Day five of our tour took us on our last jungle hike – about a 2 mile walk to the jungle to a waterfall. It was a beautiful and very hot and sweaty trip but it was so worth it. The waterfall was like out of a movie. It was huge and stunning and it fell into a small pool surrounded by gorgeous vegetation. Wow, amazing! We’d all decided we’d use the waterfall as a shower so we stripped down to our skivvies and went for it.  The water was cold and clear and refreshing. Roberto said that going under the waterfall itself would “get rid of the bad stuff”. I’ll translate that to “cleansing your soul” and I was all for it. Consider me cleansed – literally and figuratively. We giggled like school children, threw the soap around and took way too many pictures. In short, it was perfect.

We had to say goodbye to some of the staff at that point and we got into the dugout canoe for our last cruise down the river. This time we were going in the direction of the road. We got to see the end of the Huaorani land, which is very clearly marked. After leaving were on the land, we enter land belonging to the Shuar tribe. This tribe is known for shrunken heads!

We ended our cruise at the bridge that begins what is called Zona Intangible. This area was set aside to guarantee the subsistence of people in voluntary isolation. This is where the Tagaeri tribe and the Taromenane tribe reside.  These two tribes want no outside influence and maintain their culture and traditions from centuries ago. These traditions include hunting with only spears and blowguns and, basically, killing anyone outside their tribe when they infringe on their land. From the stories we’ve heard from the Huaorani, they don’t discriminate. They’ll kill members of other tribes as well as oil company workers and illegal lockers.

This was where we had to say goodbye to Uweme, Eloy, Edison and Marco. Since these were the staff we got to know the most, this was difficult. All I could do was sincerely thank them and hope they know how much their brief presence in my life meant.

We got into our taxi that would take us to the city of Coca for our flight to Quito. Right away Roberto called this the Toxic Tour and you could immediately see why. It’s disgusting! The stark difference between the lush, alive, green jungle that we spent five days in and what we now saw was so extreme. There were oil rigs everywhere you looked it seemed. Literally I saw two within 1 mile of each other. Anything tall had been knocked down and there were pipes following  the whole road. Terribly sad… I don’t know much about drilling for oil but apparently what is drilled contains a waste product that cannot be used. So to get rid of this, near most rigs is at least one huge fire. The fires I saw were over 6 feet tall and they burn all the time. So not only are the oil companies polluting the land, they’re polluting the air as well. It’s just awful!

It was a quick and smelly flight back to Quito where Jen, Roberto and I said goodbye to Louise and Shane. The three of us then (finally!) indulged in a local beer called Club. I couldn’t leave Ecuador without tasting the yummy local beer!

It was time to say goodbye to Roberto and Jen. It’s always so hard for me to do this. I know that I don’t really know these people all that well but when you share this kind of experience with them, it feels as if you do. And to think that I might not see them again makes me very sad. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without Jen opening up her cabin to me. Just having someone in the room with me eased my fears so much and I could never thank her enough! So who knows, maybe our paths will cross again one day. I sure hope so! At the very least I’ve made friends and so many memories. We’ll always share those…

Tomorrow I’m off to Cartagena where I’m going to indulge in some good old-fashioned pampering. Wine, dancing, food, shopping, exploring… And more great stories please…

Today we had a lazy day while our guides worked their butts off. We spent three hours poling down the river – well, Eloy and Edison poled while the rest of us searched for wildlife around the banks of the river. It was an absolutely perfect day to canoe down the Shiripuno river. Overcast with small bits of sun and rain. During the trip we spotted so many beautiful birds like the Toucan and the Macaw and different types of Heron. We also managed to see another type of monkey – the Duskitiki money. It was far away but so cool to see it running in the trees. Also at one point we heard a fairly loud howl or roar. First Uweme thought it was a howler monkey but then realized it was a jaguar! A jaguar was growling so close to us! Just the thought of that gives me goosebumps. Of course we couldn’t see it through the forest but knew it was right there.

After stopping at our campsite where we’d spend our last night, we continued downriver to another Huaorani community called Nenquepare. Here we got to meet the head of that community as well as 2 of the teachers and a bunch of children. The tribe had had a party at this community just 2 days ago. Members of the Huaorani from hours away by canoe came to the 2-day party! Apparently it was quite an affair. So we learned about the community and then Uweme and Edison and Roberto took to the hard work of making a fire the traditional way – with a stick, a piece of wood and a piece of cotton from one of the trees in the forest. This was another one of those times where everyone worked hard while we stood around and watched. I can’t imagine having to do that to get fire! Edison, who is 16 and will soon marry, was getting picked on. Apparently you cannot find a wife until you can make fire this way.

We spent some time hearing about how the government and oil companies had built them a new school and were even providing computers. It’s fascinating the mix of old and new here and it will be so interesting and perhaps scary to see how the Huaorani evolve with this mix of tradition and modernity. A new school with bright lights and solar panels sticks out like a sore thumb there and just doesn’t seem to fit nor to sit right with me. It feels like the tribe is being bribed for their land and aren’t getting close to a fair trade for it. It’s kind of sad…

We spent a lot of time listening to the stories of the community leader and his father. Tales of brutality with illegal loggers and folklore about how a father past away and came back as a jaguar. The tribe has such profound respect for the jaguar and you could see the pride in the face of a son as he spoke of his father.

It was pitch black when we returned to our campsite. We had dinner by the light of a headlamp and fell asleep in our tents to the sounds of insects and frogs and monkeys.