy.

The next morning arrived quickly after a poor night of sleep, and I was excited to get started.
To my relief, the tour group was a fun, friendly group and I surprised myself that I was able to understand enough Spanish to be helpful in the interpretation.  My years of Spanish lessons
were starting to pay off.

The trail was a little more slippery and muddy than I expected,  although our mid calf rubber boots came in handy.   At one point, we also needed to balance on an elevated log, in crossing a canyon over a rushing river. It began to pour and occasionally my boots sunk 5 or 6 inches into the mud, with my needing some help to break the suction and to be pulled out.  I thought about how awful it would be if it was real "quick sand", the kind I've seen in the movies.

These people in the tour group were European, in good shape, long legged and strong. We hiked through a monkey reserve area, with several monkeys following us and joyfully swinging from tree to tree.  Being somewhat used to people, they didn't seem to have any fear of us and wanted to continuously play and climb on us. I didn't like the part where they jumped on us.   But, it was fun to be followed by the monkeys and also viewed some animals that I had never seen before.   One monkey was hilarious when he rode on the back of the tour guide's dog.




One of the playful monkeys.

However, I was very nervous around them, ever since a few years ago, when a monkey jumped on
me and ran off with my necessary prescription glasses.  So, on this trip,  I felt safer when I pulled my rain jacket hood clear over my head and walked around with my glasses tucked into my bra. Yes.... basically I was walking around blind. 

There was an attractive 21 y-o Swiss girl named Marina, who felt overly confident when trying to play with the monkeys.  Unfortunately, that was a big mistake, as she took a nasty bite on her finger from a frisky, baby monkey.   Suddenly, I had a  flood of thoughts and fears about a deadly infection, weird parasites, unusual monkey diseases and life threatening rabies.   All I could do to help the girl was to squeeze the heck out of her finger, causing it to bleed and to expel the saliva that was injected into her from the monkey bite. We were too far out in the jungle to do anything else and no one in the tour agency thought of bringing a first aid kit. (only in Ecuador)

The first bungalow facility had no showers, but I could handle one night without a shower. Plus, I forgot to pack another pair of socks and this was a big mistake. Wet socks in the jungle do not dry out.....and they end up stinking.   Plus, irritating mosquito and spider (?) bites were added to the collection I already had, over my arms, legs, neck and back.
The second bungalow was near a river, a tributary of the Amazon, had a great view and fresh air.

That night we ate a hearty bowl of Armadillo soup (complete with a shell) and then a bonus dish of Rodent Stew. (no kidding) And as long as I didn't think about it or visualize the rodents,  it had a deliciously flavored sauce.  My motto was to try everything!

Armadillo - provided meat for our dinner soup.