The Rainforest – Leaves, massages and more rice than you can shake a stick at…

(Almost all of) the gang at the Equator line in Quito, with Mr 'Anacondas are not dangerous but beware:they can a-squeeze you'.

So we left Quito early on Sunday morning. We´d gone out for dinner the night before in a torrential downpour so a few of my clothes were slightly damper than I´d hoped but I was to soon get used to this. The bus to Santa Domingo wasn´t too bad, if you don´t mind driving along mountain roads with a sheer drop into Rainforest on one side that is. We had a short wait at the bus station in Santa Domingo where we tried to eat our sandwiches. Unfortunately mine had turned to avacado and chicken pulp so was quite swiftly binned. Eventually our ride was sorted – a pick up truck, and yes, we were riding in the back with our bags. Health and safety doesn´t exist in Ecuador at all! 40 minutes later we were dumped in seemingly the middle of nowhere and pointed up a muddy path to our community. Ever graceful, I slipped, fell on my back and got stuck because of the weight of my bag. I do a wonderful flailing tortoise impression for those of you wondering. There was also a massive turkey which actually responds to the sound ‘Gobble gobble gobble’. Hours of amusement…

The man himself: Alfonzo, I think he´s telling about the little tigers that live in the caves in this picture.

We were introduced to the community by Alfonzo (translated by Davis) who pointed out the women who would be cooking for us and a couple of the guys we would be working with. To be honest though I wasn´t listening all that intently. I was dying to apply some insect repellent (oh those bugs!) and get cool as quick as possible. Thankfully every one else had the same idea so our first port of call was the shower – the local river. The current was surprisingly strong and Harvey decided to have a play in the rapids. Convinced he was stuck his girlfriend Izzy went to his rescue, grazing her A in the process, only to find he was fine and that you could easily stand up and walk out of the water if necessary. She was not impressed.

I can´t exactly remember what dinner was the first might but I can guarantee it involved rice. We´ve had rice and pasta, rice and lentils, rice and tuna, rice and plantain (looks like banana, tastes like potato), rice and egg, rice and chicken oh and rice and rice. You have to love rice!

My bedroom in Bua which I shared with Alice! In the lap of luxury!

Our first night in the cabañas was actually pretty good for me but so glad for bug nets! Lou and Jessie had the best house probably. Known as the pent house it was a normal cabin but ON STILTS! So cool. Although the chickens did attempt suicide off it one morning. The boys had the worst room next to the kitchen and with Alfonzo running in at 2 in the morning. As lovely as Alfonzo is he´s not someone you want to see at that time especially with his traditional bright red hair and chasing a chicken. Talking of chickens, it is here we met Augustus aka Gus, the best looking of all chicken kind. And he could climb trees! We loved him like a brother, though I´m pretty sure he was a hen.

Work began on the Monday. We started at 7:30 in the first week as we had to get the bus to different farms to harvest tochila leaves, which are used for making roofs. Using a machete we had to chop them down to size, stack them in piles of one hundred and then usually move them somewhere else later. The worst day was the first Wednesday – blistering heat, carrying as leaves as you could up a steep muddy hill all afternoon. Doesn´t sound like much but these leaves are about 2 metres in diametre and can weigh about a quarter of a kilo. And we´re carrying 8 at a time on our backs. We slept well that night!

After a week of early starts we were all looking forward to our weekend off in Mindo, about 5 hours from Bua (our community). Mindo is a cloud forest town known for its tubing, waterfalls and best of all ZIPWIRING! There were 13 lines varying between 70 and 140 metres long. I was terrified at first but it was so much fun. There were fast lines, slow lines and, when the bastard instructors got bored, bouncy lines. You´ve never heard so much swearing! And Alice made the mistake of wearing a skirt…

The gang ready to zip wire. The muppet in the skirt is Alice.

Tubing...minus our tubes!

We´d been out to dinner the night before at a pretty disgusting pizza place. They were so big no one finished them so we took them home in a doggy bag and had them for lunch as well. WHY!?! I felt so ill….still managed to have one of the famous Mindo brownies though… Then I felt ridiculously sick. This of course meant I didn´t eat in the evening and instead stared mournfully at Izzy´s incredible looking steak so much so that I think I made her feel guilty. We then went through another torrential rainstorm (without a waterproof…) to a cocktail bar which sold something called a ‘salty dog’. Don´t ever get a salty dog. I did rather enjoy bopping to the music though – really awful 80s/90s pop.

Most pretty late up on Sunday morning so I sat in a hammock on the balcony in my pjs watch the humming birds. They look cute but they are surprisingly vicious to one another! A cold shower, breakfast and a another brownie later (what? There were two brownie places. Compare and contrast people!) and we were back of to Bua.

Me...peeling the worlds largest 'carrot'!

The second week’s work was better, mainly because we didn´t have to get up until 7. A lie in! This week work was mainly folding the tochila leaves for the roof of the walkway we were building and stripping logs of bark for the structure which as Jessie said was just like peeling a giant carrot. We spent most of our afternoons reading in the hammocks, washing in the river or playing cards. One afternoon however we made chocolate and another we picked fruit. In the evenings Richard, a local about our age, entertained by reciting the grave yard scene from the fourth Harry Potter word for word with action and a wand which a previous Leap group had sent to him from the props department of the film. It was actually quite scary and from now on whenever I hear someone whispering in Spanish I will always think of Voldemort.

Making chocolate!

The second weekend was spent in Baños, the Ecuadorian equivilent of Bath (lots of spas!). The ride out there was awful – 7 hours on a bus plus a another 2 hour bus journey. But the food when we arrived was amazing. I had a really good Pad Thai which I couldn´t finish. I swear my stomach has shrunk! The next day we had a choice between white water rafting or massages. As I was feeling ill I went for the massage. It was odd – you get naked in a room with your friend and then random Ecudorians cause you pain and pull your hair. It still felt good but I think my woman was overly rough, possibly because I accidentally kicked her in the head…

The Bob Marley shots in Baños. Don´t ever drink these things. And yes, they´re on fire.

That evening we went to the famous baths which were so good. The locals all go in the evenings too so they showed us how your supposed to dunk under the water in the 40C pool then in the 4C pool and back again. It made us scream but it was really fun! After changing we went out for drinks and salsa dancing. I´ll be honest, there was too much of the former and not enough of the latter. I learnt that if a drink can be set alight, it shouldn´t be for human consumption…The next day I was very ill. Over a balcony. Into a tree. On a hummingbird. It didn´t look happy.

Our walkway, a work in progress modelled by Mark!

We finished our walkway in our last three days, despite loosing people to a suspected parasite and our last might was great. We played football with the locals, tug of war and a very embarrassing thrusting game that the Tschila traditionally play. That was the only one we won. The boys dyed their hair and then went for a midnight dip to wash it out while the girls bought bags and jewellery the local woman made. We were also all presented with a traditional bracelets and had a dance with the locals.
I was sad to go but really looking forward to Quito, showers and no mosquitos! Literally covered in bites!

Richard waved us off in his cape as we jumped on the bus (no pick up this time) back to the station and ready for civilisation….

xxx