27th May - 8th June

As it happened my US cousin, originally from New York, had been spending some time in Ecuador and we’d been in communication about meeting up when schedules allowed. Quito represented a good meeting place and he flew from Guayaquil and met me at the workshop. Leaving the Expedition Marooned crew in Quito to try to source a replacement compressor unit, we jumped in the car and headed east towards the Amazonian jungles of Ecuador - also known as the Oriente.

Alex, myself & Santiago: I had a seamless transition from off-roading adventure with Andy and MH of Expedition Marooned, overlapping briefly at the Faconza workshop (with Santiago’s help) in Quito and then Alex and I jumped in the car and headed… — Alex, myself & Santiago: I had a seamless transition from off-roading adventure with Andy and MH of Expedition Marooned, overlapping briefly at the Faconza workshop (with Santiago’s help) in Quito and then Alex and I jumped in the car and headed east to the Amazon.

We didn’t know a whole lot about what we were doing but we knew that you could see the Amazon from a handful of towns to the east of Quito. We figured we’d drive to them and figure it out as we went. Alex is an outgoing guy and not afraid to launch into a conversation in Spanish with a local to ask for directions or join a group at a bar so this seemed suited to both our personalities to improvise. It was nice to be on the road again with family and had much to talk about as we cruised towards the jungle.

Our first stop was the Cascada San Rafael (waterfall) in Cayambe Coca Ecological Reserve. Not much to talk about other than post the picture (it was impressive). But we could see this was already turning into an adventure when got back to the ranger station. Talking to Ronal, the attendant who had sold us our park entry, he convinced us that Lago Agrio was our best first stop as we headed into the jungle. Conveniently for Ronal, this is also where he lived and he asked us for a ride there as his work day was coming to an end. So that is how we acquired our first Ecuadorian passenger.

Cascada San Rafael. I understand that it’s the most impressive waterfall in Ecuador

For our first night together, Alex and I went to a bar to have some drinks and continue to catch up together. But it wasn’t long before we’d merged in with a group of locals that would have another big impact on our jungle experience. The small group consisted of an uncle and his nephew and niece. The night would take us through several bars, a karaoke club and a nightclub. All of which we transited between in the girl’s car who was extremely drunk and eventually by the third car trip, she had to hand over the wheel to Alex in the interests of not killing us all.

For the uncle, we adopted the name Tio (Spanish for uncle). During the night he made drunken promises about sorting out for us a ‘genuine local jungle experience’ and to ‘live the way the locals do’. Of course, to us this sounded amazing and we took down his details with every intention of following up. I think for his part, he may have regretted his boasts later when he became our impromptu guide and had to follow up on his promises of taking us through the heart of the jungle for several days.

The next morning getting breakfast, we ran into the nephews of the group again who had started drinking again early and insisted they buy us breakfast. We ate and they roped us in for a little while, making us try to the local specialty drink (Sinchicara). Not overly eager to start a morning drinking session, Alex and I excused ourselves and jumped in the car for our next destination of Limoncocha. We’d later learn from Tio that the girl, Patricia, disappeared for several days afterwards and the family didn’t know where she was. It eventually turned out she was at the beginning of a four-day-long drinking binge the night we were with her and when she finally returned home, her family (if we understood correctly in our translation) checked her into a six-month rehabilitation program.

Finding ourselves hanging out with the locals in Lago Agrio

It may have been the morning but our new friends were very insistent we try their special local spirit

Alex and I doing our best to get out of Lago Agrio and not finding ourselves drinking with this crew for the morning

Limoncocha:

Showing up to Limoncocha, it was the intent to spend several days exploring the Amazon jungles nearby the lake, near to the Rio Napo. We were surprised when the people at the ranger station asked if we were Darcy & Alex – evidently Ronal from the waterfall had phoned ahead to tell them we were on our way and needed a guide.

With a guide waiting, we more or less jumped straight into a long-boat and began exploring. On our first venture out we’d see cayman, many birds and then go on a jungle walk in the dark where we saw a tree full of bats, frogs, many insects and a spider bigger than my hand.

We hired a guide to help us explore the wildlife surrounding the lake at Limoncocha

You need to look closely but that’s the head of a giant cayman, nestled in the plants just off the side of our long boat. We didn’t do much swimming at this lake

There’s no context of the scale of this spider but it’s easily bigger than my hand

The three of us crawled into this hollowed out trees while bats both perched above us and flew back and forth in front of our faces

The next day we went on two separate excursions, a morning bird watching tour and an evening piranha fishing and into a house of the a local indigenous family (Siona people are the ethnic group of the area). For me, by far, the highlight was when two small squirrel monkeys came into the house and started crawling all over me. I was completely distracted from the demonstration of how they made yucca and just played with the monkeys constantly for half an hour. As we eventually left, one of them stood on the door above Alex and tried to pee on him. It was amazing.

Alex’s Mum is a bird watcher. I’m sure she’d be proud (and jealous) of her son here

Some local indigenous folk cruising past us

My car’s fridge wasn’t much use when I was travelling through Alaska but I couldn’t imagine a more vital piece of equipment in the Amazon. It’s primary role, of course, is keeping the beers cold

Piranha fishing. They would bite straight away and take your bait really quickly. The trick was getting the hook to set which was a lot harder than I’d have thought

Due to a timing issue and only one fishing pole, we only had about 15 good minutes of fishing which was only enough to pull in the one piranha. The group we spoke to that went out the day before pulled in over 30

Some of my favourite friends I’ve met on this journey

Limoncocha is a very small town and we got to know a good number of the people who lived there. It seems the only work going in town is guiding tourists so everyone is a guide and a bird watching expert. When we weren’t in the jungle, we were sharing meals with them, drinking at one of the two bars or exploring the surrounding area.

Google told us there was a bridge but there wasn’t. Thankfully there was a ferry. It turned out to be cheap and fast and a lot more fun than a bridge

Never drive over a bridge when there’s a perfectly good river

The local: there wasn’t much in the way of choice for local watering holes. When we arrived, we were the only people here (and one dog who kept wandering in and out of the front door). But once a couple locals came through and saw a couple of gringo… — The local: there wasn’t much in the way of choice for local watering holes. When we arrived, we were the only people here (and one dog who kept wandering in and out of the front door). But once a couple locals came through and saw a couple of gringos at the bar, a few of them phoned in support and beefed up the numbers in our group

I swear she was having more fun than this photos suggests

After several days doing guided explorations of the jungle, it was time to take Tio up on his offer to give us the ‘genuine experience’. We returned to Lago to meet him and he told us the family that would be hosting us in the jungle wasn’t ready today and that we’d go tomorrow. With nothing to do otherwise, we opted to head to a local fishing spot for the day and spent many hours by the fast-flowing waters with our lines in. While we only came away with a single fish that day, it was sufficient for dinner that night. I lost my fishing rod handle as he bit and had to pull the line in by hand, followed by 30 minutes of the three of us searching for it in thigh deep water.

Had a spare day so grabbed a rod, bought some reels and spent the day by the river

A Genuine Amazon Experience:

We picked up Tio again early the next morning to source supplies for our time in the jungle (jerry cans, fuel, food and so forth). Our initial thoughts were that Tio was going to guide us but it turns out he was a ‘city slicker’ and what he meant was that he knew people who knew local families that would be happy for us to tag along in their weekly food gathering trip into the jungle. From what we could gather, the family shared its time equally between a rural property with a simple house on the banks of the Rio Napo and taking their long boat into the jungle to hunt, fish and forage for food. We were to be guests on their weekly trip to the Amazonian jungle.

Elvia, Lenin and Hidalgo were our guides (or should I say hosts) with Alex, Tio and I along for the ride. We took a long boat up the river for perhaps 45 minutes before pulling up at the river bank to find a small clearing which would be our camp. The days blended into each other but generally consisted of eating at camp for breakfast, lunch and dinner and otherwise in the boat, fishing and in search of animals. The food was typically fish, rice, yucca and green banana. The fish was cooked by wrapping it palm leaves and leaving it on the open fire. We ate well and had plenty of water (and when our reserves ran out we used water purifying tabs and drank river water).

This small clearing was our camp for a couple days

Hidalgo presenting us with lunch options today. ‘Do you want the snail on the left or the snail on the right?’

Eating a cacao raw off the floor of the jungle. You wouldn’t think to look at it (or taste it in this state) that this is where chocolate comes from

This is how the fish was cooked each day

The Alex tree: Our host Lenin carved Alex’s name into this tree for him

When not at camp, our time would be spent fishing and stalking animals in the jungle. While the family spotted or heard several ‘juanta’ which we understood to be capybara, despite hours of trying to corner them in the jungle they were elusive. We fished from the side of the boat, from the banks of the river and with nets. We consistently caught small fish, some of which looked very unique to the area and certainly not that I’d seen before. The nets were set with the hopes of catching giant manta rays but we were unlucky and pulling the nets in didn’t produce any.

We didn’t catch many big fish but we caught a lot of little strange fish

Tio being very generous in fishing out the handle from my fishing rod from the water. Needless to say he never found it and that rod and subsequently been replaced

Elvia and Hidalgo setting the nets in the search for manta rays

Hidalgo and one of our host’s three dogs

We had three dogs for company. They were extremely adept and covering themselves in mud and then crawling all over everything and everyone

Hidalgo looking for the path that required the least amount of hacking. The jungle was thick and moving through was slow going

After a couple days, we opted to return home. We could have stayed longer but, being honest, life in the jungle is hard. Between the many insects, the heat, the exhaustion that comes with hacking and weaving your way through the thick jungle in shin-high water and forever covered in mud and sweat, it’s not an easy existence. I think the time we had was enough to get a taste for the traditional ways of the jungle and that we should release our hosts from the burden of our presence.

Before we left, Hidalgo and Lenin carved Alex and my name into two trees at the campsite and proclaimed that going forward this would be the Alex and Darcy campsite. We were honoured.

Looking back, it was such as amazing experience to be truly experiencing the life of the indigenous people there. No organised tour could come close to giving an insight into what the local life is like - this was really, genuinely dropping into the life of the local people. And they were so happy to have us along, even though I felt like we were inconveniencing them and needed to be looked after, they really seemed to like us. I can’t figure out if it was because they were happy for someone to pay for their fuel, because they were excited to show foreigners their way of life or that they were just happy people and going with the flow and doing their thing and happy for some company - maybe it’s a little bit of each of these. In any case, it was a magical and touching experience.

There was one surprise waiting for us when we returned back to the family’s home. Elvia brought out her grandson who was only 19-days old. She told me that during our time together, she had come to like my name and the child would be called ‘Darcy’. It’s a very humbling experience to be treated so well by our hosts and then be honoured with their child taking my name. I suppose one day I may go back to Limoncocha and seek out the child called Darcy.

Lenin carved both Alex and my names into trees at the campsite and told us that they named the site in our honour - the Alex and Darcy campsite

Holding the 19-day old boy who they’d named after me

I had become ill during the time in the jungle and developed a fever so was happy when we finally had dropped Tio home and found a hotel. I was so filthy, I showered in my clothes and it took a long time for the muck to drain away.

The Road to Puerto Misahualli and Tena:

One of the guides we’d met in Limoncocha told us to meet him in Tena and that there was a lot to see and explore there. I scoured WikiLok (an app to find trails) for the most interesting and challenging way there. The route took us through jungles, across rivers, past small villages and eventually brought us to town of Puerto Misahualli and from there we ventured out for a day trip to see some waterfalls and Lago Azul (Blue Lagoon / Lake).

Driving down the backgrounds, we found some locals playing volleyball and drinking beers. We stopped for cold beer and watched the game, much to the bemusement of the regulars

Forever hunting for the best water crossings. Found a few but nothing overly challenging in the area

Having some height issues. We were too tall to cross this bridge. I did go and start to wade the river below as I began to consider crossing but after getting a few metres out and almost getting knocked over by the current, we figured we’d just look… — Having some height issues. We were too tall to cross this bridge. I did go and start to wade the river below as I began to consider crossing but after getting a few metres out and almost getting knocked over by the current, we figured we’d just look for a bigger bridge

More police. This instance more of a routine stop and didn’t cost me anything

At Lago Azul, we had an interesting experience when we found a group of locals preparing for a traditional dance competition. They invited us to join them and we danced badly but had fun in doing so. We played with the kids and talked with the elders. They were even kind enough to invite us back the next day for a ‘fiesta’ but when we arrived nothing of the sort was happening so danced some more (still badly) and shared a few drinks.

Joining in on dance practice for the big traditional dance meet. I still can’t get the song out of my head, we heard it that many times.

I can assure you no children were hurt in the making of this blog post

Tena was a relatively large town for the region (~40,000) and became our base for a while. While there, we’d spend a lot of our time with Juan the tour guide who would guide us by day (to caves and such) and drink and eat with us by evening. He would also arrange our next adventure - an ayahuasca retreat.

Tena had some strangely cosmopolitan areas considering it’s a city of no more than 40,000 in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Alex’s new best mate Juan. We met him in Limoncacha and agreed to meet his a few hours away in Tena. Was the source of much amusement

I was reading checking my phone in the bar and saw that someone had taken a photo of my car and posted it on the Land Rover de las Americas thread. I went to the same spot and took the same photo with me in it to tell them to come back for a beer bu… — I was reading checking my phone in the bar and saw that someone had taken a photo of my car and posted it on the Land Rover de las Americas thread. I went to the same spot and took the same photo with me in it to tell them to come back for a beer but they’d already moved on by the time I noticed

Flat tire again so giving the new jack I picked up in Bogota a go

After switching to the spare and driving to the volcanizadora (tire repair shop), tire repair cost me the equivalent of US$8.00 and took less than 30 minutes

Ayahuasca:

For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, Ayahuasca is a ceremonial tradition that involves the drinking a traditional spiritual medicine and is done by the indigenous people of the Amazon basin (mostly Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador to my knowledge). The ‘medicine’ is a boiled down mixture of vines and leaves that reduces from about 20 litres of water in a big pot over the course of a day to approximately one litre of potent brew of psychoactive liquid (with the active ingredient being DMT). The practice has been going on for over 1,000 years.

The general idea is that you get out into the countryside and away from everything and spend time with a shaman who administers both the medicine and the ceremony. You aren’t able to eat for the day (because you will invariably throw up). In the evening after dark you take the medicine and the shaman will tell stories, chant and interact with you in weird and various ways like waiving a branch of leaves around your head.

It’s popular with the spiritual crowd who are interested exploring connection on another level. And it’s become somewhat of thing in Western culture as a psychological healing process because the deep psychological introspection that one experiences – so some people use Ayahuasca as a way to figure out things in their past that are holding them back or that they haven’t resolved. The other group is those that are just interested in doing it because it is such a different and bizarre experience and want to see what it’s like.

Our shaman Jose is supposedly quite well regarded and at one point he was the headed of the South American Shamanic Association. He stepped down from the position to get back to practicing. He lives with his wife and son in a small compound of thatched structures about an hour’s walk into the jungles near Tena.

Trekking to the shaman’s jungle compound

One of about five meaningful structure at the shaman’s place

This is the Ayahuasca before it has fully reduced down. Still a couple more hours on the fire to go

The only other two there during our time there were two Argentineans, Sebastian and Danny. We met them when we arrived, sitting around the pot of reducing medicine. While Danny was only there a few days while in Ecuador for work, Sebastian had committed a whole month to staying with Jose and learning the traditions of the Ayahuasca.

The first day we hiked into the jungle compound and were introduced to everyone. From there we collected medicinal leaves from the jungle in order to make an aromatic sauna. Perhaps ‘sauna’ is a misleading term. The sauna consisted of a small wooden chair with a tarpaulin over it and a boiled pot of leaves was placed between the feet of the person in the sauna who would stir it to release the steam, aromas and jungle medicines.

After the sauna, we were free to do what we liked until it got dark and was time for the ceremony. I chose to nap in my mosquito netted jungle hut.

Ayahuasca pot in back, ‘sauna’ pot in front. Sebastian and Danny from Argentina keeping an eye on things under the watchful eye of the Jose’s brother (also a shaman)

Collecting medicinal leaves for my sauna

The ‘sauna’ is the centre top of frame - the tent looking thing with the wooden chair

Home for a few days. Simple but effective

The ceremony itself started at around 7pm, just as it’s gotten dark. There is a special ceremonial hut where the shaman sits at the end of the room and everyone else spaces around. You are provided with a cushion to make the wooden seats more comfortable, a bucket to vomit into and you’re advised to bring toilet paper for cleaning yourself. In our ceremonial room, two giant wooden anacondas

The shaman shared some stories with us about to introduce the ceremony. Being entirely in Spanish, I was able to follow the general narrative of his story but I think missed the point he made at the end. Thankfully Sebastian was able to translate some key things at the right time. We then snorted tobacco, one in liquid and one in powder form. The powder was tolerable but snorting the liquid tobacco was foul. Apparently it is required the first time but your choice whether you take this subsequently. From there we ceremonially drank the medicine from a small cup, going up individually and sitting and facing the shaman as you drink it.

Once you’ve had the medicine, you return to your chair and are encouraged to smoke a cigarette if you have any. From there it takes about 10 or 15 minutes before the effects kick in.

The ceremony room featuring two giant wooden anacondas

The ceremony room: There’s not much to it. A place to sit (or more often lie down) and a place to throw up.

It lasts for four or five hours and is an intense experience. I will keep my description light because it feels like a very personal experience but I’ll relay a few things. The first think I noticed was being able to see the stars through the roof of the hut. Then over time, various images of the jungle and animals would occasionally appear. A few times different people came into my mind and there were sometimes clear and sometimes less clear messages as to why (for example, I need to show my appreciation for a particular person more). All my visions weren’t serious - at one point I had a crystal clear ‘epiphany’ in the form of an image of the tires I needed to fit to my car for the African leg of my expedition - BFGoodrich KM3s. I took this as a good sign I didn’t have too many demons to work out if my mind used this experience to solidify a decision on tire choice.

I didn’t feel bad during the ceremony. I vomited for no more than two minutes both times and once I had purged, the nausea dissipated quickly too (although for those moments, is was quite dark and I saw a human skull appear at the bottom of the bucket as I threw up into it). For my cousin Alex, he had a much less enjoyable experience and vomited more or less constantly for the entire four or five hours. I was in my own world but was aware that he must have been in a very dark place for the entire night.

We repeated the ceremony two nights in a row. Otherwise, we would bath in the river and under waterfalls, walk through jungle trying different jungle medicines and talk to the shaman about our experience from the night before.

Alex doing his best to debrief from his experience in Spanish with the shaman

Part of our jungle walk learning about the various medicinal trees and plants in the Amazon. Apparently this one is used to ‘clean the eyeball’ … wasn’t sure that my eyeball’s were in need of cleaning but why not try.

These very old trees have a special place for the indigenous. It was really impressive and I believe 500 or so years old

Eating grubs: Well, no … after thinking about it momentarily I couldn’t bring myself to eat it

That pretty much tidies up my Amazon experience. It was an incredible time and I’m thankful that Alex joined me for it. Together, we got a lot more out of the region that I think I would have by myself. I think we met each at the same place in terms of wanting a unique and crazy time in the jungle.

From here I travelled back to Quito where I’d join up again with Santiago (from Land Rover de las Americas) at his home before taking some time out with family and friends in the United States. I won’t bore anyone with that and will resume the story on my return to Ecuador.