Sunshine! After three days of rain the sun gives us one glorious day--a perfect day to be on the water.
 
With Jaire again we traveled down river for a couple of hours in our skinny canoe passing small fishing villages and people panning gold from the mud to an animal rescue center staffed by volunteers. Those we met were college students from Chile and Germany. 
 
The mother Wooly monkey and her baby lying in the sun were found after an alpha male change, they tell us. When a new alpha male takes charge the first thing he does is kill all the babies so he can mate with the mothers sooner. This mother was badly wounded protecting her baby, but was expected to live. We were warned not to get too close as she was still quite aggressive, but she didn't seem to mind my camera.
 
Toucans kept as house pets become unwelcome when they start biting their owners, and ocelots who won't let their owners back into the house loose their charm as well. That's when they end up here, often unable to ever return to the wild.
 
Our guide explains that they're not here to be the animals' friends. The volunteers distance themselves from the animals trying only to keep them alive so they do not become dependant on man. Still, only about a third of them can return to the wild safely.
 
After the rescue center we hopped back in our canoe and headed for a shady spot along the river for lunch, then went tubing. 

But then we went to a place where I could have spent a week.
 
Allishamuskachu. It's is a display garden/museum/educational center complete with shaman. 
 
Our guide showed us many plants used by indigenous people for their medicinal remedies, but how I wished we'd had time to go into more depth with him.
 
See that tree with all the slashes--whack it with a machete and smear the liquid that oozes out onto a cut and it's gone. Have a headache? Try a tea made from the leaves of this tree. Want to hunt down your dinner? Boil the leaves and stems of this one to make a powerful poison that only affects the entry point, causing paralysis--it does not go through the bloodstream to contaminate the meat.
 
Fascinated, I did a cursory google search tonight and found this article by Dr. Daniel B. Mowrey: http://www.rain-tree.com/article4.htm

 "One of the greatest of all medical ironies is that the very companies that disparage herbal remedies rely themselves on herbal remedies to an overwhelming extent as the source for successful drugs. We have seen video clips of drug seekers gazing in awe at the effective application of rainforest medicinals by local shamans and herbal medicine men, barely able to contain their excitement about getting the herbs back to the laboratory to discover how it "really" works."
 
Not knowing anything about this Daniel B. Mowrey, I searched a little further and found he earned his PhD at BYU in experimental psychology specializing in psychopharmacology, and has written several books on herbal remedies.
 
Seeing this and listening to Jaire and his friends talk about all the plants of the jungle having medicinal properties, it's enough to make a person want to spend a year or three down here exploring and experimenting--but of course the question is how to take advantage of these plants without compromising the integrity of the people who call this home.

We return to the lodge in time for another delicious dinner made by our chef Omar. By now we're joined by a group of 13 Danes, Shawn. You could've habla'd up a storm with them. Oh, another funny thing---when we went back to our canoe from the animal rescue center there were two women on the riverbank---also from Denmark--selling cakes. Fifty cents they wanted for one cupcake!! 

I of course bought one as they were chocolate peanut butter and I'm pretty much unable to resist a chocolate peanut butter cupcake after a month in Ecuador, but complained about the highway robbery prices just the same.

Well we are in the jungle, she smiled. Those Danes--they're quite the salesmen! 

That evening we resumed our gin tournament by candlelight in the lounge.