Amazonian woman

There was an accumulation of Ecuadorian celebrated public holidays in early November, which we took as the perfect chance to ship ourselves of to the Amazon for a couple of days. We booked a tour with the ever helpful Happy Gringo team, located in the centre of La Mariscal for all our 'gringo' tourist needs. The team there were incredibly helpful, and were able to give us a good deal booking us on a somewhat last minute tour. When booking tours you can often find amazing bargains at the last minute, as most tour companies would rather fill their tours to capacity in order to raise revenue as opposed to making nothing with lost sales. 

We headed off on a dreadfully long bus trip from Quito towards the Amazonian Basin, taking us as far as possible before we had to step out into the heat, and board the canoe that would take us to our riverside huts. Several hours later we arrived at our destination, ready for a few days of amazonian adventures. 

Tranquility on the river

Our cabins 

Sunset swimming with out tour group

Kleptomaniac monkey 

Intercontinental soccer match 

The berries used to draw on our 'temporary tattoos'

River swimming with Katy

We spent three days undeniably doing some pretty touristy things, think fishing for piranha's, visiting a shaman in one of the local villages and canoeing. For me one the best parts would have to be the afternoons spent swimming in the river, it was an incredibly beautiful and tranquil experience, and shortly after we were able to watch a gorgeous sunset from the boat. On another note one of the most memorable experiences was a hike that we took which included me falling off a log into quicksand, which I was of course rescued from, but none the less an interesting 'fun fact' to be able to claim. Not to mention making a hilarious story for all my travel companions to retell and make fun of me for!

-Melissa