Since moving to Puyo, we have waiting semi-patiently for a good opportunity to go into the jungle. Of course, we do live in the jungle city, but it is not the same as what the natives call the "jungle, jungle". A few weeks ago, we told Monika who lives downstairs, that we wanted to go to the jungle and since she has family in the jungle, we decided that it would be a good place to start. Makuma, is a little town with a big reputation since some missionaries setup a hydroelectric power station many years back...but I'm diverging from our notable moments already...
First off, this is more of a list of notable events that we remembered together while driving back to Puyo, so except for little Noah, each of us had something to contribute here and since that is how we remembered it together then that is how I will share it with you.
- EVERYONE remembers the hike into the jungle, and I suppose that it will be a long time before we forget it! It was like nothing that we had ever done before. We set out on foot from the little jungle community and walked for more than 45 minutes on a narrow, 1-2-foot wide trail. The trail had its ups and downs which we had met before in Honduras, but this had an aspect which we hadn't yet experienced: MUD! and there was lots of it. People wear calf-high rubber boots, and now we know why. We crossed three streams that were shallow and only 5-9 feet across, but typically they were also at the bottom of a steep, muddy hillside. We all had a grand time, both on the way and at the return, and the children each picked up their own special jungle-trekking nickname:
- Glory the brave. She was the quickest to figure out how to slog through the muddy trail. Though sometimes she lost a boot and fell in the mud, she did so with smiles and laughter the whole way through.
- Levi the 'loose-boot'. Levi claims that he lost his boots more than anyone and each time he thinks about the trips he will recall one of the numerous times that he lost his boot in the mud and then laugh hysterically.
- Dan the swift-footed. On the hike out, while I was still trying to figure out how NOT to slip in the mud, Dan and I ended up together and it was all that I could do to keep up with him. He never really got far ahead of me, like Glory could, but neither did he slow me down one bit. I kept thinking that at my next step that I would step on him with my longer strides, but somehow he would scuttle on ahead...maybe his lighter frame didn't allow him to get as stuck in the mud as the rest of us.
- Nate and Noah the cargo. Is there anything more to say here???
- Upon arriving at our destination, which was the newly inherited property of Monika and her siblings. They wanted to clear a bit of land and build a small hut that they could stack wood under, sleep, and basically make the start of a camp. So I took my machete and learned how to cut a small, thigh-sized tree with it...not too different from using an axe, but I'm glad that I had seen in done many times before and that I had been using my machete. After enough clearing had been done, we took some of the felled trees, which were 20-30 feet tall, and cut them into 7-foot segments. With 12 posts, 4 think, 4 medium, and 4 thin, and using some "jungle rope" (think about what Tarzan swings on, but these were younger/thinner) we tied the posts together while Monika and her sister cut down some palm leaves for a roof covering. So in about 2 hours, with 5 people, we made a decent spot for Monika's brother and sister to begin working on the land.
- The friendly pavo (turkey). Our dear Nathanael is still a bit fearful of animals, but he is learning. While petting a dog, he saw a turkey. So he decided to try to pet him too, but that turkey would just keep walking away from him...never running, but never letting Nathanael get close enough. Since the turkey didn't have teeth (and is therefore not hostile according to Nate), then Nathanael decided that the turkey was friendly and going to be his new friend.
- Glory, Daniel, and Nathanael, spent quite some time investigating a small pool of minows and tadpoles. They started catching them and saving them in their boot until Alesha told them that we will not be bringing them back to Puyo with us! (Note: not that Alesha is against having tadpoles, but it was more about the practicality of hauling them 5 hours in a boot in the overly stuffed truck.)
- On a separate trek (not the one into the jungle), we came upon a very steep and muddy embankment. Already being late in the afternoon and still tired from our morning outing to the jungle, we declined the slide downhill. As we were leaving, both Alesha and I had to marvel at an old Shuar woman carrying a basket on her head making her way, not quite swiftly, but certainly not slowly down the hill that we were not able to make.
- Alesha enjoys the Butterflies. "I've seen more new butterflies these last two days in the jungle than I have since coming to Ecuador." says my wife on the return voyage to Puyo. That is quite a statement when you realize just how many new butterflies we have already seen just in Puyo!
- "Maito". Twice during the weekend we were gifted with "maito" for supper. This is a small portion of either fish or chicken, folded in a leaf and grilled on the kitchen fire. The fish maito we had contained two, perch-sized fish, the leaf folded around them like a wallet and then tied closed with another piece of leaf. You pick the fish out with your fingers, leaving the bones. When you're finished, the whole leafy plate goes in the camp fire. A side dish of the ever-present yucca or verde, (both starchy vegetables), is served along side. Glory deemed it the best fish she has ever had.
- Saturday evening, with still plenty of daylight left (remember that there is no electricity), we headed down to the nearby river with a bar of soap to bathe. (Clothes on...they were quite muddy too.) Bathed in a river: check! The saddest part was that when Alesha and Nathanael came, though we tried to warn them, they managed to find the slippery spot, and slipped partway down the slope to the river. :-( What I found interesting was watching the community etiquette. I arrived at the watering hole with the three oldest of our children first. We started bathing. Then came some little girls. Then some older girls. Then some of the older boys came, but they did not get in. Instead, they waited. We finished and got out. As we were leaving, I saw that most of the older girls got out too, and as soon as they did the boys jumped in.
- Probably anyone who has been to a remote part of the world will associate with this: One thing we were really looking forward to was listening to the sounds of the jungle at night. Keep in mind that we are sleeping in a small community of houses. As we lay down to rest and hear the strange new sounds, what instead we hear is, "brrummmmm, mmmm, mmmmm". This was the nightly generator which ran until about 9pm. After the generator cut out, there were some very unique sounds, of course I was so wiped out that I only recall listening to them for a few minutes right after the generator cut off and before I passed out.
- Dan also made some new friends: baby chickens. He has a long story associated with it which is too cute to be able to repeat here, but that is one of his memories: playing with the baby chickens while waiting for breakfast.
- Sunday morning, we noticed that some of our clothes were still wet. Knowing that the "kitchen" would already be hot, Levi and I grabbed the wettest of the clothes and headed down to the fire to dry them off. The people cooking their breakfast were very accomodating while Levi and I wafted our family laundry over their food. They seemed to have this, "been there, done that before" sort of expression on their faces.
- Glory also has a colorful tale of her adventure with a butterfly just before we left the jungle. Again, to get the full impact of the encounter, you will have to hear it from her, but I will give some mention of it here: as she was skipping across the field, she noticed a butterfly. So Glory stopped to watch it (as I mentioned previously, there were some very beautiful butterflies). In doing so, the butterfly approached her, so she held out her hand and the butterfly landed on it and even tried to taste Glory to see if she was sweet enough.
Through all of this, I would have to say that one of the fondest memories that Alesha and I will take back with us is having watched our children adapt to the new and strange surroundings. Eating strange foods, bathing in a river, sleeping in odd places, slogging through the mud...ok, ok, so I do realize that many kids would think many of these things to be fun, but as a parent, you are never quite sure until you see it happen with your own children. We are so very satisfied from watching how they handled themselves and we are very appreciative to our God for giving us these opportunities and look forward to see what He will raise them up to become.
Enjoy!
TaylorH
P.S. - As usual, if you want some of the finer details, then you will just have to call and here it from us directly.
P.P.S. - You can find Makuma with these coordinates in a map search engine: -2.151784,-77.704953
