It’s 2:15 pm, and we’re lounging around on a comfortable terrace in a hotel where no one speaks English.
Our compatriots who did the last activity yesterday reported that we made a good decision because there were 270 stairs to the observation tower to which the guide took them. That was after a 15-minute walk with wellies on because it was muddy. We would not have made it but we did get some rest. We gathered before supper to watch a video about the Napo Wildlife Centre that was interesting. The Anangu community came together and refused to let a company build and run the eco-lodge, as a neighboring community had done. The neighboring community gets paid $400 a month to let the company run a lodge in their community. The Anangu community, to date, gets about $60,000 a year from revenue at the center.
The community, with the help of some NGO (non-governmental organizations) built the lodge and provided jobs for the community. They brought in all the materials the same way in which we entered the lake on which the lodge is built – by paddle canoes. Extraordinary. They began the project in 1998 and finished it in 2003. The tower was completed nine years ago. Some of the challenges for the community was learning how to wait tables, clean rooms, etc. for which they had experts help. It’s a beautiful lodge and has all the amenities Westerners want.
The community uses the revenue for basic needs like food and some health care. A lot of it goes toward conserving the portion of the Amazon forest that the government has “given” them. Their issue now is keeping the oil and gas industry out of the forest. There is some drilling, and as I mentioned earlier, there have been at least two oil spills. You can still see a sheen on the water. There were two places along the Napo that you could see the impact of the industry. One was a flaming thing they use to refine the oil; the other was a large landing on which there were big oil trucks and big machinery that despoiled the surrounding area.
At supper, Mauricio (our guide) told us that they were no longer allowing the boats to bring people into the lodge because of the protests. And he gets to go home, which is about a 4 ½-hour bus ride. He and his wife have two children. They live in a city.
We also were told that the roads into Quito are all permanently closed until some kind of compromise or solution occurs between the protesters and the government. The protesters will not talk to the president until he lifts the emergency order, which I personally don’t see him doing so the situation may continue, and there’s more violence.
Because the roads are closed, we cannot do the next segment of our trip because it requires a transfer from Quito to Mindo. We are awaiting a call from our travel insurance that offers emergency travel assistance so we can rebook our flight home. Hopefully, we can transfer to a hotel nearer the airport tomorrow and fly out Monday morning early.
It’s been a long day. We got up, packed and had our luggage on our porch by 4:45 am and got to the dock around 5 am. It was Amazon dark, and here’s an experience few probably have ever encountered: Mauricio and Mario paddled the canoe across the lake into the river IN THE DARK! So glad we don’t have anxiety attacks because this would cause an anxiety attack, and I can just see someone refusing to get into the canoe. We had no choice but to trust our guides, and they did good.
At one point, we were going under a downed tree that went across the river, and got showered by something crossing. It was a sloth! We were already under it when Mauricio shined a light but we believe him.
We also saw a bird we had not seen but I can’t remember what he called it. It was white and had spindly legs like a water bird.
Eventually, it began getting light and I felt a little relieved that I could see the river. It took about an hour and a half to get to the welcome center where we transferred to the motorized canoe. After we were settled, they provided us breakfast in self-contained plastic Tupperware. There were scrambled eggs, lots of fruit, some salami and cheese, bread and some yucca bread (our favorite). After we ate, they FINALLY gave us coffee.
It took two hours to get to the facility on the river where the bus was waiting. We had a little respite while they unloaded the luggage from the canoe onto the bus then we were off to the airport. We got our boarding passes, checked our luggage and waited. The plane was late getting off the ground but not by much.
We arrived in Quito around 11:30 am and wished our “team” members (Scott, Toni, Sebastian and Sullivan from Michigan) good luck and well wishes for their Galapagos trip then we were met by our transfer to the hotel at which we're at now.
So here we are in suspension, awaiting our emergency travel adviser to call. It’s 1:30 pm, and they said it would be 4 to 6 hours.
More later……
It’s 8:40 pm and we have gotten no further than we did at 1:30 pm with the “emergency” travel adviser who has yet to call us so we called back, and I insisted I stay on the line until I talked with an “emergency” travel adviser because when I tried calling them again on my phone (twice), I got someone speaking Spanish, then they hung up. So we used Beth’s phone and got on line with someone who said our earlier request had been submitted but didn’t tell us why we never received a call. Anywho, she stayed on the line for quite a while but couldn’t connect with the adviser.
As I began writing this, whallah! We got a call from the “emergency” travel adviser (at 8:44 pm). In the meantime, I made reservations for Sunday through Wednesday at that pleasant colonial estate, San Jose de Puembo, which is only about 15 minutes from the airport. Didn’t know exactly how long but I asked the “emergency” travel adviser to rebook us for Wednesday so we’ll get some down time.
They speak English there, thank goodness. The hotel at which we’re staying tonight, well, there’s only one guy who barely understands English but he was so nice and helpful. Because we were waiting for the call from the insurance company, we needed to order something to get delivered, so we chose a restaurant nearby that Eddie had recommended. I took the laptop down to the front desk, as I had a translator so I could communicate. The restaurant was closed so we found a Gyros place, and he ordered us two Gyros platters with Cokes. He brought them up when they were delivered – actually, on the floor below us is a nice terrace with tables and chairs so we ate there. He even got us place mats and turned the tv on for us as we ate.
There is no heat in any of the places in Quito, so I requested – through the translator – a space heater. He brought it up – doesn’t do much good but it’s better than nothing.
It’s now 9:05 pm – we have been up since 4:30 am (we lied down but didn’t really nap as we’ve been trying – unsuccessfully - to get the hey outta here).
We’ll stay awake long enough for the return call from our “emergency” travel adviser.
No comments:
Post a Comment