2013 Ecuador Semester - blog post #7

Palugo - home sweet home! What a glorious feeling to be able to look back on our expedition and process it. We are glad to be in a familiar place, but now from a new perspective, for we have seen and done so much since we left. Each of us has had a unique experience on the expedition, an experience that will be with us for the rest of our lives.

Twenty-one days ago, we left for San Clamente by public bus. Since then, we covered over 200 miles by foot, bike, cataraft, raft and kayak. We climbed through the highlands on our group solo, biked over the Andes and into the jungle, and rafted down the Napo River to Puerto Misahualli. There, we took apart the cataraft, strapped it to our backs, and walked to Shiwakucha. After two days in Shiwakucha, we all piled onto the re-assembled cataraft and paddled down the Jatunyacu and Arajuno rivers to a small village where we were met by a bus that took us back to Palugo. In that description, the expedition seems short, but really every day was an adventure.

The last update was sent from Ashanga, the beginning of our jungle experience and the tail end of the biking section of the expedition. Our last day of biking took us from Ashanga to La Serena, a small town on the Napo River. We decided to take the main road since the back roads were very bumpy. The route our navigators had picked out followed roads whose existences were questionable. Thankfully, Mathias was kind enough to intervene and show us the better route making the biking go smoothly. We even got to stop in a tiny town on the way to eat bread, honey, mango and ice cream for lunch. It was admittedly an unbalanced meal, but it was the day before a resupply and our food stores were running low. And besides, it was what all the school kids of the town were eating!

         Our ragamuffin crew always draws attention, but as we went deeper into the jungle, the people who observed us got braver and their curiosity less covered. The schoolboys in the town we stopped in were even so brash as to chase after us and hitch a ride on our bike racks. It was quite the spectacle!

When we arrived at La Serena, Thomas surprised us with an interesting dilemma; the cataraft frame had broken when an extremely sketchy bridge tilted as the trailer went across. Many of the aluminum pipes were bent and one of the fiberglass corners was completely smashed. Basically, we had a messy hamburger of aluminum and we were going to have to walk to Shiwakucha if we couldn’t fix it. The prospects were grim, but the next day we set to work salvaging everything we could, shaping new parts out of coffee wood, and rebuilding the raft. Everyone was determined to resurrect our fallen vessel. By the next morning, it was fixed and ready to go!

We couldn’t all work on the cataraft at once though, so we made spoons in the down time. We’d already made spoons on our last expedition, but this time we tried to perfect the art and make something that we were proud of.

In the remaining time, we adjusted to jungle life and learned about the river. Though Ashanga was jungle, the river there was cold and the heat and bugs weren’t very intense. We got our introduction to jungle insects, ants especially, at La Serena. They are an unavoidable part of jungle life, and getting used to their presence is a necessity.

The river too required some getting used to. We practiced swimming in rapids, wet exiting kayaks, and following commands on the raft, in addition to learning how to read the river. Nadino, a semester alumni from Shiwakucha, joined us at La Serena and became one of our teachers, a playful addition to our community.

Nadino, Quinn, and Asha

After a soccer match with the community at La Serena, in which we lost miserably but thoroughly enjoyed nevertheless, we finally pushed off into the Napo River in the afternoon on Wednesday. We only had 15 km to travel, but the class three and four rapids were the biggest we saw throughout the whole river expedition. Needless to say, we all got soaked, but neither the cataraft nor the raft flipped and Thomas and Nadino, who were in kayaks, navigated the huge waves expertly.

Robin and Sosanna

The following day was another layover. It was strange to have so much downtime after biking hard for so many days, but we enjoyed the leisure of washing clothes, bathing, making spoons, writing journal entries, swimming, practicing rolls in the kayaks, and doing an awful lot of lounging around.

We got back into the boats and paddled about 30 km the second day. The Napo River had grown and mellowed out on this section of the expedition, so paddling wasn’t nearly as technical. When the going was slow, we spiced things up with some fierce raft battles, flinging each other off the boats.

Taking it easy on the river

That night, we made a fantastic camp across the river from Misahualli, a small town known for its monkey gang. Throughout the whole expedition we had great camps, but this one was particularly perfect, we even made a path to the poop hole. We took apart the cataraft, sent back most of our clothes, and started packing up our backpacks to head out the next day.

Our hike into Shiwakucha began innocently. The bridge was closed, so we had to take a longer route to the trailhead, but Thomas assured us that the trek was only four hours. It was 11:30 am when we waded across the river to the trailhead. We had plenty of time… The going was slow in the incredible heat, but Tadeo knew the general direction in which we were supposed to be going and found a trail that seemed to follow the course. We stopped for lunch by a stream that we ran into when our path ended. It followed the southeast course we were aiming for, and Mathias said it was a good bet although it didn’t follow the main trail.

Jungle background

After lunch, we continued our hike by following the stream. We thought it would almost definitely come out on the Arajuno River, and since Shiwakutcha is on the Arajuno, we could find it once we got to the bigger river. Sloshing through the stream wasn’t the best, but it was far better than hacking through the jungle. At least we had something to follow if we stayed on the stream. We made it through (or around) downed trees and kept on going down the stream, but the further we went, the more distressed Tadeo became. The original southeast course of the stream had changed and we were heading directly north most of the time.

We stopped and discussed our options, but by that point there really weren’t any. We had no idea where we were, and we were too far out to try to turn around. We were going in the wrong direction, but we couldn’t just set off on a Southeasterly course into the jungle because we didn’t know where we were. To add to the stress, it was after 4PM and darkness was imminent. We chose to push on down the stream. Eventually, we ran into a path through a field of banana trees that led us to a road and a house. We, or rather Nadino, talked with the people who lived there and discovered that we had made a circle that had taken us back to the place we’d started!

It was already 6 pm and the darkness was coming fast. Heartily, we all took out our headlamps, re-shouldered our packs, and resolved to push for Shiwakucha and a secure place to sleep. We had a bag of animal crackers that we shared while we discussed our options. That ended up being our dinner.

After a half-hour or so of walking, we crossed the river that had started our trek six and a half hours before. It was certainly a rather gloomy crossing, but we were determined and tried to keep our spirits up. We even sang during the first stretch. In comparison to the late night on the biking trip, our energy was much stronger. We were tired and hot, but we kept going. Our string of head-lights pressed on as the hours and hills passed under our water filled boots as we trudged on and on.

It was exactly 11:48 pm when we finally stumbled into Nadino’s beautiful home in Shiwakutcha. Gratefully, we pulled off our boots, drank tea, swam in the river, ate a delicious supper and crashed on mattresses prepared for us by Nadino’s family. It was a pretty bad night for some of us, but everyone agreed that it was better than the first long night on bikes.

For the next two days, we lived in Shiwakucha and enjoyed the jungle life. We harvested yucca and ginger, helped make a stone pathway and re-thatch a roof, and swam in the river. During the sweltering midday hours, we lay in hammocks and spent time working on academics, crafts and writing letters. The jungle life moves at a relaxed pace, so we had plenty of time to recover from our long hike.

Nadino harvesting fruit

Eating jungle food was definitely a highlight of our stay. We ate yucca at pretty much every meal and got to try many of the local delicacies and staples. The girls had the opportunity to make chicha, a drink made from yucca fermented by time and saliva. To make chicha, women chew mashed yucca and spit it back into the pot. The yucca is then left to ferment for three days. The drink is very traditional and though not everyone loved the taste, it was a cultural experience we will never forget.

Making yucca chicha

We will also never forget how Quinn ate a live chonta curro. Chonta curros are nasty looking grubs about ½” in diameter which are a highly revered delicacy. They are grown in felled palm trees and they take several months to grow from larvae to grubs. We watched the harvest and everyone enjoyed watching Quinn eat the squirming grub. He said it was great! Asha and Nacho also ate raw chonta curros, and we all ate the cooked ones. Despite their revolting appearance, they were actually quite delicious.

Though we couldn’t communicate very well with our hosts, they helped us make traditional baskets and bowls out of a fruit called pilche and showed us the ways of the Shiwakucha people. They were incredibly gracious hosts and welcomed us into their homes and lifestyles joyfully. All in all, the days we spent in Shiwakucha were relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable.

Learning the art of basket making

Nevertheless, we were ready to go home to Palugo by Tuesday morning. We waved goodbye and paddled down the Jatunyacu. With all of us piled onto the cataraft, we paddled down the river all day, eating our lunch on the boat and swimming at every chance we got, knowing we wouldn’t be able to swim again until after semester. Angus and Quinn especially loved the water and their heads could be seen bobbing along after us throughout much of the trip. At one point, we thought we lost them but after a few minutes of investigation, we found they were hitching a ride on the underside of the cataraft!

We pulled out in the late afternoon, took apart the cataraft, and boarded the bus for a long ride back to Palugo. We stopped for dinner on the way, so when we arrived, all we had to do was crawl into our warm beds and sleep.

 At this moment, it is hard to realize the full impact of expedition. We experienced so much in the past few weeks and we haven’t had time to process yet. We will have time this weekend on our two-day solos. Being alone in nature, without food or writing materials, we will have space to contemplate not only the past expedition, but also our entire lives - who we are and who we want to be.

Poem of the week from Sosanna

        

Some Questions You Might Ask

by Mary Oliver

Is the soul solid, like iron?

Or is it tender and breakable, like

the wings of a moth in the beak of

the owl?

Who has it and who doesn’t?

I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad

as the face of Jesus.

The swan opens her white wings

slowly.

In the fall the black bear carries leaves

leaves into the darkness.

One question leads to another.

Does it have a shape? Like an

iceberg?

Like the eye of a hummingbird?

Does it have one lung, like-the

snake and the scallop?

Why should I have it and not the

ant eater

Who loves her children?

Why should I have it, and not the

camel?

Come to think of it, what about

the maple trees?

What about the blue iris?

What about all the little stones,

sitting alone in the moonlight?

What about roses, and lemons, and

their shining leaves?

What about grass.

         As the semester has reached the halfway mark, I thought it would be nice to do a brief profile of everyone on the semester.

Robin is eighteen and he is from Valley Cottage, NY, just outside of NYC. He is currently in a gap year and he is applying to Oberlin College in Ohio early decision and hopes to be going next fall.

Sosanna is seventeen and she is from Hingham, MA. She is a junior in high school, and will be going back to Hingham High for the second semester.

Julia is sixteen and she is also a junior from Hingham and will be returning for the second semester.

Spencer a.k.a. Nacho is from Starksboro, VT and he is seventeen. Though he will technically be in high school for the second semester, he will have finished his credits, so he won’t be going to school.

Angus is from Shelburne, VT and he is eighteen. He only has one class to take to finish his credits for high school, so he will be working and skiing a lot when he gets home. Angus also did the Kroka Vermont Semester last winter/spring.

Jackie is from Amherst, MA and she is eighteen. She graduated from Waldorf School last spring and will be going to Smith college in the Fall.

Jack is from Dobbs Ferry, NY, just outside NYC, and he is seventeen. He has graduated and will be going to the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME this coming spring trimester.

Chris is eighteen and he is from southern NH. He is finishing his credits for high school with Kroka and will be graduating in the spring.

Quinn is seventeen and he is from Los Angeles, CA. He will also be done with his credits for high school when he returns and will graduate this spring.

Isaiah is seventeen and he is from Concord, MA. He is technically a junior this year, but he will be able to finish his credits this spring and will be graduating.

Yarrow is sixteen and she is from Brattleboro, VT. She has been homeschooled since 6^th grade and participated in many Kroka programs.

Asha is also sixteen and from Brattleboro, VT. She will be returning to school and playing hockey for the second semester.

Tadeo is seventeen and he is from Quito, Ecuador. He is in his last year of school.

I’m Sonya and I’m from Hyde Park, VT. I’m eighteen and I have no idea what I’m going to do for the second semester, but I will be finished with my credits for high school so I don’t necessarily have to go to school.

Until next time,

         Sonya 

I must apologize for the scarcity of photographs in this update. Unfortunately, Thomas’ camera was dropped at the end of the bike expedition, so we don’t have any photographs of the river section. We have some pictures from Shiwakucha thanks to Nadino, and there are pictures of everyone’s painted faces.