A Long Way from Philly, by Lynne Cooke

When I met Mary in graduate school at San Diego State University about fifteen years ago, I never imagined that someday we would be on a motor powered canoe headed into the jungle. But there we were, on our way to Casa del Suizo, a lodge nestled in the Amazon. But, wait, maybe I should back up and tell you who I am and what I’m doing writing on Mary’s blog. I’m Mary’s friend, Lynne, who lives in suburban Philadelphia, PA, which is, well, quite different from Ecuador. During my visit to Ecuador, Mary generously asked me to be a guest blogger, and, as you can tell, I accepted the offer. I teach technical writing, and unfortunately, my prose reflects my profession. Stick with me through this blog entry, though. I promise not to use subheadings, bulleted lists, or forecasting statements, as we technical writers are apt to do. (On the plus side, I won’t use wordy phrases such as “due to the fact that” or “it is important to note that.”)

Mary and I met up in Quito on a rainy Saturday afternoon and stayed the night in La Mariscal, the happening part of the city – live music everywhere, great restaurants, and a bunch of hostels. The next day we began our trip to Tena by bus via a windy, hilly, hairpin turn, mostly unpaved road. I found the buses fascinating – people were in the seats, in the aisles, constantly getting on or off at unmarked stops. Scattered along the road were tiny shacks, some lit with a single, naked light bulb that hung from the ceiling. Although intellectually I knew that Ecuador was a developing country, I didn’t fully grasp what that meant until that moment. The contrast between what many Americans call home (5,000 sq ft. McMansions) and what many Ecuadorians call home is shocking. Don’t get me started…

We stayed at Mary’s place in Tena for a day before heading out to the jungle lodge. Tena is a mix of urban and rural. Small specialty stores, hostels, and restaurants line the streets, dogs roam the neighborhoods, and chickens cluck from day to night. Mary is quite the local – we kept running into people she knew – and she’s got a great place within walking distance of downtown Tena. Mary lives on the second story of a concrete single-family home. Her three-bedroom home has beautiful hardwood floors, lots of windows, and a great patio conducive to wine drinking, book reading, and snoozing. As a westerner who had never been to a developing country before, I was surprised by the rebar sticking out of the patio. I thought, “Is this place still under construction?” But no, this is just the way things are in Ecuador. Part of the infrastructure is in place if the owners want to build on to the house. Sounds reasonable to me.

From Tena we took a two-hour bus ride and then a 20 minute canoe ride to reach the jungle lodge, where we stayed in a room with a spectacular view of the river. Sitting on that balcony was one of the most peaceful experiences I have ever had.

The next day, we visited amaZOOnica, a preserve for monkeys, toucans, enormous colorful parrots, wild pigs, and the like. As recently as thirty or forty years ago, you could have seen these animals in the wild, but because of overhunting and habitat loss, most of the big mammals and birds are gone. AmaZOOnica is no urban zoo: volunteers live in on the grounds, give tours, and care for the animals, most of which were rescued from poachers or illegally kept as pets. Only about 20% can be reintroduced into the wild.
Before returning to Tena, I took a tour of a Kichwa village where I learned about some of the local customs, including the preparation of chichi, an intoxicating beverage which Mary has described as “tasting the way moldy laundry smells” (and she’s right). The tour also featured local artisans who create beautiful clay pots with intricate designs and parrots out of balsawood, all of which are for sale in the village. In this ecotourism model both the jungle lodge and the indigenous people benefit: The Kichwa have the opportunity to sell their crafts and educate tourists about their culture, and the jungle lodge can offer tourists a glimpse of Kichwa life that would otherwise be closed to outsiders.

A few days later, I took a bus back to Quito. This time the woman seated next to me balanced a box of 20 or so tiny, yellow chicks on her lap that peeped the whole way to Quito. I found the peeping soothing, in part because I didn’t have any idea what people were saying around me. You see, I don’t speak or understand Spanish (shameful, I know, because I lived in San Diego for many, many years). I felt like such a typical American tourist, gesturing and pointing to things and hoping people might understand a word or two of English. Fortunately, people were very kind to me. I made it from the bus station to the hostel, ordered a meal from a menu with pictures, and flew back to the US the next day.

I’ll end by thanking Mary for being an incredibly gracious host and by letting you know that the work she’s doing in Ecuador makes a difference. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mary decided to stay in Tena permanently because the Kichwa people I met think of her as a member of their community, which she is.