October to December- More 'Good Deeds done' in Salinas

Last year I wrote a Blog post about all the good deeds being done by the Expat community along with our Ecuadorian friends here in Salinas.

http://uwepetrastravelyear.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-7-to-22-good-deeds-done-in.html

This year brings a new group of good deeds by the same group now consisting of many new members.

First, the election of a new president to the Red Cross ‘Cruz Roja’ , our dear friend Susana de Calero, has brought about an amazing amount of change in this institution and has given many members of our Expat group the opportunity to become volunteers.

                                              Our new Presidente- Susana

In October, a group of dentists from the USA came to give free dental care to the poorer children of the Santa Elena area. They needed volunteers to help translate between the English speaking dentists and the Spanish speaking children.

 Many of my gringa friends were recruited by the Red Cross to help for this three day event. And help they did! A very successful endeavor.

A training session was also held at the Cruz Roja building for other people who wanted to volunteer for this worthwhile organization. An instructor came from Quito and in an all day session on a Sunday, taught us future volunteers all about the Red Cross and how we could help.

In mid November, an amazing Fund Raising dance was held for the Red Cross at the Salinas Yacht Club- a beautiful venue.

Several hard working gringas and Ecuadorianas helped Susana with this very successful event.

Susana herself made all the deserts!

Everyone of the 200 people attending had a great time, with good food and fun dancing.

A Christmas dinner was also held for the volunteers at the Cruz Roja building. Everyone brought a dish to share. 

After a short meeting with several presentations, we all enjoyed an amazing meal.

And now for the last but best good deeds that were done in Salinas.

 Back in August the Women’s Coffee Klatch had adopted a school of 289 children in a very poor area for Christmas. As well, the women of Ballenita adopted a second school of an equal amount of children. And, our friend Jean has adopted another school of 120 children for the last three years.

A Fund Raising dance called the ‘Flip Flop Sock Hop’ was held in September and more than $1500 was raised. As well, all the children were individually adopted by community members for buying of presents. One of our gringas, Dee, made Christmas stockings for every child in both schools- amazing! Everyone had a part from giving cash, bringing essentials back from North America, to buying presents, wrapping, shopping, organizing- we are one awesome group!

We held a couple of wrapping and stocking stuffing parties. Every stocking was stuffed with crayons, a coloring book designed by Connie, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, small toy etc.

As well, many of the women brought great treats to share.

                                           Another truly memorable Coffee Klatch was enjoyed.

When we discovered that many of the families of these children would have little or no food at any time of the year let alone Christmas, we decided to spend the rest of the money on staples for each of the children’s families plus the teachers.

Our good friend Eddie volunteered to use his truck & trailer to pick up the 155 boxes stuffed with rice, beans, sugar, flour, oil etc plus several large bags of salt.

Then of course, we had to have another party to divide the salt into 155 smaller packets and stuff them into the boxes- more fun times.

Finally on December 17^th for the school in Muey and December 18^th for the school in Ballanita, the gifts and boxes were delivered to our adopted schools. Does Christmas actually get any better than this!

First the pictures from the delivery of presents, stockings & food boxes for the families in the school in Muey. 
                                                   Of course Papa Noel joined in the fun

And distribution of the food boxes

And families taking their stuff home

And the next day the distribution of presents to the Ballenita School

But that was not all! 

On December 20th, another gringa, Dodie and friends, held a fiesta for the families of the neighborhood guardias.

It really started as just an idea to have a small gathering for approximately 6 families ( with12 children) in the beach neighborhood of Playa Cautivo but ended up with 42 children, 26 parents and 17 expat volunteers on site.

In the end each of the children received a gift (wrapped in a colorful towel) and a stocking ( from Papa Noel that made a special appearance).   A towel to wrap the gifts with as it is more practical to them.  Many of these families share one towel.  It simply made sense to do it that way instead of paper that is thrown away. 

The gifts were distributed by family; so when the entire family came up to sit with Santa, a family photo was taken and before they left, they were each given their printed family photo with a lovely Christmas background. 

Each of the families also received a food basket in a plastic tub with a lid, that would also be useful to them. 

There were 4 craft tables set up which were an absolute hit; each family created a Christmas tree with decorations to bring home.

DJ equipment was donated and Spanish Christmas songs were played.  Children were dancing, playing, creating and each time they passed a 'gringo' these children were giving out hugs freely and often.

                                            Now isn't that a gift that keeps on giving. 

And yet another new tradition from the Gringos that own the B&B Las Palmas on Punta Canero, John & Heather, who started the 'Papa Noel on the Beach' . Over 400 bags of candies were put together and handed out to children on the beach. 

What a totally amazing group of individuals we have in the Salinas/ Ballenita/ Santa Elena area.

Merry Christmas to all and here is the another amazing year in our adopted country!

Nov, 2 to November 7- Our Trip on the Manatee Amazon Adventure

We were off! The three of us, Randy, Uwe and I took a one hour plane ride from Salinas to Quito (TAME Airlines does trips to & from Quito every Thursday, Friday & Sunday evening).

Since our flight to the Amazon was not until next morning, we stayed at a hotel close to the airport http://airporthotelquito.com/ .

Next morning we met Paulina, the rep from the Manatee Amazon Adventure, our booked trip. We were taking this trip down the Napo River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napo_River , a tributary of the Amazon , all the way from a town called Coca or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Francisco_de_Orellana  to the border of Peru. The Amazon basin covers three countries, Ecuador, Peru & Brazil- our trip was in Ecuador.

We were very surprised at the size of our plane to Coca, unlike the little plane we had taken from Salinas, this one was full sized- amazing!

Our guide, Alex, was waiting for us at the Coca Airport, loaded us into a taxi and took us to the boat dock where we would take a motorized canoe down the Napo River for the 2 hour trip to meet our boat, the Manatee, our home for the next 5 days. http://www.manateeamazonexplorer.com/en/home

DAY 1 Monday

The motorized canoe was fairly large and covered (protection from the sun or rain).

 We soon took off with 3 other guests, Wayne & Elly from New York State and Marcus from Uruguay.

Not long into our 2 hour ride we saw what definitely looked like rain up ahead. Luckily for us Alex had rain panchos. Even though at first Uwe thought he didn’t need one, we were all happy that they were available as the sky opened up- this is not called the rain forest for nothing.

We passed by one of the Oil fields along the river. Alex pointed out that the 2 large stacks spewing fire and smoke, were to burn off the natural gas, a by-product of oil. In this area, they had no way to use or transport the natural gas so it was just burned off. 

The problem was that when it burned at night, insects were naturally attracted and perished in the flames. The Amazon basin is losing thousands of it’s pollinators because of this method.

On arrival at the Manatee, we were greeted with a snack and drink of fresh juice (this was repeated each time we returned from our many trips) and then were assigned our rooms. Ours was the ‘Jaguar’ very nice, air-conditioned with a great hot water shower- only first class for these old gringos!

The rest of the facilities on board were also first class- a great bar & meeting area, 

                               outside seating for watching the river go by

                                    and an elegant dining room.

 We met in the dining room and were treated to the first of many truly excellent meals- lunch was served.

Before dinner, we met our fellow passengers, and had a short briefing about the next day. We then gathered around the bar (our favorite spot- LOL) for our welcome drinks and a chance to introduce ourselves. Some of us managed to do this in both English & Spanish. We were 12 guests in total 6 friends from Minnesota, a couple from New York State, one person from Uruguay and we three from Salinas, plus 2 guides Alex & Ruben, Felix our captain, the bar tender Dario plus 2 chefs, sous cooks, and various people to run, steer, and clean the boat.

DAY 2 Tuesday

                                  The day dawned cloudless- gorgeous!

After a buffet breakfast of eggs, pancakes, cereal, fruit, yogurt, juice and wonderful strong coffee, we got ready for our first excursion. All excursions took one of the motorized canoes to all destinations while the Manatee kept trucking downstream.

This trip was to a local village and school. We arrived to find a one room school where kids from 5 to 12 years were taught all together by a local teacher.

The children introduced themselves- very shy- and we did the same- preferably in Spanish, our names and where we were from. They sang a cute song for us and then we were asked to reciprocate. Oh yea, 12 almost strangers coming up with a song we all knew LOL! We ended up singing the A B C song and followed that with a gusty rendition of a two chorus Row Row Row your Boat. Who said it couldn’t be done. Much laughter and many many pictures followed.

                              After a small tour around the village,

 we headed back to the Manatee for another awesome lunch.

One of the options available for the guests, was a night of Glamping ‘ Glamorous Camping’ which included a chef cooked dinner with white table cloths, a full bar, tents with cots & linens etc. Our fellow guests from Minnesota being the adventurous types had opted for this on Tuesday night. So on our afternoon excursion, we would be dropping them off.

Our second excursion that day, was a trip up the Yasuni River heading into the Yasuni National Park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuni_National_Park . This small tributary of the Napo River was very pristine and scenic. We silently coasted along always on the look out for native animals.

We soon arrived at a ranger station where we were dropping off the 6 Glampers. This was also a rest stop for us to stretch our legs etc. A pet capybara met us on the dock and demanded pats from everyone.

The six of us plus our guide Alex continued on. We were following this river until we reached a large lagoon/lake. Along the way, we did see a group of native birds called ‘stinky turkeys’ so called because they ate leaves that caused a strange odor that was offensive to predators.

Once at the lagoon which was incredibly scenic, Alex saw a troupe of Red Howler monkeys. WOW! We stopped the boat and spent several minutes snapping pictures. Wayne & Elly got some amazing shots- me not so much even though I had taken the big SLR camera that Uwe’s brother Burk had been nice enough to give me. I need a bigger/better camera!

On the way back down the river, we passed our ship mates out kayaking (found out the next day that they had seen a caiman!).As well, we came upon a group of gray river dolphins. Unlike their ocean cousins, these are very shy and we only saw a few breaches as they were chasing fish.

The ride back to the Manatee went into the early evening and a full moon accompanied us.

Day 3 Wednesday

We were woken up at 5:30AM for a 6AM trip up yet another river in the hope that more animals could be seen at this time of day. I only had time for a quick coffee (breakfast on our return) and only 4 of us plus Alex & the canoe driver took off in a much smaller, tippyer motorized canoe.

We arrived at the Tiputini River after about an hours’ ride up river. Again this tributary was awesome especially so shortly after sunrise. We coasted silently all on the lookout. 

We did see several bird species and pink river dolphins. These were equally as shy as their gray cousins but Wayne did get this great photo of one grabbing a fish.

After a couple of hours floating upstream and then back down, we arrived back at the Napo. I did notice that we turned upstream instead of the way we had come thinking that the Manatee had caught up and passed us. So started the first of our many adventures LOL!

The Napo River is very wide with many islands and sand banks. We travelled for about an hour (our stomachs had begun to growl) but no Manatee. Que pasa? ( what’s up?) Alex and the driver were discussing (in Spanish) un grande problema (even I could understand that). They stopped a small canoe passing us and asked if they had seen our boat (I was getting much practice listening to Spanish). Yes, they thought they had – down river from where we were. OK, around we turned heading back downstream the way we had come. You are probably thinking (much like us) why not use the radio on board to contact the Manatee. Nope, radio broken.

Luckily all 4 of us had a great sense of humour and fully appreciated this great adventure we were having ‘LOST IN THE AMAZON’ LOL!

Another half hour downstream, still no Manatee- we started to eat the crackers tucked into our back backs- always prepared. Back upstream, again no Manatee! Finally Alex, with binoculars, saw what looked like our boat in the distance far down stream. She had been hidden behind an island when we had been downstream previously. A huge cheer went up. 

We arrived back on board to a late 10:30AM breakfast having spent 4 ½ hours on this 2 hour trip.

After a welcome shower, nap and lunch we left on yet another excursion. You think you can rest on this trip, ha ha think again! This time we were going to the home of one of the many indigenous families living along the river. Their home was built on stilts like all others we had seen, both to protect from flood waters and snakes.

Alex told us about their daily lives, pointed out some of their local plants including a bush used to make the Ayahuasca drink   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca a haluciogenic plant- Uwe contemplated sneaking some back to Salinas!

                                 Alex also made native head dresses for all of us.

And Randy volunteered to have her face painted with the achioto oil.

Our adventures for that day were far from over. We were meeting again in the dining room for a cooking lesson. We did notice that the Manatee was parked on a sand bank instead of heading upstream but our attention was cleverly diverted with the making of empanadas.

The head chef led the class and we each took a turn to make one and after it was cooked, eating it- deliciosa!

Next Alex showed us how to make chocolate starting with the roasted cocoa bean. First they were ground into a paste over and over again. 

Then some dry milk and sugar was added, your choice on how much, more sugar more sweeter. Alex then formed the paste into a huge bar giving a piece to each of his eager audience for tasting- very dark maybe 90%- just like Uwe & I like it.

All during this time there was much activity outside. Another motorized canoe tied up along side bringing additional workers. Hmmm, something is up.

Our boat remained tied up to the sand bank the rest of the afternoon and we finally found out that there was a problem with the motor. No problem for us as activities proceeded as planned plus the bar was open. More revelations were to follow!

That evening after dinner we finally went for our night hike. I have to say, that was the most memorable time. We saw so many animals. We took off with our motorized canoe from our crippled boat dressed in long sleeves & pants ( mosquitos), hats, boots, bug spray, flash lights- we were ready.

After parking the canoe, we walked in the dark along a very wide path each of us shining our flashlights trying to find night creatures and find them we did! Please be aware that I am quite afraid of spiders but all the ones we saw plus all the other creatures, seemed mesmerized by the flashlights and didn’t move even when the cameras came within an inch of them- awesome!

                                         A salamander

One of many strange insects we saw

A baby Tarantula

A tree frog no larger than my thumb nail

Day 4 Thursday

We woke up next morning to the sound of motors running-yea -but the Manatee still parked on the same sand bank- ooops.

All of us plus guides took off again on our last river excursion, this time the Yuturi River a very narrow extremely scenic tributary. This was by far the prettiest and most pristine river we had travelled. We silently motorized along both our guides on the look out for animals along the way.

Maybe 20 minutes into our river trip, we were suddenly stopped by a large tree across the river blocking our path. Yea, more adventures. Did the crew of the Manatee plan all this? And were we actually stopped? Hell, no. Our guides brandished their machetes and chopped our way through.

 Alex even got into the water for the final push through. 

What heroes we had with us.

On this trip we saw another troupe of monkeys, more stinky turkeys, many toucans, an osprey hawk with a fish caught in his talons, and many more bird varieties.

As we came back out unto the Napo River, we saw a welcome sight- the Manatee motoring along towards us. Hurray, we were on our way back up river again. 

Much later at our farewell get together at the bar, we found out that the Manatee’s propeller had actually dropped off and our crew had had to dive to locate it. It is a complement to their professionalism that our trip went on as though nothing serious was happening and merely giving us yet another adventure to talk about later.

Our last excursion for that day and our trip was a hike on Monkey Island so called because monkeys had been introduced there and our guides thought we might have a good chance to spot some. This was our first hike where we actually had rain but because of the dense vegetation we barely got wet. 

With our guides brandishing their machetes once again, we spent at least 2 hours hiking back and forth across that damn island . NO MONKEYS! Only sweat as we had 100% humidity. We were all pretty sure that the monkeys were hiding from the rain laughing at these crazy humans trudging around the island.

At last our guides gave up –YEA- and we headed back to where we had left the boat. As we came out of the dense jungle ontu the beach- no boat! We had come out at a different part of the island (would our adventures ever stop!).

Ruben ran back into the jungle to get the boat to come to us- thank you- and we all waited patiently in the mud to be saved.

Elly went too far into the mud and got stuck. It took both Alex and her husband Wayne to extract her boots. 

And yet another adventure comes to a successful end.

Our last night on the boat was spent drinking much vino with all our new friends, taking many more pictures and trading emails. As well, the crew gave a picture show and gave us all a CD of pictures they had taken of all of us plus our many adventures- a very nice gesture.

                                                    Our bartender Dario

New friends

Day 5 Friday

Because the Manatee had been stuck for half a day and was further down river then planned from Coca, a speed boat had been ordered to get us to our plane on time.

After saying goodbye to our new friends continuing on, our amazing guides and the rest of the crew, we boarded the speed boat and were on our way.

Epilogue

We had a truly amazing time with many adventures in a beautiful part of our world. Please visit here soon because the ‘Rape of the Amazon’ is well under way. Not only in Ecuador but Peru and Brazil as well, the oil rigs are slowly taking over. Yes, I understand that we still need oil and there are rigs  all over the world, but this beautiful area is the ‘lungs of the world’! May our grandchildren & great grandchildren etc forgive us because we do know what we are do.