The jungle (on approach)

Yeah, we're not on a bus!

So we've been here in Ecuador a year and had not yet managed to get into the Amazong Jungle. Since we finally had someone here to talk to Teddy after 9pm a night we took the fam, Teddy, and our friend Juls to the edge of civilization, entered it, and left the rest of the world behind. But first...we went to Baños again.

This was our third trip to Baños, but really we were just passing through this time. But you can't just pass through Baños. First Juls and Teddy had to jump off a bridge and ride a dune buggy through town. And then there was the thing with the crazy German guy with the patch on his eye who carried around a cat that locked Teddy and me up in these boxes and tried to cook us, but we escaped even though his beautiful but diabolical assistant tried to blast us with freezing water and the hotel guests and staff had to see us naked. Another story, for another time.
 

We fled Baños on bicycles, riding the "Ruta de Cascadas", or "Route of homicidal buses". It's a bit dangerous following the road most of the way, but 90% downhill for 60 kilometers, passing waterfalls and killer views the whole way.

Beware attack sheep

Jungle people are huuuuuuge!

This landed us in Puyo, our first jungle gateway town, where we stopped for lunch before hopping a bus skirting the edge of the jungle to our destination jungle border town of Tena.




We had warned the kids that we would be eating bugs and fermented spit, so by comparison they didn't even blink at the chicken feet.



How to eat chicken feet--Duncan

(1) Discover

(2) Try

(3) Love...Mmmm, chicken foot

How to eat chicken feet--Juls

(1) Puzzlement--What is in my sou...?

(2) Surprise--OMG, there's a chicken foot in my soup!

(3) Determination--I'm just gonna try it then.

(4) Try--Just like cocktail corn

(5) Resolve--Nope, don't need to do that ever again