Ecuador Day 3

Day 2 Morning decided that drive to airport to book flight is essential. talked lou and pat into walking to local coffee shop first. took right instead of left, long detour, .50 cent mora and strawberry drink on street, delicious. walked more. finally found el cafeto. mmm double espresso. put hair on my chest. love it.

day 2 Noon flying over the andes, just crossed over a snowcapped mountain peaking through the clouds. beautiful. en route to coca...taking 60dollar 30minute plane ride as opposed to 8dollar 8hr bus ride. by the way 30 minute plane ride serves delicious snack pack makes me hate american airlines. had a lovely day cruising quito with newfound friend lou and tried and true patricia. booked flight, visited jardin botanico and saw 1000species of orchids , ate lunch, ate ice cream. heladeria de saint augusten...been making ice cream since 1858. got half coconut half cafe. seventy five cents. cruised around, arrive at airport, fly to coca. going to stay in a hostel tonight and ten try to book a tour. woohooo amazon. here we come. side note...ear infection still raising hell.

day 3 wow. and not a WOW WOW WOW a FUCK WHAT THE FUCK HAVE WE GOTTEN INTO kinda wow. the flight to coca was the single most amazing flight ive ever experienced. the town of coca is the single most unappealing, smelly, loathsome place ive ever been. for all of my costa rican friends...as a reference...coca makes LIMON on the caribbean coast look fancy. so, this shouldnt matter because coca will only be a starting and ending point, afterall we will be touring the amazon. but the tours we found just didnt seem like a good fit, not one of us got the OH MAN WE GOTTA DO THIS and since staying in coca for more than one night, though a deal at 5 bucks, was not an option, we opted to formulate a new plan. we all decided on TENA. its still the amazon, though not nearly as dense as where we are, but the opening sentence for this town in lonely planet is TENA IS A CHEERFUL, WELCOMING VORTEX, THE KIND OF PLACE VISITORS FORGET TO LEAVE. works for me. with our new plan in action, we opted to make the most of coca. our cheap, beat down hostel oasis had a nice deck overlooking the RIO NAPO river, so we posted up, drank a bunch of beer, and had a dinner of bread...and not just ANY bread...CHEESEY BREAD to my delight. the 3 of us chtted away, laughed, and had an amazing night in coca. my bed was slightly infested with ants and when i went to finally take my first shower of the trip i discovered that teh shower head was merely a slow and steady drip of water. in the night i experienced the most AMAZING thunderstorm of my life. lightening lit up the sky as if it were daytime, and the thunder literally shook the whole building, my bed, and sent chills up my spine. after a rought night of sleep, pat lou and i are at the bus station, ready to bid farewell to coca, sipping some cafe con leche...which in ecuador is actually just steamed milk with a side of nescafe instant coffee. ew. it was fifty cents so i cant complain, but i certainly didnt drink it...though i tried. in an hour we will be boarding the bus for our 5 to 6 hours ride to tena...where we will post up for several days before setting off for la mama negra festival in LATACUNGA. to sum things up...pat and i love lou, and are glad to have him aboard. we will be traveling partners for most of the trip...which i love because he has great stories, hes always a gentlemen, extremely wise and really i just feel much more safe traveling with a man.

day 3 continues... well the bus trip wasnt god awful. instead of the 5 to 6 hour estimated time, we arrived in just 4 hours...thank god because the little kid standing in the aisle next to where i was seated kept vomiting into a plastic bag throughout the trip. anyways...tena. here we are. we post up at hostal limoncocha, and for 6 bucks a night they have big, clean rooms and a gorgeous view of the whole town from their rooftop. also, free internet and hammocks woohoooo. we booked a trip into RIO BLANCO where lou pat and i will be staying with an indigenous village, living the way that they do and participating in their culture. hopefully the shaman and some amazonian tricks can help me get rid of this awful fucking ear infection that has now begun to take over my whole body. anyways... we will be in the jungle for 3 days before rushing back to catch a 6 hour bus to amabuta to then go another hour to latacunga... arriving JUST in time for LA MAMA NEGRA festival. i do believe that we will also be meeting up with new york john, whom we met at secret garden in quito. cruised around tena, ate some delicious fried fish overlooking the gorgeous river and now back to the house around 4pm, ready to crash or cut my ear off. hopefully the amazon holds some secret medicina for me....