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At 5 a.m. the morning after our visit to the “Silver Island” off the coast of Puerto Lopez, we left for the cloud forest and a town named Pedro Vicente Maldonado. What should have been a reasonably long drive was actually interminably long because we were forced to take an unpaved detour around a town along the way. There was a 48 hour transportation strike that affected all traffic traveling the road through that town. Roadblocks prevented vehicles from entering or leaving. A good portion of our detour was a bone-jarring road sometimes covered in gravel, sometimes in rocks, and always presenting surprising potholes and ruts. Mario, being the expert backcountry driver that he is, soon sped way ahead of the other four vehicles. We caught up to him, however, when he blew a tire on a sharp rock. Totally nonplussed, once the tire was changed, he sped off again.
Exhausted and hungry, nearly 12 hours after beginning our journey, Mario treated us to a divine meal in a divine setting, a beautifully landscaped rainforest resort. We met our guide for the next couple days, Ango. He briefed us on the plan for the night: head to the hotel, unpack, and quickly gear up for 3 or more hours of wet cloud forest hiking. It was pouring rain as we unloaded the vehicles, but we donned our sturdy boots, quick-dry clothing, and flashlights and bravely followed our shirtless, shorted, be-sneakered guide into the cloud forest. This has been his backyard all of his life, and his comfort in the environment was obvious as he scampered about, helping us with our footing in the dark on steep, slippery, muddy trails. We swung on a vine over a ravine like a bunch of Tarzans (watch out for the palm tree!). We looked and looked for wildlife, heard much of it, but found only a few frogs, millipedes and spiders. We waded through water chest deep, flashlights in our mouths. Best of all, we dove bravely into dark waters, swam to a waterfall, climbed out, and jumped back in through the pummeling cascade of water, allowing it to propel us back to the boulder-strewn shore. Christina said that as we left the waterfall, the wildlife we had been looking for was watching from above with glowing night-eyes. Wet, ecstatic, and as if in a dream, we returned to our hotel to clean up and prepare for the next day’s adventure. |
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