monkeys and mud

ok, tena. tena is a city often referred to as a "gateway" city (yey working quotes!). this is because its at the edge of the andes just in the oriente, or jungle. this means big jungly leaves with andes in the background. the setting is beautiful - very dramatic, esp. if traveling in by bus from the andes, which we were. dramatic in a "glad its so pretty because it may be the last damn thing i ever see" sort of way. you know, cliffside roads, all unpaved, semi drunk (?) driver. i spent much of the bus trip trying not to cry. but, beautiful.

so, yeah, tena has the beautiful setting. but the city itself is somewhat of a letdown. we expected a lot, because everybody talks about how nice tena is. it turns out they mean nice in relation to other jungle cities, such as coca and lago agrio, which are supposed to be hell. but we havent been to those cities, or to any hellish ones, and were coming from pretty quito, so we were disappointed in the city.

but no matter. we found a lovely cheap hotel on a hillside right outside the city, with hammocks and views of the misty andes. sorry, but they really were misty looking. i guess its a jungle thang. the hotel was family run, which meant that no one was really staying there except the family, who had screaming kids running around the whole time. not ideal, but par for the course here in ecuador. still, they let us use their kitchen so we, finally, at long last, ate some vegetables....

(side note: vegetables are hard to come by here in ecuador. not in the markets, where they are bountiful and gorgeous, but in any place where food is prepared. in all but the most touristy tourist restaurant it is impossible to find any more than shredded iceberg lettuce. this lack of vegetables often becomes problematic, esp. in light of the fact that most meals are served with rice, potatoes, bananas, AND french fries. we often find ourselves tempted to drink local tap water just to regulate. a travesty. nothing bothers me more than poor cuisine. i dont care how that sounds- its true.)

(another side note: i know you wont believe this, but at present i am sitting in my lovely hostel here in baños, with free internet and great atmosphere. but: they are BLARING the soundtrck to moulin rouge, the remake, which includes bits of dialougue from the movie, which i wish not to be reminded of. its 8am. unbelievable.)

anyway, aside from cooking vegetables, we did 2 great things in tena, or right outside of tena. first we went to isla de los monos, which was great. it had a gorgeous white rock pool, jungle trails, a river to swim in, and monkeys EVERYWHERE. ive never seen a monkey not in a zoo before, and let me tell you: they are scary. they are like hairy aliens, and i dont trust them. my mistrust was justified by an unfortunate incident in which one of the monkies did something terribly inappropriate in anthony{s lap. please read his blog for details. i dont know why the monkey was in his lap in the first place, i find that troublesome, but i was in the pool at the time and am choosing not to worry about it. so other than spending time with our monkey friends, we swam in the pool and walked in the jungle with our friend who we had met that morning while booking our rafting trip. it was nice - a fun, informative day.

next day we went on said rafting trip. white water class 3. now we had done a rafting trip last summer, in revelstoke, british columbia, which was also supposed to be class 3, but it was very different from this trip. this trip was bumpy like crazy. people fell out of the boat. at one point, i was riding on the very front of the boat and a big wave came and knocked me on my back into the boat, feet straight up. i struggled to get back upright, as i knew that at the very moment our picture was being taken by the tour photographer, standing on a nearby rock. but the waves kept knoccking me backwards and i stayed that way, feet up and all. i would love to see that picture.

after rafting for a bit we stopped on a sandy area and walked through the rocks into this canyon type area, which was cool and green. there was all this "medicinal mud" around and we rubbed it on our faces and arms and legs, and washed it off in the river. i have noticed no difference in my skin tone or texture, except that now i have 3 pimples on my chin. medicinal my ass.

we rafted on and ate a lovely lunch and at 4 o clock, finished with a nice beer. thoughtful tour guides! that night we ate more vegeatbles and, the next morning, caught the 6 am bus to baños.