This morning began with an intro from Ellie who is a wonderful person. Todd, the creator of the two lodges was introduced to Ecuador as a missionary kid who eventually married a Quichua woman and had Ellie. She spoke about how her and her three other siblings grew up back and forth between Arizona and Ecuador. For her, she has always valued both parts of her culture, paying special attention to the Quichwua part of herself by studying environment and geography at ASU. Now, she is working towards her masters in Sustainability as ASU to convert the gas canoes into solar powered canoes. As someone who speaks English, Spanish, and Quichua she has been a vital connection for us as we navigate the sharing of cultures.

The adventure began today by canoeing to a part of the jungle where the 18-year-old president showed us how they climb very, very, VERY tall trees and call monkeys and toucans to hunt them. We all tried climbing and swinging on the vines – I didn’t get too far up.

Then, they took us to one of their sacred trees. This tree matched the size of some of the sequoia trees I saw in California. It was HUGE. Not many people are taken to this tree because it is so revered, but we were able to learn about their beliefs while standing beside it. They spoke about how, if they ever get lost, they could knock on the roots to find each other, or how women would plant their gardens around the tree to channel the strong energy and then leave their kids at home because jaguars sleep in between the roots. The president told us a story about how, when he was 14, he was chased by 2  jaguars and almost died because he ran so far, but when he was close enough for his dad to yell, the jaguars left. Ellie told us that some interpret that occurrence as the jaguars recognizing their bloodline in the fathers’ voice because it is believed that the jaguars are their ancestors, and that when the elderly nap and talk in their sleep they are having “jaguar vision”. She said that often, when this happens, jaguar’s will surround the house in a playful, dog-like way because they recognize the elders.

All of these beliefs are so contrary to typical modern ideas, but I absolutely love them. I was so open to believe everything they said because part of me longs to embrace their way of living before society became so detached from our own humanity, and industry corrupted the way we consume.

After lunch, we rode out to a community of Waorani people where we learned to throw spears and played a game of soccer in complete mud. I think everyone wiped out at least once! Our game was quickly finished to see a Tapear casually visiting their home! It looked like an animal from Jurassic World – half anteater, half pig, half dog. Finally, we swam on the river bank to wash off quickly before the sun fully set –  Ellie said it wasn’t good to be in the water at night. Some chicken fights were had before canoeing back…we saw gators on the way back. Yikes!

After dinner we loaded back into the canoes for a ceremony with the same community again. They welcomed us by painting each of our faces and naming us. They would give us the name of one of their ancestors based on intuition. They were all scarily accurate. I received the name Weba who was said to be a very interesting person who would organize music. She would carry around a pot with stones in it, and when she shook it they knew she would be the first to sing with two groups of back up dancers. Then the men changed – actually they really just stripped – and got us chanting in a circle before they married Maggie to one of the boys. Then they went around and married Lama and Carter and then Aiden and I. Hopefully, Josh doesn’t mind!

Once all of the festivities had ended we all headed back on our canoes in the absolute pitch black with only our flashlights to see. Low and behold, we spotted two gators!!! One in the water and one on the bank. Then. Putt, putt, putt….putt. We. Ran. Out. Of. GAS. In the middle of the pitch black river surrounded by gators. I would say I was a little scared.

Thankfully, after 8 minutes, the other boat gave us some gas on the way back and nobody got eaten. Super eventful day today, and tomorrow we embark on an 8 hour ride upstream!!