Yachana

For Carnival 3 other COST students, 2 teachers, and I went to Yachana Lodge for our five day weekend. We accomplished a lot so I'm going to to list the days and their activities rather than write in narrative form.

Day 1:

-made our way across Quito to the bus station for our 5 hour bus ride to Tena
-stayed in a hostal at Tena
Day 2:

-took a 3 hour bus ride from Tena to Comuna los Rios

-took a canoe down the Napo River to Yachana Lodge

-met our guide for the weekend, got settled, at lunch

-took the canoe downstream to get a bus

-took a bus tour to the jungle

-hiked through the jungle (learned to weave a basket from palm tree leaves, got face painted queen style from tree sap)

-dinner then bed

Day 3:

-took the canoe to get to the Medicine Man

-got a soul cleansing from the community Medicine Man

-killed a fake parrot with a blowgun
-tried throwing a spear
-hiked to a young tree (at least 150 years old), it was massive and beautiful
-cooking demonstration (ate a grub! a cooked one, though)
-lunch
-tubed down the Napo River (which contains pirhana, anacondas and who knows what else. you could hear the stones at the bottom rolling and hitting each other. it was insane)
-held a wild tree boa and saw a tarantula

-dinner then teacher bonding time

Day 4:
-rain delay
-saw pigmy monkeys. super cute
-hiked through another part of the jungle to see a special bird (locals call it the stinky turkey)
-went to the high school founded by the Yachana Foundation and the community
-lunch
-hiked through lodge property back down through community
-played Ecua-Volley
-dinner
-night hike on lodge property (saw HUGE scorpion spiders, lots of other spiders, frogs, owls, bats)
Day 5:
-canoed back to Comuna los Rios
-took the 7:30am bus to Tena
-hung out in Tena for four hours waiting on the 3:15 bus to Quito
-bused to Cumbaye and taxied home
FIN!

There are so many pictures, I can't pick any highlights. I'll do that later.
PAZ Y SALUD MIS AMORES

P.S. Link to the place where we stayed: Yachana Lodge