The Amazon Rainforest

Stunning Amazon

One day, I´m sitting at work, proceessing seismic data from the Tungurahua Volcano when in comes Pete Minard. He is an old school volcanologist from the states. If I was around back in the day we would of called him a volcano cowboy - they are a rare breed. He has worked all over the world studying volcanoes and knows pretty much any name you can think of in this business. Back in the 1970´s he was working in Colombia - he´s a hardy man. He has lived in Ecuador for almost 30 years now, working in the Instituto Geofisio with his wife Patricia (also a volcanologist). He tells me that a farmer out in the Amazon Rainforest has found what he believes to be a volcano on his farm and he wants the IG to check it out. He asks me to go along for the weekend with his wife and a young German student working at the IG named Anne-Marie. I don´t refuse.

Before the trip to the Amazon, I had only got out of Quito once. It was a day trip down south. I travelled with some students from the University, to see a fault where two large blocks had been slipping past each other and in the past had produced some huge and devastating earthquakes. It took five hours to get there, past the towns of Banos, Ambato, Riobamba and many others. We left at 5am and didn´t get back till 9pm. It was an interesting trip though and a great way to see the country. Ecuador´s wild-land is stunning. On the way back we stopped off at various sites, including the countries oldest church, some fantastically beautiful lakes and mountain top view-points. During the journey, the students tried to teach me some Spanish. I now know all the colours. I couldn´t wait to get of out the city again. I mean I love Quito, but I wanted to get out there and see some nature, and some volcanoes - now was my chance.

The Amazon (or known here, also, as The Oriente) is actually not so far from Quito. A few hours winding drive east, around, up and over the snowcapped Andes Mountain Range and you start to descend in to the vast landmass of the Amazon Jungle. The Oriente covers more than a third of Ecuadors geographical area yet houses just a tiny percentage of it´s inhabitants, bar a number of small indeginous tribes. Some of these communities have struggled to maintain traditional ways of life, and many have resulted in heading deep into the jungle interior, cutting off all contact with the outside world. But for other tribes adaptation has not made their culture any less diverse. The immense expanse of the Amazon holds an incredible amount of biodiversity. Beyond the cloud forests of the eastern foothills, the rainforest is home to 50% of Ecuadors mammals and 5% of the Earths plant species and prolific birdlife. The further east you travel, the further you descend into the sweltering heat of the jungle. Down here, you can see monkeys swinging from tree to tree and even spot a jaguar prowling silently along your path. Unfortunately we wern´t heading that far east.

Its just 3 hours drive from Quito before arriving at our destination, the small town of Baeza. This is the Amazon Jungle, but its not far enough in to feel the clothes-soaking heat, or see any wild cats. The altitude here is still high enough to be pleasantly comfortable in terms of climate, but still get that rainforest feeling - and what I mean by that - is it always rains!!! This area is known as the cloud forests, as the clouds sweep in above the tree´s canopy line - it´s beautiful. Baeza is a small, old Spanish missionary town. It was founded in 1548 and in 2005 hosted the world rafting championships. I believe thats it´s claim to fame.

On our first day out in the Amazon, we met this old, but very knowledgeable farmer and 6 of his mates. We first marched across jungle terrain, which was apparently his farmland. It rained pretty much the entire time, and it didn´t matter what clothing you brought (I brought very little), you were going to get wet through. Incredibly the farmer was right, he actually does have a volcano on his farm. We found a number of volcanic rocks around the area (in situ) and there is a crater up at the top of this small hill. We now know the volcano is about 4000 years old and is unlikely to cause a stur, at least in the near future. The farmer was delighted that we confirmed he had a volcano on his land and I suspected he would use it as a tourist attraction!!!

The weather was wet and the ground was slippery. Anna, must of slipped over about every 14 steps, it was hilarious to watch. At one point she fell down a hill and completely took out Pete. We all had unbrellas, but most of us used them as walking sticks. Every one was destroyed by the end of the day - Anna snapped hers completely in half. Half way through our trek we stopped off at this little wooden shack, completely soaked and bitterly cold. The farmer made a fire and brought us all hot canelazo. It was home brewed, and tasted like flovoured methanol. It was just what we all needed. We sat round the fire and the farmers told us stories (in Spanish) of their life out here, like the time one of them dropped their shotgun shells in the fire they had made, then everyone had to run out the shack as the bullets exploded.

We continued trekking, this time up the stream of a river. Here the jungle was so thick we could barely get through it. The farmers used their giant machetes to hack our path. We were mostly in the river, or constantly crossing it, before we reached a beautiful and suprisingly impressive waterfall, where we were treated to more volcanic deposits. It was a great end to the day.

Our hostel was situated up on a hill in the rainforest town of Baeza with a fantastic view over the surrounding countryside. At night, we would sit out with a beer, and watch the life of the Jungle. There were these incredible insects that would be completely unoticed in the dark, before suddenly shining bright green, like someone had just switched on a lightbulb. It would then flash off again and they were gone. Suddenly you would see another light up for a second somewhere else before disappearing, like they were communicating with each other. I must find out what they were. During the day we had also seen a selection of amazing birds which included a flock of parrots. It was pretty amazing.

On our second day we met up with a Frenchman. He owned a hostal in another part of the rainforest near Baeza, but you had to walk for about 25 minutes to get there. It was a beautiful place. We trekked with him for the day, along a dried river bed to get some ash samples which were located there. Along the way we passed these giant earthworms. These things are like a meter long and they are as thick as a snake. In fact they are worms that are snake sized, thats a simpler way of describing them. We walked over wobbly wooden bridges and at one point spotted a wild llama, the first I had seen in the country. Eventually, we had to depart, so, covered in mud, soaked to the skin, and half the plant species of the Jungle now attached to my clothes, we headed back to Quito - knackered. I will definately head to the Amazon again while I´m out here - I´ll make sue of that, although next time I´d like to go deeper, into the humid depths of the jungle, where I may just come face to face with a jaguar............but thats for next time.