Ecuador 2013

How my friend Paulo managed to get so many of his friends over to Ecuador all at the same time to celebrate his 30^th birthday still astounds me. For two weeks, we went from the western beaches to central Quito and the mountains all the way to the eastern Amazonian part of Ecuador. It was Zuhud and I’s first time in South America and the experience was amazing.

First, we all met up in Quito which was a reunion in itself to meet my friends from Qatar and their significant others. I had arrived in Ecuador two weeks early to do some volunteering and Zuhud would be arriving that night. The first day we spent touring the city and socializing. I picked up Zuhud at the airport and took him straight to the futbal stadium. Luckily he is never to tired to watch futbal… even after 2 days of flying J Quito was playing another team in the first match of the season. We weren’t able to get in touch with Paulo to get our tickets so we had to scalp tickets from outside. Songs and screaming fans greeted us inside but luckily our group was the loudest and we were able to find them.

The night wasn’t over yet either with a sandwhich and a change of clothes we went to The Juliana for some true South American salsa dancing with a live band. Incredible.



Happy Birthday Paulo



The next day there was a BBQ planned at Paulo’s house. The food and atmosphere was inspiring. I truly believe that if everyone could have that much love in their family, the world would be a better place. We ate, and chatted, danced, and sang until the sun went down and we left the party dreaming that one day we could have such a beautiful family.

Puerto Lopez was our next destination. 10 hours on a bus with a few wrong turns finally got us there. The plan was scuba diving but unfortunately there were too many of us for one boat so we had to split. The sea was choppy and some of us put our breakfast of bolon verde back to the sea for the fishes to eat.

 After an hour and a half we got to our diving spot on Isla de la Plata or otherwise known as the Galapagos for the poor people. It was a beautiful island with tons of birds flying around.

The diving was decent with a few mantas and some pretty fish but the swell was very big which was difficult for those on their first dive. After 3 dives we headed back to town to eat some good seafood in the town just south. The next day only one boat went out and the rest of us relaxed in Puerto Lopez.

We enjoyed a highly vibrating Tuk-Tuk ride to Les Frailes, a national reserve with nice hiking to a series of coves and hidden beaches. After which we went to Montanita, a beach-party town about an hour south of Puerto Lopez. We rented surfboards and to find that these were the biggest waves of the season. Our cheap rental costs quadrupled when we finally got out of the sea to find that two of the fins had broken off. Ouch. The upside is that we got to watch some expert surfers.

The beach was beautiful and clean with super soft sand. After the sun went down, it took a while to get the party started but with cocktail bars on the side of the main road and lots of entertainment the night was never dull.

Quito again and we hit up El Panecillo with a lovely dinner at Pims on the top of the hill.

The next day Ivy, Roger, Zuhud, and I went to Mitad del Mundo or the center of the earth where we were able to balance an egg on a nail. Not entirely convinced if it is due to the equilibrium of the gravitational forces at the center of the earth or just super good balancing skills.

 Just 20 minutes from Mitad del Mundo, Pululahua Volcano is a crater formed by a dormant volcano where there is a town which is very isolated from influences from the outside world.

We ate cuy asado (roated guinea pig) at Fiambre’s for a real Ecuadorian lunch. Apparently even Andrew Zimmerman has eaten there. Hehe.  

For the sunset in Quito we rode the Gondola up Pinchincha where we went horseback riding and enjoyed the views of the city.  

Now we were ready for the all night birthday party for Paulo’s 30th. He prepared his house to the max with food and a bar, a dance floor and even a tattoo studio. Impressive and totally fun. Lots of people, lots of music, and lots of dancing. 

The next adventure of the reunion took us on a short bus ride to El Chaquinan.  It is an old train track turned into a mountain bike bath. We did a short 10km which took us down to the bottom of the valley and then back up the other side where the bus picked us up.

Then the bus took us to the top of the mountain pass where the highway runs and while the bus continued on the highway, we took a small track down the mountain from 4,100m to 2,300m. It was full of adrenaline and luckily we all made it safely down with only a few scratches.

We ended in a hot springs resort in Papallacta. It was beautiful and relaxing. We went for a small walk by a river and then swam in the pools with water from a natural hot springs.

The next day in the afternoon we headed to Tena, a small town in the Amazon. We stayed at Huasquila Amazon Lodge and went for a jungle trek to the waterfalls. The guide was great and showed us a plant that had lemon flavored ants that you could eat, trees which had neon colored sap and medicinal plants for a variety of illnesses.

The final call was a day of white water rafting on the River Napo which was great fun for our big group. The water was a little low but the guides kept us busy with lots of games and letting us swim and try and flip the raft.

Before we set for Quito we spent the morning hiking through an underground cave system which has been used by indigenous people for hundreds if not thousands of years. There is a sacred temple where they used to worship and special mud with healing powers. There is also a water fall with pools that you can dunk yourself into. One is 5m deep and only wide enough for a human body. The brave people tried to touch the bottom.

After a wonderful two week adventure, we all had to say our goodbyes to each other and to the wonderful country of Ecuador. My only question is where is our next reunion?

Support Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

Just 25km north of the thriving oil city of Balikpapan a sanctuary exists to help the original primates of Borneo. The orangutan or in Bahasa Indonesia ‘orang hutan’ which literally translates to jungle person is now on the verge of extinction due to the rapid growth of the palm oil, coal mining, logging, and oil and gas industries. The tropical jungle of Borneo is quickly disappearing along with most of its inhabitants.

Bujang - The king of the Island.

After traveling on the main road out of Balikpapan, we nearly missed the small sign saying ‘BOS’ where we turned down a small dirt road which led us quite a few miles deeper into the jungle. When we finally reached the Samboja Lodge, we were pleasantly surprised, a mixture first class and a true jungle experience. You could lay in your clean sheets under the A/C and look out the window to a jungle of tarzan vines and uncommonly large creatures. It was a beautifully serene lodge which made you want to lounge outside, read a book, and listen to the sounds of the jungle. But we weren’t there to lounge, we were there to learn. This lodge was specifically built to help with the rehabilitation of the orangutans and the honey bears so that they can be successfully introduced back to what little jungle is left. The program is similar to a school for children where you must pass one grade before you move onto the next. There are 3 levels which get progressively harder where the final level is almost an exact representation of what the orangutan might experience in the jungle. Monitoring of orangutans who have already been reintroduced has shown that this program is extremely successful.

Visiting Samboja is not just any tourist attraction. Many people come expecting to be able to hug and play with the orangutans and leave feeling disappointed that the price was so expensive and they couldn’t even touch the animals. But this is not the point of the program. There are many places all over Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia which have taken orangutans and trained them to be good around humans. This is exactly what this program is trying to prevent. They are trying to put the orangutans back into their original surrounding, which is without contact with humans and in order for this to be successful, contact with humans must be minimized. They have kept two islands which are special for visitors where it is possible to observe them from a distance. The orangutans on this island will never be reintroduced to the jungle and are meant only to give the visitors a brief glimpse of the behavior and life of the orangutans.

The work to prepare the orangutans for reintroduction is long and tedious. Rain or shine, the orangutans must be fed, monitored and examined. Once they are truly ready to be reintroduced, the struggle is only just beginning, not just for the orangutans but for the workers at Samboja. Every small amount of land must be fought for and paid for and continually monitored to ensure that nobody comes and starts cutting down the forest. On the surface, the government is supportive of the program, but deep down it can become more vague, with unexplained taxes popping up seemingly out of nowhere which must be paid in order to keep their land protected. One of the biggest problems is coming from the palm oil industry because the orangutans are a big fan of eating the fruit from the palm oil tree. The owners, working to protect their crop, have taken to murdering these foragers looking for a juicy treat.  

 Being that their DNA is 98% similar to humans it is difficult not to feel close to them and nobody knows that better than the workers at Samboja. They have committed their life to trying to save the orangutans and honey bears and what more can we do by giving a little of our time to try and help them.

Helping is not always about giving money, but can be as simple as spreading the word through an informal conversation. So get out there, start talking, and maybe one day it will finally get to the ears of the people that can really make a difference.

http://www.sambojalodge.com/