Lost in the Jungle

Since coming to Ecuador I have read various accounts of people getting lost in the jungle. Having hiked in the jungle a bit, I do agree that it is VERY easy to get turned around, but even after reading such stories you always tell yourself, "That'll never happen to me." . . .

We are in the process of buying a small plot of land (~10 acres) about 40 minutes from Puyo. While we are still waiting for the final paperwork approval, the owner of the land gave us permission to use and explore it in the meantime.

Last Friday, we were really itching to get out of town and go walk the border of the property (*from here on out, I will refer to this property as the "finca"), since the owner cut out a trail to make it obvious which portion he was selling. So immediately after work, we jump in the car and headed out around 4pm.

We started our hike shortly before 5pm on the far side of the finca, planning to walk around and arrive at the sugar cane area at the end. Noah has become accustom to having a bit of sugar cane after he wakes up from his afternoon nap. Though the trail was obvious and very wide (about 5 feet), it was still slow going with the smaller kids and the frequent stops to enjoy and admire the beauty and diversity of God's creation. When we arrived at the first river crossing, we found that the "bridge" had been partly washed out. Here I must make to points: 1) the river runs down in a channel about 3 meters below us and it is only about 2-3 meters wide; also, at this time it was rather low and not running very fast; 2) a "bridge" refers to 2-3 trees or strong logs felled to create a path to cross over the water. Even with the bridge partly down, we decided that it was still sufficient for us to cross and keep going.

We crossed the winding river again and arrived at the far end of the finca. At this point it was about 6:15pm and starting to get dark. We briefly considered returning the way that we had come, but we also knew that they last quarter of the trip would be easier and more familiar to us since we have visited that portion several times before. So we continued on and crossed the river again over another precarious, half-fallen down bridge. Just as we began to worry, we spotted an open field about 100 meters down the path. Beyond the open field would be a 10 minute trek through familiar trails, then the banana and sugar cane areas.

Hurriedly we walked the trail toward the open field, but about half way there we hit another river crossing, but this time with only the fallen remains of the bridge. It was now past dusk, but not fully dark.  Not completely sure what to do with the tribe, I decided to see how difficult it would be to cross. While I was gone, Alesha dug through her bug-out bag, and tended to the wounded with salve for the bug bites and scrapes, used tweezers to pull out a sticker from Levi's hand, and pulled out two headlamps to use for lighting.

I had fared well, by using a fallen tree to slide down the 10-foot drop to the river. This brought me to a mostly submerged, yet very stable, fat, 2-meter long log that allowed me to cross half the river. This log made a T with another, skinnier, 3-meter long log, which then brought me to another log that I used to climb up the embankment to a spot near the path on the other side of the river! Due to crossing the logs the way that I did, I ended up about 20 meter off the path, so I used my machete to cut a little trail to reach the path, then turned around and headed back to the family. With a very brief, inspirational speech of, "It'll be tricky, but we can do it." I showed the kids the log-hoping-river-cross dance. Levi was first. With my help and the others watching via the two headlamps he made it across and waited at the opposite edge to help his brothers as they made the final climb out of the river channel. Daniel and Nate followed, but as I started helping Glory then Noah down from the first fallen tree slide, I heard, "Whoa!" followed by a splash. As I turned I heard reassuring comments and saw Nathaniel near the T-logs with his arms outstretched over the bigger log, his head staying above the water, and Daniel holding the back of his shirt. Then Nate said, "I'm OK, Papa, I can do it!"...and sure enough, he climbed back up on top of the log. While I turned to get Glory started, the boys made it safely to the other side. I'm sure that I carried Noah across, but I honestly do not recall how, though I very clearly remember being completely exhausted after running back and forth across those logs 8-10 times helping the kids get through.

We all finally made it back to the path, and from there we could see the open field only about 50 meters away. I lead the family for about 20 meters then stopped, sat down, and started to cry. There in front of me was another river crossing, wider than the previous one and with no fallen logs or trees to use. Alesha started talking about setting up a camp for the night. I checked my cell phone, thinking to call the owner of the property and let him know where we were, but there was no reception.

As we sat there, we began to think and pray. My headlamp shined on what possibly appeared to be an overgrown path. I told the kids to stay and checked it out. In less then 20 meters, I cleared the jungle trees and came out upon the open field. Apparently, the river that we had come upon was really just a U, or rather a Y, but the bottom part of the Y didn't connect to anything, so we were able to simply walk around the river. Praise the Lord!

With renewed energy, we half-ran up the hillside of the open field and took a break at the top. From that point, I was able to contact the owner and let him know that we were fine. He, had begun to worry, seeing that it might rain later on, and had started to come find us. Two minutes later he arrived. With his help, we quickly trekked that last part of the path to the bananas, sugar cane, his house lot, and finally the main road.

We were tired, dirty, fully of scrapes and pokes and bites, but no one cared, we were just glad to be out. The children were real troopers and did their part, and sometimes more!

Enjoy!
Taylor & Alesha