So... the next day. We?d been planning on doing a jungle tour, so we went around when we got into Tena to talk to a few tour operators. From what we found out, everything was highly organized, and not remote at all (sounds like you need to go on pretty long tours to get to see real, untouched Amazon rainforest). We?ve both come to the conclusion that we?re not good tour people - I?m not too keen on having someone telling me when I can eat, when I can go swimming, when I can go for a hike... you get the idea. But one of the guys told us about this town where we could rent a motorized canoe and head up the Rio Napo to an animal rehabilitation centre, so he kinda talked himself out of a jungle tour.

We headed off to catch the bus to Misihualli, where we could rent the canoe, but since we were both feeling a little rough from the night before, we asked the cab driver how much it would cost to take us all the way to the town, and jumped at his price of $12 - made the trip half as long, too. Got into Misihualli, found a guide, and hopped into a very long motorized canoe. The ride down the river took about an hour - lots of communities along the river, with kids playing in the water and running around, and houses on stilts - pretty cool to see. The water was a little low at some points, so our guide had to steer us through with a bamboo pole.

Finally pulled up on a bank at a place called Amazoonico. I guess about 15 years ago a Swiss woman bought some land here, with the intention of opening a zoo, and then realized that she wanted to do something more, so turned it into an animal rehab centre. The organization gets animals from the police, who confiscate them from markets, from zoos where they?re not being treated well, and ones that are being kept illegally as pets or are being smuggled. They?ve built the centre into the jungle, so while a lot of the animals are in cages, since they?re not ready to be released yet, the cages are really big, and they?re communal, and they still live in the jungle. They have release programs for most of the animals, but there are a few who will be in there forever (for example, a really aggressive wooly monkey who would decimate the spider monkey population if he got out - he managed to kill 10 spider monkeys in a day when he escaped). There are a few that are just too old, too - they?ve lived as pets their entire lives, and they wouldn?t know how to survive on their own in the wild, but when they breed, the young are released. They had the monkeys, lots of birds (macaws, toucans, parrots, trumpet birds), turtles, oceolots, kinkajous (which are actually of the bear family, and not monkey) and capybaras (which just look like massive hamsters, and are quite adorable).

The organization works with local Quechua communities to teach them about endangered species and the detriments to the environment of hunting certain animals. They also have a lot of wild pigs, which aren?t endangered here at all, so they use them to give as meat to the Quechua communities when they have celebrations. This way they?re less likely to go out and hunt endangered monkeys for a meal. They have a school, too, which is free for kids, and combines traditional education with environmental education, which is pretty cool. Overall, a really neat organization to see - they work really closely with local communities, and in a way that they still respect the customs of those communties.

After this, we headed back up the river. Had a brief stop to go swimming in a calmer part of the river (ha ha - so much for staying out of fresh water, hey?). Erika wanted no part of it, so I went swimming with our guide for a bit, then back into the canoe, and off to a small museum in another Quechua community. When we got their, our guide showed us a pond where they kept baby caymans. I got to hold one, and then all the kids laughed at me when I freaked out and almost threw it because it hissed and snapped at me! There was a big lagoon, too, with grown caymans, but because it was cloudy and starting to rain, they were mostly underwater (they like to come out in the sun, I guess). The museum was cool - lots of old traps for all sorts of animals - ones to kills rodents and small mammals, ones to trap fish, ones to catch chickens, as well as some tools, and blow darts (which I got to try out), and traditional ceremonial dress. As we were leaving, our guide pulled a couple seed pods off a tree. In the canoe, he cracked on open, and mashed up the seeds, and I guess it?s what they used for ceremonial face and body paint. I?m sure I looked like a bit of a tool wandering around town with red Quechuan face paint on, but it was kinda fun. Overall, a nice, peaceful little adventure - no English whatsoever, so forced me to work on my Spanish again. Saw way more animals than we would have on a jungle tour, and I liked seeing the Quechua community and the museum.

We got back into Tena aroun 5:00, and headed out for some pizza. Listened to an overly loud Texan rant on about his family and how much he knows about Ecuadorian politics, while a bunch of girls nodded and smiled and hung on his every word. Took the rest of our pizza back to the hotel, got into bed around 6:30, as it started raining (we were a little tired from the night before) - there was a brief power outage - and then lights out around 7:00, for a blissful, long, sleep. Rained like crazy all night - so loud. Roosters started up around 3:00 am (no sign of dawn - there was something wrong with those roosters), which is when I put my ear plugs in. And then up nice and early for the bus ride to Quito!