BACK FROM VACATIONS

Our cabin, #8 right by the pool. It was nice, but had a bat in it!

Flor de Canela Resort. Puyo, Ecuador

As you know, Joe went on a rafting mancation deep in the jungle more than seven hours away from Tena. When he got back (bruised, bleeding, mosquito-bit and sunburnt), he Google earthed to show me where he had been: about half hour from the border of Peru and a 3 day hike from any close civilization. He had been gone four nights and five days without any creature comforts such as electricity, a toilet, a shower, real food, or Fantasy Football updates. Below, Joe outlines the highlights of his trip:

Me: "So, Joe, give us the ten biggest highlights of your trip".

Joe: "Uh...just ten?! Hmmmmm...".

1. Being launched out of the raft five feet into the air before splashing down and being sucked under the current close to a rock wall and then being trapped under the raft when I tried to resurface.
2. Seeing bats fly a foot from  my face during the day, wild parrots fly overhead, huge kingfishers, and an osprey.
3. Sharing sips of rum and coke out of an old gallon-size water bottle with  eleven other guys.
4. Drinking fermented chicha in a native Shuar indian's lean-to shack with his family.
5. Jumping out of the raft and free-riding a wave chain of 6ft waves without getting eaten by a boa constrictor.
6. Camping in a 400 ft tall canyon during a violent rainstorm that threatened to overflow the river and sweep us all away.
7. Camping under skies so clear, unpolluted, and dark I could see an astroid belt and cosmic dust as if I could reach out and touch it.
8. Laughing at Tim's mancation motto: "What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas" although we were worlds away from any kind of city at all.
9. Learning how to do an Eskimo roll in Pancho's kayak.
10. Being part of the documentary that the tour group was filming.

So there you have it: Joe's top ten.  I'm just glad he survived it to tell the story.

Anyway, after seeing his great pictures and bandaging up his battle wounds, I packed up and left for my much-needed vacation. Joe was too tired to come with us and also had to work. So my friend and I took our kids to a resort in Puyo, a 2 hour bus ride away. It was nice, but I don't have ten highlights about it. I'm not sure I have three. Add to that, it was overpriced and the jacuzzis didn't even have water in them. The best part was when we turned off the lights in our cabin. A bat flew over our heads and in a matter of seconds, all four of us were in the same bed screaming each time we thought we heard flapping.

After a night in the 2 star resort, my friend and I parted ways. I wanted to continue our adventure in some cabins on the river Piatua in Santa Clara that I had heard about and she wanted to sleep in her own bed after the crazy night with Dracula we had just survived. In the end, I realize I should have just gone home with her. My "adventure" consisted of eating a liver and rice lunch at a roadside hut, wading in a river that I had to cross a swamp in my flip-flops to get to, hardly sleeping in a cabin full of jungle roaches that crawled on the walls above my head all night, and waiting an hour the next morning for the bus to hurry up and get us the heck out of there. Carlie wanted to go home too. She was freaked out by the large green parrots in the trees overhead that had listened to our conversations and memorized them. Soon we heard "Hola, Carlie. Hola!! Hola, Carlita, come on. Come here." That, and the fact that the owner had no breakfast to offer us, and we were ready to go home even if it meant by foot. Just FYI, so you can avoid our same miserable experience, it was called Finca Don Napo.

So now that we are back from vacations, we are back to normal jungle life. Life here is now just as routine as it ever was for me back in NC.  However, our friend from the States is visiting us in 2.5 weeks and we'll kind of be on vacation again. We'd like to take him to Papallacta and Banos. We'll see...

By the way, Tena has gotten a new restaurant. It's a Mexican place serving decent chimichangas and  awesome frozen lemon margaritas. Trust me, it's way more fun to eat there than to be on vacation.