It had been quite a while since I last went to the jungly realm of Tena. It had been at least 6 months or so ago, when I travelled out with a big group of American´s, which included Brenna.
Skip forward half a year though, and my German friend, Jens, had been working on an internship in Quito. However, he specialised in forestry and so he was delighted to finally get out and work in the jungle. He was based in Tena and loved it out there. His girlfriend Marie had also applied to do an internship in Ecuador and ended up getting a job in a hospital, also in Tena. Myself and three amigas decided that a weekend trip out to see them was a must.
Tena is hot. I mean its jungle so you have to expect that, but coming from the mountainous climate of Quito, it really hits you when you arrive, especially the humidity. It´s a 6 hour windy bus ride to Tena and we didn´t arrive until late on the Friday night. It was thus not until the following day that we met up with Jens and Marie.
Our first excursion was to the caves. I had actually done this last time I came to Tena but its a pretty cool activity to do out here so it didn´t bother me at all. The cave trip takes about an hour, walking past stalactites and stalagmites, around columns and often over a lot of bat poo!!! They take you to parts were you have to swim in the underground rivers, lie in the (good-for-your-skin) mud and stand under cave waterfalls. It´s completely dark in the caves save for your headlamps, and so the trip mostly involved scaring the more vulnerable in our group - all in good nature of course.
On our second day (minus Ella and Nina who were not keen), the group headed out to do some White Water Rafting. It was only my second opportunity attempting this activity and the first time was only attempted a few months previously. Tena is a renowned spot for this water sport and so it had to be done while we were all here. Six weeks earlier, a tourist in Baños (where I had done it for my first time) died during a White Water Rafting trip, by not following some crucial instructions. We thus first had a detailed briefing on keeping safe.
It was a full day of adventure. We set out early and hit the river for about 2 hours in the morning. The rapids came in stages, interspersed by periods of quiet, where we would all have a chat before hitting the next set of waves. We later pulled over at the side of the bank for a delicious lunch. First we took a walk throug the jungle though, to a huge waterfall. The walk involved wading through a river and rock climbing before we eventually reached our destination. At the falls we all swam in the freezing water and covered ourselves in more therapeutic mud.
In the afternoon we hit the water again for more rapid action. This included our guide tipping the raft on purpose, before we all climbed back on and eventually floating our way back to Tena. The whole day out was a lot of fun, though for about three days after I didn´t want to be wet again.
On the rest of our trip out there, we spent our time eating in the amazing restaurants they have on the river and drinking cocktails. Tena is a great spot for escaping work and the hectic life of Quito - despite the fact I generally filled my time doing very unrelaxing activities. It´s certainly nice to be around nature after weeks of a big city though. I think most people feel that.
We left Jens and Marie in Tena and headed back to the Capital. It was only a week until my birthday and rumours of a party bus had spread like wild-fire...............................
Sunday 17 October 2010
Visiting Some Friends In Tena
Fireworks Madness, A Bus With A Smoke Machine & An Animal Massacre - It Can Only Be Quito!!!
Between Quilotoa and my next trip out of the city - I actually spent a fair amount of time in Quito..........doing very Quito things. I amassed an amazing group of friends during this time. Sometimes with volunteers at the Secret Garden - who I usually make my buddies, it comes a bit in waves. You will often get a great group who stay for a while and then they all tend to leave at the same time and you have to start all over again. I have my even longer term friends who are not volunteers which is amazing too - but mostly my time is spent hanging out amongst the Secret Garden chaos that quickly develops.
During this period of time, Ella and Nina, two young English ladies had come over to work as volunteers and in the end, stayed for almost three months. Joining them was an amazing Australian couple, Dom and Georgie as well as another Dom from England, Elena (my work compañera) and some other guys who stayed for a long period of time just for the sake of the others. Together our group had some brilliant times and did some bizarre yet always fun activities.
One of my other good friends, Jens - likes to play a joke or two and his ability to keep a straight face during the whole procedure only adds to its realism. So when he told us that there was a water museum in Quito and that it contained bottles of some of the oldest water in the world - half the hostel believed him. Of course this is not true and I quickly realised this, yet we would continue to convice the newbies to Quito that they had to check it out for its sheer historical value. Later Jens had to move to the Jungle for his work, where his girlfriend from Germany (Marie) had come over to join him. The next time I left the city, it would be to join up with the two of them.
However, there is actually a water museum in Quito (despite not containg old water) and so, bored one Saturday - Ella and I had to check it out, if nothing else - for pure comedy value. Its an odd place, describing about water in this area - the river systems, irrigation etc, etc. It also has a bubble room where you can make bubbles about the size of your head. We laughed most of the way around the museum despite its interesting exhibits.
Within the months that passed, the group often headed out on the town for a bit of partying. This included a trip to the Guapulo street festival, which mainly involved drinking traditional Ecuadorian alcohol called canelazo and watching fireworks fly passed your head as they are not aimed up to the sky but instead into the crowd. It was most odd.
On one weekend, there was a three day bull-fighting event taking place. On my very road in which I live, is actually a bull-fighting stadium. Its meant to be one of the oldest in the country and in my 9 months here, I had never actually been inside. A bunch of us went as the event was free on the first two nights. The last time I went to a bull fight it was a kids show and no bulls were harmed. This however, was a whole different affair. As one bull was brought on after another, each matador would tease the animal before staking it in the back, through the heart, where it would stumble for a few seconds before collapsing to the floor. If the matador was poor the animal would suffer terribly. The whole ordeal was pretty hard to watch and I along with many friends only stayed for 25 minutes before walking out in horror. We later got talking to the guy who arranged the event and he explained the full rules of it and how it was part of tradition in the country. Some rules to know about:
1. If the bull runs straight under the cloth and does not turn away at the end, they are considered a perfect bull and it is not allowed to be killed - it gets sent back to the field to eat grass for the rest of its life. This happened only once during the event.
2. When the sound horns, the matador has three minutes to kill the bull. The horn sounds on two minutes and finally on one. If the matador does not kill the bull in three minutes they will never be a matador again.
3. When the matador is poor and the bull is suffering the crowd will boo and show their disapproval - apparently the audience does not like witnessing animal suffering as much as anyone else. If the bull is killed correctly the animal supposedly does not feel pain.
Despite this I dont personally feel that killing a bull for sport is particularly enjoyable and so when we saw a huge anti-bullfight street protest the following day from our terrace (which ended up getting quite violent) and resulted in the following two nights being cancelled - many of us were quite happy about it!!! It is part of the tradition here so I am not going to judge, but it also appears that new generations of Ecuadorians are also against the whole activity.
A far more enjoyable sport in my opinion is football. Its huge here and naturally I am a major fan. My team in Ecador is La Liga, although I had not been to a match for a while. Then a game came up which I just had to go to. In South America there are two main competitions, like that of the Champions League and the Europa Cup in Europe. Last season La Liga won the Champions league version and some Argentinian team (who Veron now plays for) one the other major trophy. As the new season starts they have a two legged game between the two teams - like a cup winners cup. Myself and about 9 others decided we had to see the home tie.
After some chaos getting in (many angry fans due to police incompetence and a few arrests) we finally entered. The stadium was packed and the noise was immense. There were a few thousand Argentinians around adding to that. The fireworks that were let off in the stadium was extraordinary. I have never seen anything quite like it at a football game. By the end you couldnt see the pitch for the amount of smoke which filled the air. The game was thus postponed for 15 minutes. Eventually we got under way, winning the game 2-1. A few weeks later, we ended up drawing 0-0 in Argentina and ultimatley becoming the best team around.
As work continued to plod along, the other most notable activity of fun during this time, was a party that we had been invited to. It was on a Chiva Bus, a tradition in many parts of South America. I had been on one, last December, when I first arrived and so was very happy to get a second opportunity. A birthday girl from America had hired out this open bus, which also has disco lights, a DJ, a smoke machine and canelazo alcohol for the entire time your on it. It drives around the city for two hours during which time you dance, drink and wave to people in the street. Everyone also gets given a whistle for maximum noise pollution. It also makes one stop in the historic old town of Quito for birthday photos, before continuing around the city. The trick is to manage to stay standing on a moving bus while drinking and dancing at the same time. By the end no-one really remembers anything of whether standing was an issue or not so it doesnt really matter. It then drops the group off (which can be up to 45 people - we were about 30) in the party area of the Mariscal for more clubbing mayhem. There were only 5 or 6 people that I actually knew but we all had such an amazing time. It was at that moment, with my birthday only a month away, that a Chiva Bus with all my friends on it would have to be done. Three days later it was booked.
Before this birthday to remember (or not), I had to make a trip out to see Jens and Marie in the Jungle. So one weekend, I dragged Ella, Nina and Elena out with me, for my second trip - to Tena........................
