Gabriel sleeps for about 2 hours at a time and I give him more Tylenol each time he wakes. He complains of a 'big ow' in his ear, but we can't see anything by the kerosene lantern, and couldn't have done anything about it even if we did.
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DEC 13th: LA SELVA JUNGLE LODGE
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It has rained all night, and continues to rain in the morning. I am still throwing up everything, but try to eat anyway. There is no doctor, and no medicine beside what we brought ourselves. Because of the preganacy I'm not supposed to take medicine anyway, so this doesn't bother me, and in one of our half-dozen bags I have a whole medicine chest of things for Gabriel. We decide to skip the morning hike and sleep until lunch. I am very thankful that our sicknesses coincided with the rain, so we don't miss much.
After lunch, which I lose as well, we go for a short canoe trip to another trail through more open forest. I enjoy the hike, but am too weak to travel far. Gabriel's fever is kept in check with the tylenol and he has a good time, carried most of the way in his father's arms. On the way back we fish for pirannas but don't catch anything.
That night I go out with the ecologist to look for caiman. Gabriel has fallen asleep at supper again, and Tomas doesn't think we should wake him up for the moonlight trip so they stay behind. We don't get a very close look at the caiman, but only see their red eyes reflecting the flashlight. The real highlight of the evening are the bats, dozens of them, who fly very close. Our guide catches moths and throws them into the water to entice the bats to swoop down right beside us. I am delighted, and wish that Gabriel could have seen this too.
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DEC 14th: LA SELVA JUNGLE LODGE
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It is our last full day at La Selva. The German woman is in a funk at breakfast because ants invaded her bungalow overnight and covered everythingthe shower, the sink, the clothes, them in their beds. The guides apologize but explain that there is really nothing to be done but wait for the ants to leave. The cabins are painted every day with a petroleum solution to discourage bugs, but sometimes they are attracted (by food or crumbs or some other scent) anyway.
This morning, we travel on the Napo river to see parakeets feeding at a salt lick, then hike for a few hours to a much smaller stream with many overhanging trees. This is the best place to see howler monkeys, they say, and we keep our eyes peeled while trying to keep Gabriel quiet. At last the child falls asleep, and within minutes I hear our native guide whisper: 'Howlers, in the trees over there'. We all strain to see them. I am distracted by capuchin monkeys leaping across the stream in front of us, and by a pack of squirrel monkeys in the trees closer by. 'Which ones are the howlers?' I ask. 'The skinny red ones'. 'Where?'. 'Over there'. Everybody sees the howlers but me. And then they are gone. The squirrel monkeys are leaping right over our heads. The ecologist gets some great pictures, but Tomas is holding Gabriel and I am too entranced with the binoculars to think about using our camera. We are all thrilled with the monkeys and agree that this was the best excursion ever.
That afternoon we go for another canoe trip around the lake, and fish again for pirannas. I have slightly better luck this time: one eats my bait but avoids the hook. We hear howlers, but can't see them.
Supper is delicious as always, and at last I am able to eat and keep the food down. The bird-watchers gather in the lounge to consult their books and trade stories about everything they've seen. I love listening to them; many have travelled all over the world. They all agree that La Selva is one of the best places for birds- there are over 400 species around this one lakeand many of the guys are sad to have to leave so soon. John, the ecologist, has caught two pirannas and we are given one to taste at supper. It is delicately flavored, but with many small bones. Later, someone in the kitchen cleans and removes the skull with jawbone and we pack it carefully in one of Gabriel's lidded sippy cups to take home.
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DEC 15th: LA SELVA -> ANDEAN HIGHLANDS
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Wake-up is at 5:00am today, and I rise at 4:30am for my daily cold shower, to which I am actually beginning to get accustomed. Tomas bathes a little more quickly, but we spare Gabriel the trauma as he had gotten a bath the afternoon before in a large tub of water set out to heat in the sun. After a quick cup of coffee we are all in canoes for departure by 5:30.
The return trip upriver takes much longer, as we are fighting the current. They serve hot meat pies, juice and several kinds of fruit enroute. It takes 3 1/2 hours to reach Coca, and we wait another 45 mintues or so for our plane to arrive. I enjoy watching the people; there is a young girl with her mother, sister, and a small baby. Her face shines as she proudly nurses the child. She has a small pet bird that nibbles on her earring. One of the Spanish photographers engages her in conversation and takes a few pictures.
We arrive in Quito at 12:05, and Tomas hurries off to the TAME office to purchase our plane tickets to the Galapagos while I retrieve the baggage. The counter is staffed, but the ladies tell him that he must return at 1:15pm because it is their lunch break. Tomas goes to get the rental car that I had reserved from the U.S., but doesn't carry the comfirmation number. Much later he returns, to find Gabriel and I locked up in the empty baggage claim area. We are freed by a guard after a moderate delay, and Tomas tells me that they had no record of our reservation, but were able to give us a mid-size car for $44/day. At first I object, saying that we were supposed to pay only $40, but this was for a 2-door compact, and Tomas likes the bigger car and wants to get going. We retrieve our carseat from the airport hotel after another moderate delay (the guy with the keys to the baggage room was off at lunch), and Tomas returns to the TAME office only to be told that for student tickets we had to use another office, in town.
We don't mind the trip downtown, because we need to get a replacement battery for our video camera which went on the blink during our last day at La Selva. Gabriel and I wait in the car while Tomas runs into the TAME office. He's gone for almost an hour, and returns saying that I can't get the student discount because they want my school ID; the international student card that I had gone through so much trouble to obtain was no longer being accepted because of too many problems with fraud. We go to yet another TAME office to get fullpriced tickets, which takes another 45 minutes because we want to pay with credit card rather than cash.
After a long search, we stumble upon a SONY camera store, and try replacing the battery. Something else is wrong with the camera, because it still doesn't work. The salesman thinks it is a faulty microchip for the videocontroller and says he can try to have it fixed by 7pm the next day. We leave the camera and head out of town, to Otavalo. It is 6:00pm and nearly sundown.
The roads are twisty and steep, the fog is thick, and it is raining. In the dark, we discover that one of our headlights is mis-aimed and shining too high- a bother to other drivers and to us as well in the thick fog. Tomas is tense and irritable about the late departure, and Gabriel picks up on this and starts crying and screaming. He is in the front seat, since there are no seatbelts in back, and I can't see his face but try to calm him with story after story, previously memorized from his book collection for use in just such an occasion. After what seems like the fourteenth recital of 'the Cat in the Hat', Gabriel nods off. The roads flatten out, and I try from the crude map in our guide book to direct us to Otavalo. There are many forks in the road and no signs. At last we get near, and ask a taxidriver for directions to the Hacienda Cusin. We don't have reservations, but hope to find a room free on this non-market weeknight.
As is the case everywhere south of the U.S. border, the hacienda is surrounded by high walls. The large wooden doors are shut and no one answers the bell. We hear dogs barking inside. Tomas tries a smaller door and finds it unlocked. It's pitch black, and the dogs inside are German shepards. Tomas sizes them up and decides that they won't hurt him. He walks in to look for someone to ask about a room. I am happy to wait in the car with Gabriel. After what seems like an eternity, I see two figures through the crack in the door and know that we have been lucky again. The wooden doors open and I drive inside.
We are shown to a small room with a double bed and fireplace, apart from the main complex in case Gabriel is noisy at night. We are just in time for delicious dessert and coffee in the large, elegantly decorated dining hall. The whole place is filled with antiques and there is a huge fire blazing. Gabriel gets a steaming cup of creamy chocolate milk. There are candles at our table, and that night we build a fire in our room. Gabriel is enchanted, and we are too.
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DEC 16th: ANDEAN HIGHLANDS
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We drive into town, to visit what's left of the market on this nonmarket day and to exchange some more money. I enjoy the views along the road, and the people-watching in town. Our main camera, the Canon, starts acting up and we discover that the battery we had replaced just last summer has rusted inside and can't be scraped clean. We are thankful to have the Minolta point-and-shoot, a Christmas gift from my parents that arrived at the post office on the morning of my departure. We buy a couple of gorgeous cotton poet shirts for Tomas, and a colorful woven pullover for Gabriel. I want to get a wall-hanging, but don't find anything of really high quality.
In the afternoon, we arrange to go horseback riding. Gabriel had seen the horses in the grassy part of the hacienda's courtyard and is delighted to find out that we would ride them. The hacienda manager is reluctant about the excursion at first, but as Tomas is a Mexican and Mexicans are known for bending the rules and for accepting full responsibility if anything goes wrong, he relents at last and lets us go. As the pregnant lady, I am given the best mount, a wonderful black horse that obeys all signals and loves to canter. Tomas and Gabriel ride together on a more gentle brown horse, and the guide rides a white horse with blue eyes. We are accompanied by a single woman, with whom we had shared breakfast that morning. The ride is gorgoeus. The mountain scenery is spectacular. We play for a while in a large pasture, where I lend my black to Karen for some exhilirating fast riding and Gabriel gets to look over the fence at grazing llamas. All too soon it starts to rain and we head back for a warm meal. |
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