Written: Tena, Ecuador
I’m now in steamy hot Tena, a town of about 20,000 people on the edge of the jungle. Tomorrow I head off for several days in the primary rainforest, staying in a jungle cabin not too far from here.
I left Baños this morning taking a bus along the same route towards Puyo that I took by bicycle yesterday. At the first tunnel, however, traffic had come to a stop. Word was that a landslide had closed the road, and traffic wouldn’t move until 3 p.m. It was now only 10 a.m. We were far enough out of Baños that going back wasn’t too practical an option. Faced with the likelihood of a wait of five hours or more, I decided to investigate walking. I asked a cop if pedestrians could pass. He indicated they could, so I grabbed my pack and began hiking through the tunnel. What I didn’t know was that the actual landslide was still about 5 km away. I crossed it around noon. As I headed to the next village in the hopes of getting transportation to Puyo, traffic began passing me, and I flagged down my original bus. Evidently the wait had only been a couple hours instead of five.
The driver tried to make up for lost time, barreling down the canyon, passing on blind curves with deep precipices to the side. I felt secure though — he had a couple plastic Virgin Marys on his dashboard, and they flashed in red and green lights whenever he hit the brakes. You need faith to take buses in Latin America.
Later that afternoon, I arrived in Tena. It was very hot and I was sweating and thirsty. After a few cooling drinks of agua mineral, I set off to a nice little zoological park on an island in the river. It was a jungle setting with lots of lush tropical trees and plants. The handful of animals had lots of room, and monkeys ran around freely, jumping between trees. I tried to photograph a few little ones who jumped faster than I could focus the camera.
Tomorrow I head off early in the morning for three days, and will be without Internet.