Banos and Tena

Its been a while since I've had the opportunity to upload photos. . . at least 10 days, maybe more. Tis is Banos, our first stop after Quito. Banos is a chill little town in the mountains. It sits at a lower altitude than Quito and was a bit warmer. It rained allot of the time that we were there but not all the time. Regardless, we had a good tme there.... didn't do much, but it was relaxing.

Beautiful countryside.... our only hike:


We make a good couple

Sugercane juice.... I didn't try it..... sounded a bit too sweet:
This is Tena.... adfter leaving Banos, we headed down the eastern sloap of the Andes and into the Jungle. Tena was a small, quiet little town.... hot and sticky.... a good plce to spend the night before heading out into the jungle.
Parque Amozniquo.... A river runs through Tena, and in the river is a firly large island used for an animal refuge and public park.... we loved this place. Only the aggressive animals are caged. The rest roam freely all over the island. We spent an afternoon here walking around the islñand and hanging out wit the animals there. They were very friendly.

This Tapir was a bit shy at first, but after a little while we became good friends. He followed me and lisa all over the sland nd at one point tryed to nibble on us a little bit. . . in a friendly way. He was reprimanded and seemed confused.


These monkeys had no problem climbing all over us:

Our jungle lodge.... set in a beautiful location on top of a cliff overlooking a river. The views were amazing. We had a great time here

The views from the lodge:



A Quechua Indian village not too far from our lodge:


Some kids and our ride in he background:
Quechua Medicine Man.... cooking up some Huayawasca. It was cool to actually be able to get inside one of the houses here. I was always curious:





The village:


Back at the lodge


Our guide, taking us to a bat cave:





This is where I lost my glasses:





Natural pool, perfect for swimming: