You Can Call Me Jane

Yes, Jane.  Or Jane of the Jungle!

Lindsay and I just returned from the jungle, one of the 4 regions in Ecuador (jungle, mountains, coast and Galapagos).  And we had another great experience.

Our morning hike included swinging on a vine (hence my name change), eating a couple of plants, wearing a curli-cue plant as earrings, hiking upward and downward and through streams, going through caves with lots of bats, traversing through narrow canyons where you have your back along one wall and your feet on the other as you inch and scoot along, seeing termites and learning about how they can be used as repellent if you squish them all up, eating some ants that tasted like lemon, and seeing beautiful trees, flowers and other plants.  

After we ate lunch and relaxed in the hammocks at the Eco-lodge that provided our tour-guide, we went tubing.  Three huge tubes were roped together to take us (3 passengers and 1 guide) along the Anzu River.  I had imagined we would float lazily along like you would at Kentucky Kingdom, but since it rained yesterday it was more rapid than I thought it would be.  It was a class 3 which was actually perfect and I was glad it wasn´t anything more.  I was told about the catfish that were 1 1/2 meters long and about midway through our trip it started to lightning.  That made me nervous but there was nothing one could do cuz you are out in the jungle!  It was a great ride, making our jungle experience complete.

Well, actually, seeing the tarantula in the Eco-lodge really perfected our trip to the jungle!

(Thank you , Darrell, for making me the hiker and rafter that I am!!)  I was told to not grab a tree or plant if you needed it to catch your balance because there could be some kind of bug, insect, scorpion, etc. on it.  So we were instructed to look first...