Into the Wild

A Quick Summary

I spent a few more days in Tena travelling by myself before I headed up to Nueva Loja to meet Cam and David! We then went on a tour in the Amazon Rainforest for the rest of the week. 

Highs and Lows

Hiking Adventure

One day in Tena, I decided to go do a hike which was about an hour out of town. I had heard you could take a bus there, so I just hopped on the bus heading in the right direction and set off.

Unfortunately, the bus route ended in the next town over, and I was still about 40 minutes away from where I wanted to go. I was wandering around, looking lost, when someone came up and asked me where I wanted to go. I told him, and he offered to take me there on his motorcycle for $5! He didn't have a helmet for me, so I just hopped on the back and held on for dear life as we sped down the highway. 

After he dropped me off, he gave me his number so I could call him to get a ride back. He drove off, and then I realized I was on the side of a rural road, and had no cell service! I panicked for a moment, and then realized I had a decision to make: I could either start worrying about how to get back, or do the hike anyways. After letting myself calm down, I decided to do the hike anyways, and worry about hitchhiking back later. 

The hike itself was really cool. It was called 7 Cascadas, and there were seven waterfalls as promised. The hike was not very popular, so the trail was pretty overgrown. I lost the trail a few times which was a little scary since I was by myself, and had to go back to find it again. 

I arrived at the final waterfall, and found a tour guide with a group of Italian girls. The tour guide was a little surprised to see me, but was super nice and offered (more like strongly suggested) that I go back with them. 

The girls were going back to Tena, but they wanted to go swimming first. Since I didn't have any great options for getting back, I just tagged along with them. We took a cable car across the river, and then ended up at a really nice little swimming spot!

Finally, we all hopped in the van to go back to Tena. The day ended up being a bit more adventure than I had expected but it turned out better than I could have asked for. 

Rafting

While I was in Tena, I also had the chance to go whitewater rafting! It was a super fun day of rafting, swimming, and cliff jumping our way down the river. 

Amazon Tour

I have so many photos from the Amazon tour I decided to make a separate post here!