Big spiders, piranhas, and caimen!

Nicole and Nancy:

We made it through the Jungle!

note the rooster in the background

Last weekend I travelled up to El Limonal, an hour south of the Columbian border, to work on a fruit forest farm. I enjoyed my week there and learnt a lot from the farmer, Piet, about planting trees, the uses of bamboo, medicinal plants and many more things!


Nancy completed her last week of her elective! And then we took off on Friday at 9pm for Coca, an oil town on the outskirts of the rainforest. We arrived in Coca at 6am and made our way to Limoncocha, a small village north of the biggest river in Ecuador, the Rio Napo.

We had an amazing weekend at the Cabanas of Limoncocha, which was a Kichwa community cooperatively run hostel with the most welcoming staff. About 30 minutes after we arrived, we sat down on the balcony to have a snack and 5 monkeys swung by the us on vines! That´s when we decided we were definately staying a second night.

This is where the monkeys swung by to say whats up

we were trying to open our eyes when the camera flashed. This is us on our caimen night canoe ride

Windy canoe ride down the Napo River

That afternoon our guide took us to Laguna Limoncocha where we saw some amazing birds and that night we went out for a nighttime canoe ride where he showed us caimen up close! (they are related to alligators!) The next morning, bright and early, we went with the guide to the Rio Napo, but after awhile it started raining quite hard and we had to find a shelter and dock the canoe. We hungout on the outskirts of the Yasuni National Park and waited for the rain to lessen, then we made our way back to the hostel where we were then treated with some traditional Kichwa dancing! The dancers had made necklaces for Nancy and I and on the last dance they invited us to dance with them and we did, though we weren´t as talented as them, as hard as that is to imagine.

This morning we travelled to Ecuadors whitewater rafting capital, Tena, where we are going to go on a rafting trip tomorrow. Pictures to come soon! We love you guys!