Before I go any further, I'll explain the title of my blogpost (its much better if you know spanish, but I'll do my best). Ecuador is littered with grafitti. Some of its sponsored (even if it doesn't look like it), a lot of it isn't. Almost all of it is political. Something that you will inevitably find across the country is "Dale Correa."
Spend five minutes in front of a Ecuadorian TV, and you will quickly figure out that these people are referring to President Correa. My new friend and Peace Corp volunteer, Aaron, did just that. He also figured Ecuador's President must be named Dale. Kind of an odd spanish name, right? Yes, but it's not so odd once you realize that Ecuadorians are fond of English names (especially the names of old American presidents).
Well, following a few months and a lot of spanish practice, Aaron realized that the President's name wasn't Dale at all. It was Rafael. Who was this Dale Correa, then? I'm sure you spanish speakers have it by now. "Dale" isn't a name at all. It's a common phrase translating to something like "Get it" or "Do it."
R.I.P Dale Correa.
As for the rest of the stories, the past two weekends offered some serious excitement. Two weekends ago, I had the opportunity to participate in my first jungle hunt.
"What do you hunt in the jungle?" you may ask.
Anything and everything. Rabbits, boars, monkeys, armadillos, deer, and rodents you've never heard of.
"What do you hunt with?"
I wish I could say we used spears, blow darts, or knives, but 16 gauge shotguns accompanied us this time. We did get some practice with blow darts for the future though.
"Did you get anything?"
Well, let me tell you about it. We arrived a bit late to Santa Domingo, the community we were staying in for the evening, so we didn't head into the jungle until about 9 pm. We were seven all together- three ecuadorians, equipped with machetes and shotguns, and four gringos, equipped with two small knives. Let's just say that they didn't put much trust in us bringing back breakfast.
Not 5 minutes outside the house, one member of the party, David, started screaming, "Catuches! Catuches!" (Cartridges! Cartridges). You'd think he just spotted a massive bull elk from the urgency in his voice. I scurried to get a few shells out of my camera case, which he quickly took and bolted into the trees. Patricio calmly stood and scanned the vegetation with his flashlight. Occasional Quichua interjections fought through the trees. Next thing I knew, Patricio raised his rifle, took aim at something invisible to me, and fired.
Sure enough, I heard whatever it was tumbling from above. Thirty seconds later, David emerged from the jungle holding a larger-than-life rat by the tail. Not the elk-size boar I hoped for, but we had our first kill.
Our first kill
And nearly our last.
The next 5 hours we spent ducking branches, climbing logs, and keeping our headlamps pointed up in the trees. David heard some boars and we saw one nocturnal monkey, which somehow managed to escape three trigger-happy Quichua men. (At $2.25 a shot, it was hard not to hear ka-ching instead of ka-boom with each miss). Other than that, the most excitement came during a 15 minute period when we were "lost" in jungle. Thankfully Patricio was able to reoriente himself before daybreak, or else that rat might have started to look tasty.
We rolled back towards the community about 2 o'clock in the morning, only to find our third member, Ángel, had managed to get a rabbit along the way. Not an overwhelming kill, but at least the 5 hours stomping through the jungle weren't for nothing.
mmmm. Breakfast.
The crew minus Patricio
And for your last question, "Did you eat those?"
No, we didn't. We intended to, but we missed the 4 am wake-up call for breakfast. Maybe next time.
Now for the next tale from this past weekend. I've been fortunate enough to key in with some Peace Corp volunteers that are gung ho for the mountains. As always I have to ask, "Guayusa good to me?" The Peace Corp volunteers, Joe (works with Runa) and Aaron (from earlier in this post), put together a trip to summit Sumaco, the tallest mountain in my home province of Napo. While its not the most glamourous mountain, it overlooks my town and is one of the most remote mountains in Ecuador, so it's a must-do in my book.
Sumaco from near the start of the trail
The trip would take a minimum of three days. The trail starts in the village of Pacto Sumaco at 1,538 m (5,045 ft.) and ends on Volcán Sumaco's summit at 3,732 m (12,244 ft.). In between lies one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. You literally start in the rainforest and finish in something resembling alpine tundra. Sounds incredible, right?
Well, Joe, Aaron, Tyler (one of Runa's founders), and I thought so. We woke up at 4:15 Saturday morning and hopped the bus to Pacto Sumaco hoping to get an early start on the trail. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. As soon as we arrived, people asked what we were up to.
"Climbing Volcán Sumaco!" we mistakenly replied. One minute later, our aspiring guide was by our side charging us $38/day. That's a bit steep for a group that didn't even want a guide! We spent the next hour wrangling with him to let us leave without him, but he kept insisting that we have to have a guide. He said we would get lost; the trail is hard to follow; there aren't any signs. He even sited a treaty the association of guides had with the government- the town would stop harvesting traditional hardwoods and the Ministerio would support the association by requiring guides in the park. Not a bad deal except that mounds of fresh-cut wood still littered the town. With that bit of evidence, Tyler quickly weasled out a confession from the fellow that they hadn't signed the deal yet. Gringos: 1 point. We assured him that we had a trip report, GPS, and ample experience to get us up the mountain.
Aaron and Joe reviewing the trip report.
Finally, at about 9 o'clock we made it out of the town...without a guide. By noon, we were lost. Ecuadorian guide: 1 point. We weren't really lost. We just didn't know where we were going. We spent the next four hours hacking our way through the jungle and exploring anything that could resemble a trail- all in hopes of reaching some magical GPS waypoint that we weren't even sure was correct.
The start- a cut-log trail.
Doesn't look like they've stopped cutting hardwoods to me.
Ducking our way through part of the jungle.
Cool flower
Checking our progress through one of the pastures.
The "trail" was suppose to go up this creek for 0.5 km. Of course, we didn't figure that one out until we came back down the mountain.
Thanks to the eventual help from a farmer, we ended up on the right path at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Two hours later we found the first camp and the edge of the Sumaco National Reserve just in time for night fall.
The second day didn't present the navigational challenges the first day did, but it did present the challenges of knee deep mud pits, overgrown bamboo, and 3,300 vertical feet. Not to mention, we hiked the entire thing in botas, a must in any rainforest expedition. Here are some photos from the day.
Botas
Huge tree.
Awesome monkey tail.
Laguna at the second refugio
Joe and Tyler marking our waypoint
Clouds lifting a little bit
We pulled into the final camp about 3 o'clock. We debated making the final push to the summit, but 3.3 km and 3,300 vertical feet didn't sound like the most fun after the morning slog. Instead, we opted to get an alpine start the next morning, hit the peak at sunrise, and make the 7,200 foot decent back to Pacto Sumaco the next day.
2 am wake-up call
Still in the jungle...but not for long
The peak!
Laguna in the crater
Cool flora near the peak
Somewhere down there is the rainforest
An exhausted, but stoked, crew after an 18 hour day. Sumaco is in the background.
SP Kennels (http://www.amindofmush.blogspot.com/ or http://www.spkenneldoglog.blogspot.com/) represented in the Amazon. Congrats on the Yukon Quest 300 Ryne and happy 22nd birthday!!
The mountain may have whooped us physically, but we made it safe and sound. We couldn't have been luckier either. As you saw, we caught one of the most beautiful sunrises I've witnessed to date. To our west loomed two huge snow capped volcanoes peeking out from the clouds. Beneath us lay the Napo river and the Amazon Jungle. Not a shabby weekend, eh?
Until the next time!
