Each day in the Amazon we did a morning and afternoon activity, which was good because we we were in the middle of a rain forest and couldn’t leave the lodge on our own, and the kids needed to burn off some energy!
After we left the Rainforest, we asked the kids to rank the activities from their least favorite to favorite. We did not include the chocolate making or rain forest hikes as they were mentioned in previous posts. We tried to get them to justify their picks, but every justification was either, “because it was fun” or “because it was cool”…homeschooling fail…oh well, here is the list as ranked by the children:
9. Petroglyphs – The kids had a great time in the rainforest overall and enjoyed all the activities…except one. This one. To be fair, this came at the end of a long day and was a bit of a hike. Also, the petroglyphs had been drawn on that morning – no joke! It was more of an example of what petroglyphs used to look like and what they might represent. Kid comment: “It was kind of lame”. Yes it was.
8. Wood Carving – We were taken to a workshop in a local village where a local man demonstrated wood carving. With various sized knives he quickly and skillfully carved a couple of animals out of a block of wood. Afterwards, we were not obliged, but encouraged, to buy some of his carvings, which we happily did (no problem at all buying souvenirs like that direct from the source). Kid comment: Kind of cool, but just not my favorite. Fair enough.
7. Ceramics – Similar to the wood carving we were also given a demonstration in pottery and ceramics and bought some more souvenirs afterwards. The people making both the wood and ceramics were very impressive and made us all feel very inadequate about our lack of real life skills. Kid comment: Interesting. It was interesting. Very good explanation into how he did it.
6. Butterfly Farm – The adults were a little surprised that this featured as high as it did. It was a butterfly farm like any other, but with some cool looking butterflies because it was the rainforest. Kid comment: “We liked that we could see all the stages of the butterfly lifecycle in the same place.” Wait! Did the kids just accidentally learn something!?
5. Visiting a Kichwa Family – One morning we set off down the river by boat and met a Kichwa family. A nice lady demonstrated how to make a traditional Kichwa drink, which becomes more alcoholic the longer you leave it. We were then invited to shoot down a wooden bird with a type of blow dart. This was the traditional hunting method of the Kichwa except the dart was dipped in poison from a poison frog and they weren’t hunting wooden animals. Finally, we fed some wild caiman raw chicken. Kid comment: I liked shooting the dart. Don’t like the sound of that…
4. Cave walk and water park – a short drive out of the lodge towards the large town and relative civilization was a cave that we could walk through. The cave was full of water and at times we had to swing from ropes hanging from the ceiling to get over some deeper areas. At one point we were able to jump into a pool in the cave and get sprayed by a small waterfall. Afterwards, our guide told us we were in 3 meter deep water. I remember thinking that the waterfall could have easily pushed us under and we’d have been toast. Oh well, add that to the growing list of things that would never be allowed in the US. After walking through the cave, we came out to a water park – a swimming pool with two slides and the most disgusting looking water I’ve ever seen in a swimming pool. Another one for the list. Kid comment: “I liked the water park.” Seriously?
3. Waterfall – After a bumpy but scenic drive through various different rain forest pueblos followed by a short hike we arrived at a small waterfall and natural swimming pool. We all jumped in from the rocks and swam around for at least an hour or so. It was really fun and one of those “holy smoke! I’m in the Amazon!” moments. Kid comment: It was really cool. It was really cool.
2. Animal Rescue Center – One of the more important places to visit was this place where injured and rescued animals were taken. Some of these animals were rehabilitated and released into the wild, some of them would never be able to be released. It was a good opportunity to see many of the animals of the rain forest that (fortunately!) we did not see, including an anaconda, jaguars and spider monkeys. Kid comment: I liked seeing all the animals.
1. Tubing – The winner! Yes, we tubed down the river. Don’t worry though, the piranhas are too deep to bother you and the caimans stay on the banks so just stay to the middle and you’ll be fine…unless an anaconda gets you but that’s just bad luck. Ha ha! Only joking. We were assured many, many times (we all asked the guide at least twice) that the current was too strong for any dangerous animals. Kid comment: It was really fun and relaxing.
That wraps up our time in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We had a great week, but it was time to keep moving on! More from our last week in Ecuador coming up in our next post.
