Another Amazonian Adventure! (February 4-6)

On Friday morning almost the entire Washington student group from CIMAS left Quito for Tena in the Amazon! Even though I had been to the area twice before, it's a really beautiful place and there was so much more I wanted to do!
On Friday afternoon we checked into a cheap hostel very close to one of the rivers in Tena and we also found out that the Provincial Festivals were starting that same day. We decided to go to Cascadas de Latas near Mishuallí, but were a bit delayed by a parade heading through town! When we got off the bus near the trailhead at about 4pm the rain had just begun pouring down! We quickly got in our swimsuits and hiked and swam in the falls, which we had all to ourselves! We returned to Tena for dinner outside the bus station and then we met up with two students from the University of Minnesota CIMAS program who are doing research in the area around Tena and living there for part of this semester. We checked out the night time activities of the Provincial festivals, including concerts, dancing and a preview of the beauty pageant. Later on we sat at a riverside bar and went to one of the few dance clubs, where it seemed like the whole town was enjoying the fun music!

Just arrived in Tena and already eating fresh empanadas!

Parade for the festivals of Napo Province

Cascadas de Latas

The festivals at night

Dancing the night away!

The next morning Marisol, Vanessa and I woke up early to go rafting for the day! Our Minnesota friends had set up the trip, so we went with them, two guys from California and two Ecuadorian women. We spent the whole day on the river, and while the water was low and the rapids weren't super intense, it was still a great day overall! We even got to see a baby boa snake during lunch, although it was not on the table!
Afterwards we ate dinner outside again near the bus terminal and cruised around town a bit, getting filmed for a TV program in the nearby jungle town of Macas along the way! I ended up going to bed earlier because we were very tired and the town was not as lively as the night before.
On Sunday 5 of us packed up early, bought our bus tickets back to Quito, ate breakfast and then rode to the Cavernas Jumandy near Archidona. Even though they were repairing the swimming pool and slides outside of the cave, we still got to go on a great tour and pretty much had the place to ourselves! We had a while to wait before our bus came to pick us up, so we lounged on some ridiculously comfortable rocks in the river across the road from the caves. By 6pm we were back in Quito with only our numerous bug bites as souvenirs!

Jenean, Maya and Olga in the river near the caves in Archidona

(Photo Credit: Jenean)