There's more to this entry than just the killer caterpillar and going ass over tea kettle in the Ansu River. I have to start at the beginning.

Gold Mining on a tributary of the Amazon. Dragging a dredge in the back of the truck over nasty roads ("just full of gold!!) past (more) dreaded Columbians we ended up on a small river that just had to be full of the shiny yellow stuff. Jim, Adam & Shane got right in there setting up the dredge basically vacuuming the river bottom. All day tossing rocks aside, sucking up the black sand & checking out the bits that settled in the dredge. I got to look through the larger rocks for that big nugget that I never found. Really was a nice day. The toucans were calling in the trees while I took pictures of beautiful butterflies, sketched and wrote..... oh yes, and babysat JC (he's still alive!).
At the end of the day we had a few flakes (besides Jim, Shane and Adam) and one larger piece of gold. Enough, we figure, to buy a beer or two. Not a great way to make a living but we had fun.

Tired, a little burnt & full of stories we headed back to Tena for dinner and a not so good sleep. The rains came down about dinner time and lulled us to sleep.

Next day, ready for more gold panning, we were told that one of the good things about mining is that you can work when you want. Today..... they didn't want!! So, we spent the day just kicking back and exploring.
First stop was a half finished house on a beautiful view lot overlooking Tena with the craziest rocks we'd ever seen. Looked like concrete with sea shells in it but how could that be on top of a hill in the jungle?

As we drove along Jim told (yet) another story ... this time about a man who stumbled out of the jungle with a bag of emeralds. Half dead he was saved by missionaries and gave them the emeralds in thanks saying there were so many out there that a small bag didn't matter. He went back in and was never seen again. What an adventure that would be. Jim and his former partner wanted to go after it but two things stood in the way. First, the area is the headquarters of the Columbian terrorists (not a good plan) and second, after all, they are really gold miners!

Murder is the way to go here ... it's a lot less complicated than contacting the police. Seems it's easier to off a guy and dump him in the jungle. Hmmmm. Jim has a huge light mounted on the back of his truck to blind would be kidnappers temporarily so he could then turn off the lights... deek off the road... and watch them go by momentarily blinded. Hmmmmm. Aren't you glad I'm writing this alive and well in Quito.

Anyway, back to our day.... the road took us to the town of Misa Hualli (near the river of the same name). We stopped to check out the monkeys whn one of them grabbed Jim's $600 sunglasses and took off. Up on a roof he twisted them every which way holding them up to the light. We were laughing so hard until he started to bang them on a branch bending them badly. Actually even that didn't stop us laughing. Poor Jim. A good pair of needle nose pliers will probably repair most of the damage.

It was a great day highlighted by a river crossing on a funny little ferry to an island resort near Ahuano. Here we ate a delicious lunch, swam in the river and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves until Shane was viciously attacked by a dreaded black furry caterpiller. It looked innocent enough but the welts on his neck proved otherwise.

Next day, Remembance Day, lived up to it's name. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we were ass over teakettle in the river. Jim had an old rubber raft (with holes that one day he plans to fix, maybe) with a couple of old paddles. People from all over the world come here to raft but they usually wear lifejackets and have a throw rope. We had two umbrellas for shade, water, junk food, empty beer can bailer (after we drank the beer) and no life jackets. In fact we had no nothing but a spirit of adventure. It really was a lot of fun until we came upon one area that, no matter how hard they tried, we couldn't avoid. The river is higher and faster than Jim was used to and this just came on us too fast. All three of us ended up upside down and bobbing down the river. We lost one of the umbrellas, my (borrowed) gumboots and Jim's (cheaper) glasses. Managed to recover most of our water and two beer. Not bad for a raging river. Then, back in the boat (after quite a few stops to pump up the poor old thing) we hit a thunder and lightning storm. You can't believe the noise a storm makes in the jungle. Rain pelted us but it really didn't matter because we wer soaked already...... so, picture this..... Shane at one end, Jim at the other paddling as hard as they can against a head wind with me in the middle..... index finger on a big leak while bailing (using an empty beer can). Does it get much better than that? Actually it was a beautiful trip. Past amazing cloud forests, jungles, villages, wildlife & the odd gold dredge.

Again we survived. Having survived a number of attempts at murder on the amazon we headed for Quito today. Shane and I leave for the Galapagos on the 13th and will return to Quito on the 19th.

Before I leave I have to add one last thing....

We are slowly learning Spanish and Car Speak. Spanish is easier. Right now Adam is calling the car. The car has it's own cell phone where calls can be received but not made. Surround sound. This car tells you when it's locked, when it's not & when it should be. It yells if you open the door or forget to shut it. Different noises for different things. Stuck in a traffic jam on our drive through the Andes today it yelled when Jim touched the wheel, when Shane touched the seat belt and when we rocked it a little. At least Spanish often sounds like English & body language helps.
Cars are king here. One of the few offences that will land yo in jail for sure is running out of gas. There is so much to learn when you travel. When we get home we will be well versed in Ecuadorian law (or lack of ) and car speak. Can you top that?
Next time.... after the Galapagos.