Pic: Michnus Olivier
many waterfalls on one stretch of road
in my life, and the valleys were packed
with lush, green trees as far as the eye
could see. It was stunning. Every now
and again we came across the odd
landslide, however there had been a
path made through for vehicles. You
just had to hope there was no more to
follow! This fantastic stretch of road
meandered through the Amazon for
about 160 Km before meeting up with
the paved ‘Troncal Amazonica’, which
was unfortunately littered with gas
lines and various petroleum compa-
nies, and a stark difference from the
road we’d just left.
The temperature was rising and
much to our delight we came across a
hostel with a big swimming pool and
a bar with cold beer...sold! Needless
to say, we were all in the pool with a
beverage perched on the side within
minutes of checking in. Welcome to
Ecuador!
The next day we headed to a small
village called Limoncocha, and very
much off the standard tourist trail,
which is what we liked. The weath-
er was a little temperamental, and
the roads were a mixture of tarmac
and gravel with lots of dust and some
good-old corrugation thrown in for
good measure...little did I know there
would be much more to come! We ar-
rived in the small village at the nature
reserve, promptly to be advised that
there was no accommodation avail-
able, as the one hostel available was
rented to a petroleum company and
the other was under construction. We
ventured into the centre where we
came across a helpful gentleman who
ushered us towards some ‘Cabanas’,
currently with lots of work going on.
They had two rooms we could use if
we didn’t mind all of the chaos and a
place along a slippery path to a tiny
clearing to put the bikes. Sorted! As
we were discussing options the heav-
ens opened and we all took shelter un-
der the porch, leaving our bikes to get
drowned in the street. After a beer to
TRAVERSE 90
pass the time, the rain finally stopped,
and we went to park the bikes and
explore our new home. Luckily there
weren’t too many spiders in sight, and
none that big, so I was happy. Follow-
ing the rainfall, we ventured out, as
did many of the local kids who were
overjoyed by their newly wetted play-
ing field and road. One large group
played football, most purposefully try-
ing to slide in the big puddles of mud
and water, whilst others bought what-
ever containers they had available to
scoop up the water and play with it.
Who needs toys when you have mud
and puddles!!
There was one bar in town, I’m
guessing for all the workers given that
it was one of the biggest buildings in
the village, a tiny shop and an even ti-
nier ‘restaurant’, which was the only
place in town to get a meal. We wan-
dered over at opening time and were
served some chicken and rice, which
was not bad, however I think the
chickens had been running for their