Rumble in the Jungle (Part 2)

Cuyabeno Jungle, Ecuador

Day 3

Day 3 started out with another breakfast at the lodge before getting in the canoe again. Instead of going to the jungle this time, we headed 1.5 hours further into the reserve to visit an indigenous community. We may not have gone into the jungle, but we certainly saw some interesting wildlife! As we were speeding along, Shannon actually spotted an anaconda in the bushes! We turned the boat around and all clamoured over to see the sleeping reptile. According to Camillo, “it was only a small one!”. Uh, a snake bigger than my leg, is still a big snake to me!

Once we arrived at the community, we learned that we’d be making a traditional cassava bread commonly eaten in the community. The bread is made from the yucca plant, so after having a quick look around, we were led by a woman to the yucca plantation. There, she and Camillo cut down what looked like a regular tree, but was actually the aboveground growth of a yucca plant. Once the tree was gone, Ben had the honour of pulling the yucca plant out of the ground. No easy feat – look how big it is!

With the yuccas free, we all peeled away the skin and washed off the mud in the river.

The shiny white yuccas were then grated into a pulp on the side of a hollowed out log. This pulp was then placed in a wrap of sorts made from woven palm leaves. The wrap was wrapped up to enclose the pulp, then hung and cinched further to squeeze out all the water from the yuccas. I couldn’t believe how much water there was! It almost filled the entire basin below! Now dry, the yucca pulp was pushed through a woven sieve to create a finer flour. During the preparation of the flour, a stone had been heating up over the fire. Once sufficiently hot, the woman sprinkled the yucca flour over it in a circle then used an edger and a bowl to compress the flour and make it all stick together. After a few minutes, the cassava was flipped and cooked until golden brown.

We ate it with a variety of spreads (jam, ketchup, hot sauce, tuna for the non-vegetarians etc). Though I’d consider cassava more of a wrap than a bread, I still thoroughly enjoyed it! I especially loved how we saw the whole process involved – from digging up the yucca plants to the final product. Very “farm to table”! Another neat thing was that after Ben had unearthed the yuccas, a section of the tree that had been cut down was replanted in the earth for more yuccas to grow.

After we had gobbled up enough cassava to feed our hungry bellies, we were visited by the local shaman who talked to us (while Camillo translated) about the local traditions. One interesting thing he talked about was the ayahuasca plant. This common tradition involves taking pieces of a vine and boiling them to create a brew. The result is a powerfully strong drink which is a hallucinogen and can make the drinker go on a trip for up to 8 hours. This drink is not to be taken lightly and is only done in the presence of shamans. More information can be found here.

After the explanation of the brew, we were each given a taste of the ayahuasca itself (and by taste, I mean a pinky finger barely dipped in the concoction. Boy was it ever strong! I can’t even imagine drinking something like that!) Another piece of indigenous culture we experienced was a performance from the shaman himself. Shannon eagerly volunteered to be cleansed by the shaman. We all patiently watched as he did his thing by waving a group of leaves and chanting the ancient songs at Shannon.

It was certainly an interesting and informative, cultural afternoon! After the cleansing, it was time to leave the community. We hopped in the canoe again and headed for a big tree. Not just any big tree, THE biggest tree in the Cuyabeno jungle (or so we were told. But mind you, it was fairly enormous).

Then it proceeded to rain (as per the usual), so we headed back to the lodge. After a quick drying off period, and a round of cards, we headed out for our last sunset cruise. Though I didn’t get a picture, believe me when I say that there were dolphins swimming on the horizon. At sunset. In the jungle. Is this real life??? We all commemorated the moment by going for a swim. In the lagoon. In the Amazonian jungle. Where there are piranhas. Thankfully none of us had any open wounds and we all survived.

Once we were all back safely in the boat, we went on a night cruise to scope out the creatures hiding in the bushes at the edges of the lagoon. We were lucky (?) enough to come right up close to a caiman. I let Mac take the pictures for that photo op.

With no more caimans to be seen, it was back to the lodge for one final dinner. In the morning, we awoke with the sun to go on a sunrise cruise with hopes of seeing some more animals in the wild. We didn’t see huge flocks of birds like we had hoped, but we did follow a pod of pink dolphins for a bit.

Lack of wildlife aside, it was so nice just floating along the river with the water so peaceful. After breakfast, we took another long canoe ride back to the bridge (no rain this time!!) where we caught the bus back to Lago Agrio.

Practical Information

We booked our tour through Imagine Ecuador – a tour company based out of Banos. We stayed in the Caiman Lodge.

The tour cost $240 per person (transportation to and from Lago Agrio not included). I had a lot of fun on this 4 day/3 night tour and I’m so glad we got to experience it with our friends from home.

Check out Part 1 of our Jungle Adventure here!