Blog no. 12 - From waterfalls to sweet sugar cane drinks

Gabriel and some of his lovely family

Our second day in the moist and atmospheric jungle started with another fantastic breakfast produced by Gabriel, his wife and army of children (Ed. all six of them, I’m guessing the nights are long out here in the jungle). We set off deeper into the jungle in an “interesting” Ecuadorian style bus to where we were going to be trekking.  

After 30 minutes of sticky and sweaty walking we eventually reached a beautiful and scenic waterfall that looked like it was straight off the back of a postcard. After the area was thoroughly checked by Mr McMillan and Cliff we entered into the cool and refreshing water and had an opportunity to jump down into the lovely pool. This was perfect after a hot and tropical walk with Gabriel. His explanation and confident attitude into letting us try the natural fruits was extremely welcoming! 

The Guys at Cascada Verdes (Green Waterfalls)

Cameron trying to tred water and give a bit of a Roxcool pose

Try and pick your son out from this one then

A special surprise was waiting as we came back from the waterfall: we were greeted by Gabriel’s friend who taught us how to extract sugary juice from the rich sugar canes. This involved one man feeding canes into a huge press, while all the guys took their turn in rotating the huge arm.  The juice ran out the bottom into a plastic wash basin (not very romantic I know but very effective.  The sugary juice was then mixed with orange and lime juice fresh off the trees surrounding us.  Delicious! (Ed. some found it more delicious than others and had four refills!  Not mentioning names Cough, Jake, Andy and a few others.)

Feeding in the Sugar Cane

Our afternoon consisted of further swimming in the shallow river located beside the cabins, endless card games and a group of us walking into the local town to further widen our South American cultural experience. To finish our brilliant day we tirelessly played with Gabriel’s energy-filled children and were fed with large Steak fillets and piles of rice to fill seventeen hungry men!  We leave tomorrow for the coast and the start of our ‘project’ phase. We’re all hoping the food is as good as Gabriel’s; somehow we’re not convinced it will be.

Pobre Perro! (poor doggy) :-(

Patrick Nicholas