In the woods.

Let me tell you a story. For once in english. A story about three young men from a country far away from this warm and just so very different continent. I'd say they were quite wise.. Yes yes, at least as wise as young men of a certain age can be.

    "The jungle" they heard, "the jungle is a beautiful place! There are many big trees and colorful animals, and the houses are special. You should go there!"

    "We should!" they said. "We really should."

So they went. By boat.

In Coca it began. A lovely family took good care of the three young men. They were kind, showed them monkies and offered a roof and food (1). ..And laughed a little about the hammocks the young men brought (2). Good times.

But the plan was to move forward on waterthings. So they did. The first waterthing went far. 9 full hours. The trees beside the water seemed interesting. Quiet a lot were seen. Yes yes, seems to be a big forest that famous rainforest. Finally the daytrip came to an end in a town that had beer. That was a good thing.

The young men went on to travel the water. Many more trees and towns were found and many different waterthings got involved. It is not worth to talk about all of them, you would be bored. The young men got to where they wanted to go. I took them 8 days. Thats a good time I'd say. Maybe their wisdom helped afterall. Or it was luck.. how knows?! (3) Let me just go on to a story within the story.

One town didnt seem to be very public-transportation-friendly. I guess they were happy where they were and didnt need to travel anywhere. The three young men did though. In fact, it was pretty much quite necessary. With their white skin and mosquito-friendly blood they wouldn't want to be living there forever. So a waterthing was organized. The negotiations took one whole day. Life moves differently out there in the jungle. People talk and then leave to sit on a bench close to the water for awhile. And maybe they come back after hours to finish the sentence. Or sometimes you have to look for them in the dark. That works because the towns are small and people know people. And because lots of houses dont have to many walls so you can see who's in there. The three young men were told that the waterthing was big. But it wasn't. It was very small. And very slow. And it didn't have a roof. Which can be problematic because sometimes in the rainforest it rains. Which it did.

But nevertheless they got up in the morning to get into a piece of wood and to pretty much stay in there for two days. When there wasnt rain it was quite beautiful. Far away from anything but trees, water and some native towns. And the sky at night.. It can't be discribed. They young men slept under a roof of well-braided palmtree leaves surrounded by fireflies and they were happy that they were where they were (4). Enjoying nature at its best.

Photographs will follow soon.

Yours sincerely

One of the three young men

(1) 095083765, www.witoto.com, Enrique and Freddy Grefa. Highly recommended for great tours to fair prices around Coca, Ecuador.
(2) The hammocks were quite catastrophic to sleep in. The laughs were justified.
(3) I do. It was luck and money that helped.
(4) ..and a little scared because there was no-one in the little village and we didn't know if we get killed in the morning for sleeping there without permission. They came back in the morning and let us live.