January 4 – Amazonas

After two nights listening to people yap, and smoking like a Chinese steel mill, below our window at Plantas y Blanco hostal, our 3rd and final night we moved to another room. Last night started out great as all the Ecuadorans that were on holiday left town as if Baños were being evacuated. By 9pm the place was a ghost townThis morning, we discovered that the taxis queue-up below our window where even an intimate discussion was carried out through shouting at each other. Sigh. We did like Plantas y Blanco hostal for the conveniences such as WiFi, breakfasts, great top floor patio, and pretty quiet interior. The external noise was the problem.

We had enough of traveling along the Pan-American Highway and decided to take a route that traveled along the western edge of the Amazon of Ecuador. A highway traveled east from Baños along the Rio Pastazo (Pass-tah-zoe) and connected to a north-south highway at Puyo (Poo-yoe). From Puyo, we planned to travel north and stay in Tena (Ten-ha) or . . . ready for this? Misahualli (Miss-ah-hoo-ahyee). Had a guy repeat the name just beyond his patience.We managed to miss the first bus we wanted out of Baños, however, buses leave all the time and go everywhere. After waiting an hour we were bound for the Amazon with a bus driver who was conserving wheels as he only used two on each turn. When he came to a straight stretch of road, I think he could have just pulled back on the steering wheel and we would have lifted off the highway.

Each bus ride thus far in Ecuador has started out with a guy standing at the front of the bus preaching. As near as Kathleen can ascertain, the guy regales us passengers in a near evangelical way. After about 20-minutes, the person sits down and later hops off at another bus terminal. This guy didn’t pass out boxes of candies or playing cards with biblical preaching’s on them, and then later comes by and takes them from those who don’t want to buy them. We’ve been using our money on other things.

As we headed east, the landscape went from wooded grasslands and pockets of forest over steep mountains, to flat densely vegetated scenery. The air became heavier with humidity and the temperature was climbing.After about 4 and a half hours of bus riding we jumped off at Tena. We found an internet shop and fired off some quick correspondence. We then hailed a taxi which took us to Misahualli for a nights stay. When we arrived in Misahualli, the Hostal Shaw was where we wanted to stay, however, they didn’t have rooms available because . . . and this is what Kathleen believes she understood: The rooms they had were not cleaned yet because they were going to have 40 people arriving tomorrow. Perhaps Kathleen misunderstood, yet, we’ve encountered similar reasoning since being in South America.

Kathleen and I managed to find another hostal. This one was away from the plaza which can be quite noisy. Hostal El Paisano thus far has proven to be a great place. We have noticed too, that motorcycles could be wheeled through the front entrance and parked near our room. Keeping note of that.We found a good meal at a restaurant on the plaza and ate while watching the local school bus come through with a load of kids. We noticed the schools must have a uniform policy.While dining, some species of capuchin monkey sauntered into town and began the usual monkey antics us tourists are so fond of. Our glee leaves the locals baffled by our delight in watching these very distant relatives. Kathleen and I sat in the plaza to let Spot send a message out to the chosen before turning in for the night.