Our journey from Quito to a border town of the Amazon, Tena, began at 8:30am on a small, tightly packed bus. Not knowing what the day would hold for us, excitement filled us all as we had three stops along the way, saving the best for last. Over the first 1.5 hours into the drive, we climbed from 10,000 to 13,500 feet on the bus. The air was thin, everyone was short of breath, and we needed to make slow movements. With my ears popped and muffled, I heard “We’re here!” Being in absolutely nowhere of the Andes mountains, we got off the bus and were greeted with views of scenic mountains and valleys that went on for as far as the eye could see. We hiked down a rocky path to enjoy the scenery and take in the fact that we were standing in the Ecuadorian Andes mountains with nobody else around for miles.
Another 1.5 hours later, this time dropping from 13,500 to 8,000 feet, we found ourselves at our next break of the trip, volcanic heated mountains. We bathed in the thermal heated pools with looking straight at surrounding mountains filled with Amazonian greenery. Myself and a few others started a conversation with a local older family who taught us the meaning behind Ayahuasca, which is a plant based sacred hallucinogen practiced in Ecuador. It is supposed to guide you to a different state of mind allowing you to see yourself, life, and others in a different perspective.
After the hot springs, we drove to the last pitstop on our drive the cloud forests and hiked a short, but exhilarating path. The hike was on a cliff side with a 75+ foot drop where we weren’t able to see the bottom, nor the view because of the thickness of clouds. At the mouth of the path, there were three Ecuadorian locals selling fried, cheese filled empanadas, they were amazing! While all of us sat on the curb eating the empanadas, we would do the honk motion to trucks passing by! We found out that it was a universal signal.
We got back on the bus for the last leg of the trip, Todd’s lodge in Tena. After 1 more hour, at around 6pm we finally arrived to the semi-remote lodge. Greeted with humidity and nature, we got settled in and enjoyed an amazing chicken rice dinner with the river and animal sounds in the background.
