Misahualli Day 2 and Tena

After awakening covered in bug bites, we tried to distract ourselves with a delicious breakfast which included one of my favorite juices, tomate de árbol- tree tomato- mixed with another favorite, guanabana which apparently translates to English as soursop.  I'm sure you all know exactly which fruit that is now. It's delicious!  There were also more eggs (of course) and some bread-like cheese empanadas with jam and butter for breakfast.

Two butterflies

Beautiful colors!

The butterfly on my shoulder never left! There's also one on my backpack. Photo credit: Daria

This is such a great "head shot"! Photo credit: Daria

We checked out the river and the monkeys, and then we decided to go to a mariposario, or a butterfly garden.  Here Daria and I encountered our first Ecuadorian adolescent, although he was probably the least teenager-y of them all. He pointed out butterfly eggs and then showed us caterpillars, cocoons and then butterflies.  I didn't know that different butterfly caterpillars like different leaves, and some of them are a major pest in banana crops.  The cocooned butterflies were really cool, some had camouflaged leaf-like cocoons and others had shiny, gold cocoons.  There was an impressive display of well-preserved butterflies, beetles, praying mantises, etc. as well.  There were also some dead rhinoceros beetles on display (were they hoping people would think they were still alive?) and we saw a live metallic beetle. In the butterfly garden we saw all sorts of beautiful butterflies and several of them were almost attack-like- they kept returning to our shoulders, backpacks, etc.

Daria and me (sweating heavily) in front of the waterfall

Our teenage guide is the one on the far left, up on the rocks with the white Keds

From the mariposario we got a ride to the major attraction- a waterfall.  We paid an entrance fee and walked along the incredibly slippery, muddy trail to get to the waterfall.  Most Ecuadorians were wearing Keds-like shoes with no traction, as seems to be typical for hikes here- oh, Ecuadorians. Loyal readers will remember that I once saw a woman climbing a mountain in heels, so this seems about on par. Once we were about 200 meters from the waterfall we were told by two "guards" that we had to pay again- they were clearly taking advantage of the holiday to earn a few extra bucks. We beat the system by saying that we wouldn't pay and turning around- they immediately called after us and let us by without paying. Ecuadorian Adolescent #2 joined us at this point- it was unclear whether he wanted a tip for "showing us the way" or if he just decided to join us for the walk- but it was nice to have someone to take pictures of Daria and me together.  It was ridiculously hot and humid all day long, so we stripped off our clothes (we wore bathing suits) and jumped into the waterfall while Adolescent #2 made modelling poses whenever we took pictures of the waterfall where he happened to be standing, slicking his hair back and looking into the distance with what I'm sure he thought was a pensive look. Daria and I couldn't stop giggling which probably only served as encouragement.

We rode back to Tena (pronounced Tay-na) and a taxi driver offered to take us back to Tena (with another passenger) right away instead of having to wait for the bus.  This sounded like a good option so we hopped in his truck (thankfully not the back part).  Unfortunately, the driver was insane and ripped around a curvy road passing with none of the usual safety precautions like, for example, not passing on a curve.  Back in Tena, Daria and I both confessed to having imagined awful scenarios where we didn't make it home as safely. Another plate of rice, beans and eggs later, Daria and I stripped down to our bathing suits again to enjoy the only cool place in Tena, the river. We proceeded to be eaten alive by more bugs.

I forget what these animals were called...Daria?

Blurry photo, but this is a capybara

A baby duck!

Wild pig

View from the lookout tower

Yellow breasted bird seen from the lookout tower

One of probably a dozen squirrel monkeys that came out to play

After we finished our river dip we took a canoe for literally 15 seconds across the river (we decided we definitely could have waded across because it wasn't that deep or far) to visit the Isla Amazónica or the Amazonian Island, a chunk of land with lots of Amazonian trees and animals in natural cages. We saw a boa constrictor (which tried to attack us through the cage!), a porcupine, a monkey, capybaras (largest rodent in the world!), pigs, chickens, a parrot, wild monkeys and bats, and a goose that terrorized us while we oohed over the squirrel monkeys.  We climbed a lookout tower and had a great view, and Sharp-Eyed Daria pointed out two toucans!

Later that evening there was a huge rain/lightening storm and Daria and I scratched at our bug bites all night long.  We woke up early to take a morning bus to Baños.

Coming up next: The most sullen of our teenage guides, horses, and an unforgettable tapas meal