View from our cabana room.
I loved this place mat. Also, the food on the jungle excursion was awesome. Delicious fruits and vegetables and the main dishes were super tasty. And sooooo filling. We were all starving after our jungle hike and were a little disappointed when they called us over for lunch and only had soup sitting out. We ate our soup with the "this has to fill us up mentality" and got up to leave just as Fausto and his helper came walking out of the kitchen carrying 3 plates piled with FOUR boiled potatoes each and a generous helping of some beef stir-fry stuff. Not to mention the huge plate of cooked carrots we had to share.
Have you ever eaten four potatoes in one sitting? I sure tried. I think I managed to eat one of the potatoes before calling over the jungle dog and sneaking him some.
We definitely didn't starve.
Queen of the jungle!
Ant colony.
Fausto explaining something cool.
Greg is brushing his hair with some plant, per Fausto's recommendation.
A new jungle queen, complete with skirt.
Buttresses!
Swinging on a vine. Except I was the first brave one to throw my weight on the vine and test its fortitude. Unfortunately the photographic evidence of that turned out a bit blurry.
If you were ever to find yourself lost in the jungle over night, tying yourself to an upper tree branch is about the best way to survive. Fausto is demonstrating how to "easily" reach the upper branches. Notice how ripped his calves are. I don't think I'd survive a night in the jungle...
And what about the snakes in the trees??
Alisha's little flower actually looks like lips while mine looks like I'm spitting up blueberries from a sideways Mr. Potato Head piece.
It's cool.
More importantly, as I was editing out some shiny face...ALISHA...I finally noticed those massive earrings. This brings the number of trip rules you broke to at least two.
NO jewelry (except the adventure bracelet).
NO makeup.
Are we going to have to start assigning penalties to these rules?? I'll cut you some slack, you were trying to attract an Ecuadorian husband.
Despite a tortuously humid trek thru the jungle, it still took me 15 minutes to jump into this river. I don't like cold water! Or anacondas. I never ventured far off the rock.
Trying to take an underwater picture...not quite what we'd imagined!
Planting new...things. I do not remember what these were called.
This lady put on a show. She was way too cavalier with that machete at times!
I think I prefer my pack on my back as opposed to around my head. Also, this basket has about 3 potato-like vegetables in it so let's not pretend this is anything spectacular.
Lighting up the stove.
This is the dog that gave me fleas. Because I scratched its belly with my boot.
Cooking something.
A fresh orange to momentarily distract me from the fleas.
What is Beethoven's favorite fruit??
Ba-na-na-nas!
Scratching my legs incessantly. Fleas!
I forget what's happening here. That's the mash from some root vegetables we had picked earlier and I think she's mixing something fermented in. Who knows? FLEAS.
Alisha took no less than 20 pictures of this butterfly so I had to include at least one.
We helped make chocolate from the beans! First they dry forever. Usually on the side of the road in front of your house. Block off your section with rocks or spare bricks.
Then I think they were roasted? I don't know. I got sidetracked getting then trying to get rid of fleas.
I'm sure they were roasted. Then peeled. Only legit if you burn the tips of your fingers peeling them.
Grind into a powder.
Add ingredients like sugar and maybe other things. Again, fleas were distracting me.
Cook over a fire.
Serve with the most amazing fresh bananas and watch the fat Americans devour everything. And now I'm sitting here fantasizing about that, with the bananas, over ice cream.
Play it up even more. Lick the spoon.
But seriously, our hosts wouldn't eat the chocolate. They said it was too rich for them. But they downed the alcoholic beverage they created....so to each their own!
My flea-bitten leg.
Saying goodbye to Fausto. He was the best!
The bus ride from Tena to Banos. It was HOT. We got what we thought were prime seats up front with tons of leg room, but none of the windows we were next to opened. Air was badly needed! The bus was packed with many people standing so we couldn't just move. Also, someone was sitting on Alisha's arm. We were dying and nobody had their windows opened! It was like everyone wanted to suffocate on purpose. About 2 hours into the ride some seats cleared in the back and we rushed to grab them and stuck our faces out the windows like dogs, gulping in the fresh air.
Shortly thereafter red, blue, purple, green, and orange lights started flashing inside the bus like it was a disco party. Or maybe I was hallucinating, who knows.
Buses in Ecuador are just amazing. Best way to travel.
This, my friends, is the luxurious accommodations of Hostal Transilvania. The bathroom was less than ideal, though the shower was warm, and Alisha probably got bed bugs here, BUT $7.90 a night. With a $2 hot breakfast included.
And the owners were super helpful and they accepted credit cards. THE only time I could use my credit card in Ecuador.
What up.
Worth it.
Oh yeah, it's April Fools...I'm pregnant. APRIL FOOLS. Some guys on my team rigged an air horn to my manager's chair. It was set up to go off whenever he sat down. How hilarious is that?? I need Nicole around to remind me of the true potential of this day.
Have a great day :-)
1 comment:
I was so lame about April Fools this year! I didn't do anything! I had thought about rubber banding the sprayer on our sink until I realized it wouldn't shoot out, just into the sink and it would probably get me, not anyone else anyway. :( Next year I'll make up for it. And just wait until the kids are old enough to understand! ;)
I'm loving all of your pictures by the way. Except for the snake one. I did not enjoy that. And there was no warning, it just popped up in my blogger feed. You need a buffer photo.
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