Arajuno Jungle Lodge

We have just returned from possibly the best experience of this entire trip. I know I know, I´ve said this to just about every major trip weve done, but I really mean it this time. For a week weve been living in the Ecuadorian rainforest. We were stationed at a place that was constructed by the hands of a gringo, Tom. He has lead such an amazing life. He was a forest ranger, peacecore voltuneer, and his path eventually took him to the rainforest of Ecuador where he bought 22 hectares of land to conserve. He has lived there for 8 years now. He plans on living there for the rest of his lfie. Not only is he conserving the land, but he his also breeding yellow spotted turtles, indigenous to the river, to reintroduce back into the river because they have slowly been disappearing. He also gives back to the community by giving them bamboo he grows himself, and giving talks about how to better earn income without destroying the rainforest. It just blows my mind that he had the guts to move to such a foreign place and decide to call it home. But its awesome. I´ll admit I wasn´t very excited to be back in major humidity, heat, and bugs. But this rainforest was like paradise. It wasn´t as hot or humid, and there were much fewer bugs. It was paradise. And he has built such an amazing lodge. It exceeded everyones expectations. The cabins had real bunk beds with real mattresses that you could sink into and best of all, a bathroom in the cabins where we slept. With tile and a real toilet and an actual shower. It´s funny the things you realize you truly appreciate when your in foreign places. He has an open living room slash dining hall that overlooks the meandering muddy brown river. And his own house which is a bit further away from the rest of the cabins is well built also. He has the life. We worked almost every day helping him finish builg a new pen for the turtles. He has a big almost lagoon for the grown turtles and full grown fish, a pen for the baby turtles, and we built a new pen for more big turtles. Our jobs included hauling sand from the shore to the pens to create a beach so the turtles could eventually mate on their own there. we also cemented the new pen, and set the floor base for it. After that was completed, which took a couple of days, we planted baby bamboo so he could grow it and give it to the community, and plant it around his land. Its become a problem for him that hunters or log cutters come onto his land, pretending not to know its his, and take what they want. With the bamboo, there is a clear boundary line. It was grueling work, but very satisfying. The giant bamboo is not indgienous to the forest, but its a noninvasive species so it wont harm the forest which is perfect. Its the fastest growing plant in the world, and creates a very sturdy boundary line. It also extremely benefits the community as well. They can grow it to sell, and they can also harvest it to eat. He´s doing such a good thing down there. Every day after work we would jump into the river because we were allowed to swim in it. Apparently there are no crocs or piranahas or anything. One native said it was basically a swimming pool haha. There was one instance where this girl was swimming and a snake slithered up here leg but that was it. lol. I mean of course there are going to be snakes but they usually keep away from humans. And the food was exquisite. His wife Charo, is an amazing cook. And to cook for 13 people is especially hard. She is actually writing a cookbook. I would buy it. It was so delicious we were sad when we had finished. reverse effect lol. And she even made dessert for us every day. I canñt even describe how well we ate. I never would have dreamed such amazing accomodations. The hours after work were the best. The sun wasn´t as hot, we had finished swimming, we could either lounge on the couches or many hammocks he had strung up around the living room and jsut read or nap. We also played a lot of cards. I finally shot the moon! Yay! It was brilliant too. O and pop your goin to be so happy, we killed, skinned, and gutted out own fish for lunch one day. I immediately thought of how much you would have enjoyed doing that. It was kind of gross. But the fish was really good. They prepared it in the native way which was by folding it in a huge leaf and cooking it. One day we tubed down the river and that was very relaxing. We had a naturalist come, Tom´s best friend, and he took us into the rainforest and explained many of the plants and trees around us. He was very inspiring in that he wanted us all to do good things for the world and said we were already starting that just by being there. It was very cool. We also visited a wildife refuge. That was interesting. Most of the animals were in cages so it kind of looked like a zoo even tho it really wasnt because they try to reintroduce most of those animals back into the wild. It´s sad tho becuase most of htose animals come from being confiscated from various homes who have kept the animals as pets or have mistreated them. So some have major phsyciological issues and have no hope of recovering. They do let some of the monkeys wander out of their cages. I decided from seeing a refuge that I really wouldn´t want to work there. It wouldn´t be that fun. Unless I got to work with a cat. The only cat they had was a puma, but there were so many people that day that it stayed hidden. O they also had a really big anaconda which was cool to see. I would explain in better detail but I have to leave soon so I´m being rushed. In the end we were all very sad to be leaving such a wonderful place. Few of us will ever be back and we know it. But you can´t be sad for too long because when you think about the experience you can only recall good memories, so good feelings rush into you. I also finsihed Cold Mountain there. It was very anticlimatic. The book was written beautifully, but it just wasn´t a very interesting story. O well. I loveeeedddd the arajuno jungle lodge!!