g - Tena weekend

So, I changed my plans for this weekend. I woke up this morning feeling
exhausted and found no sane reason to just make it worse by gallevanting
through the jungle instead of taking some 'down time'. Also, last night
while I was online in the main lounge of the hotel, the guide, Fausto
and a friend of his came to say hi. I just did not like that at all. By
the time they left, I had decided that I was going to cancel the tour, I
was just not comfortable with the situation. So this morning when he
came to pick me up - I simply told him that I had changed my mind and
was not going, and that I would be at the office later to get a refund.
I think he saw that I was not feeling great, cause he told me to go and
rest. But then I never look my greatest first thing in the morning anyway :)

So - I walked about a mile to their offices at around 10am and got my
refund.... found out where to go to the "Bioparque Amazonica La Isla".
Obviously my questions - in Spanish, were good enough and I totally
understood her reply... although she did add hand language - showing me
what the word for 'walk' and 'canoe' and so on. It was good to actually
understand what she was saying - even without the sign language :)

And on I walked, past shops that have all sorts of stuff for sale...
these are not like the shops in the USA, they are small places, probably
15 x 20 feet in total. Most of the shops here seem to be tiny by our
standards. Even the 'Supermarcado' is really little bigger than a bigger
Conoco gas station store.

All along the sidewalks are things to buy – fruit, veggies, bags, shoes
and well stuff that I have no idea what it could be. In one store, there
were roasted guinea pigs, another had some big animals hoofs – all
roasted, toasted and smelling quite good., but I forced myself to keep
walking... :) There are wooden doors leading to places unseen, but they
are not just doors- they are designer doors, with intricate patterns
carved into them. The sidewalk is something else ….. at no time can I
happily amble along just looking at what there is around, I would not
get far at all. There are holes, big holes, stones and bricks piled up
in places, at times the sidewalk does a jolt up or down for no reason
and if you are not looking its quite possible to trip over electrical
wires from the top of poles. I have not seen anyone fall yet, but maybe
that's because my eyes are on the sidewalk most of the time! When I
look, I stop first.

Tena is such a "good feeling" town. There is the constant honking of
horns, the taxis honk, just a 'blip' to ask if I want a ride, they blip
when crossing a stop street, red or green light and at the girls walking
along as well. The music blares from multiple stores all quite loudly
and never on the same station. Kids run freely along the sidewalk,
playing and sometimes just watching the world go by. They, the kids, are
let to do things that we used to be able to do when I was growing up.
Once they are set down to walk, very few of them are held on to by the
hand, but know not to go in the road or do something silly.

The stores have no 'try me' toys and the kids dont touch and play with
the items for sale. One was wanting some fruit and he, all three years
of him, pointed out what he wanted, careful not to touch. Its definitely
a feel good town. There are no prams/pushchairs/those things you push
babies around in.. The mama's have the little ones in bright colored
slings, carrying them wherever they need to go.

My room in the hotel is 54 steps up from ground level. No elevators,of
course. But the mean voice in my head says its good for me. Anyway –
there is a big window stretching all the way across the room and I can
open it! Well, it really wont stay closed or locked and is like a huge
sliding glass. Anyway, this pipes the sounds of the town directly into
my window all the time, which I am really enjoying. If I look over the
top of the shops and buildings, there in the distance is a volcano – its
not even puffing smoke, so all is well on that front too.

My achievements for the day so far, are that I did all this in
Spanish....... canceled my tour, got the refund, found directions to
where I want to go, bought an ice cream and also bought a Spanish
translation/dictionary book:) Oh, and I went for breakfast this morning
and ordered what I wanted....... all in Spanish that could be understood
by who I was talking to. Admittedly there were some frowns occasionally
and twice I wrote what I wanted. I can write it much better than speak
it. But that was success, and the day is not even half over.

The Bioparque apparently has animals and plants and stuff. I am headed
there now to see what there is to see. Maybe old Gypsy can catch up with
some picture taking. Funny, I am having a bit of an issue photographing
things here in Tena. I don't want to point the camera towards people,
but it feels as if the whole town is out walking, so I actually left
home this morning without Gypsy! That was a first for me too.

Ok – so here I am back from my jaunt to The Bioparque. First I found my
little point and click camera – a much quieter statement, then dug out
my little backpack thing, packed it with the goodies I needed to take
with me. With proper socks and shoes on, my feet are too swollen for my
sandals, and I also figured I that there is no gain in offering a
million insects food as I walk, as I would have with sandals. Anyway,
with a jig in my step and a 'I can do this' happy smile on my face off I
went. Stopped to pick up three bottles of water and headed on down the
road to find where I was going.

The first time I walked through this part of Tena, it felt like miles
and miles, now its not bad at all and, well, I enjoy it. So, stocked up
and ready, I went where I was told the "Kan-oo-ah", canoe, would be that
would take me across the river to the Bioparque which is on an island
between two rivers – Rio Pano and Rio Tena. No canoe – again. I had
tried yesterday and gave up after a while. I thought I would wait a
little bit as everyone I had spoken to told me to go to the canoe. So I
plonked myself on one of the many huge boulders bordering the Rio Pano
and just hung out for a while enjoying the quiet and the water. Nothing.
No people, no canoe. And then in the corner of my eye, way further down
the river I see something up about 20 feet off the river. A cable car!
That thing looked rickety, but there were three people on it so I
figured it could carry me. So I heaved myself back up the 30 steps that
I had just come down to the non-existant canoe and headed on down the
road for about another quarter of a mile.

Apparently the bridge that was there was washed away in a flood a couple
of years ago, and in order to get to the island, I had to climb through,
under and over construction material, step onto a very rickety platform
of planks and then into this insane little basket. Sh.t, this was not a
great feeling, but hey, three people had just come across successfully.
So I kind of crouched down, because the cable that pulled it was way too
close to my ear. I heard the guys on the other side of the river
laughing at me! After about 30 seconds, I figured I was ok, stood up and
started taking photos. It only took about 2 minutes to get across, but
they were quite long minutes.......

The cage consisted literally of a wooden platform, with gaps to see
through, and thin metal rods on the four corners going up to the top
rod. There was a railing, of course, but it was at ankle height! Anyway
– this cage gets stopped on the other side by literally banging into
another 'interesting' wooden platform and I hopped off as quickly as I
could get my balance again. Smirks were totally visible on all four the
guys there. But I felt proud of me. I did it. I did not walk away from
it and I was on the island in one piece.

So, over a lot more construction material, through stacks of pipes and
bamboo and wire and mud and around the blue plastic shield that says NO
ENTRY, I went. Not knowing at all what to expect. Once I was around that
plastic and in the park, out came Gypsy from my backpack and the little
camera, with no name, got put away again. Time to play!

A huge field with a lovely wooden building greeted me, and I could see
cages to the left of that. Yeah.....! I first explored the building and
chose to go to the top via the ramp rather than the stairs. This place
has steps everywhere. And then on to the animals. Oh maaan. There was a
pig thing that was not a pig but also started with a p.....peccary? And
some other similar looking animal in good sized enclosed areas but oh
my, what a stink! The water looked as if it had not been changed or
topped up in weeks and their 'oinking' sounded like 'help, help' to me.
Then there was a boa constrictor that I did not see but knew which side
of his cage he was by the cowering guinea pig who was scrunched into a
corner. I hung around there for as long as I could stand the smell from
the pigs that were not pigs.

Porcupines lurked in there little wooden house, sleeping the day away –
they are nocturnal animals, the big white bird moved as I moved making
sure that he was behind a tree at all times and I dont think the
alligator was alive – he did not move an inch even when I banged on the
wire. Yes, I did do that.

The cages or enclosures here are not like anywhere else I have seen –
they are simply wire as in fence wire and where kids could perhaps stick
their fingers through – there they have hung about a foot of small
chicken wire along the bottom – but most of that has gone too. There was
one very bored looking cat of some kind, no sign and he did not want to
play either. It would not take much, I think, for these animals to escape.

And that was about it as far as animals and birds went. Oh wait, there
were three tortoises and I know they were alive because they were eating
plantains. The park itself is lovely, huge big fairytale type trees with
whole ecosystems on each branch, long strands hanging down and different
birds and butterflies flitting around. The paths were not kept up at
all, but it was not that difficult to see where to go.

I came across a sign that said "Mirador" - viewpoint. Those signs
always, always come with many steps! My legs were starting to scream at
me by now, but hey – I was there and might as well go..... so up I went,
and up and up and up. There was a restroom up there with the doors
barricaded shut with planks, but no view – only more trees...... and
then I saw it........ a huge construction thing with what looked like a
million steps. I literally sat on a stone and just laughed, knowing that
I would climb that darn thing! Fortunately it too was closed up with
planks and blue plastic. PHEW! I took photos and convinced myself that I
really really would have climbed that thing. It was probably a good 50 –
60 feet high.

Chuckling to myself, knowing that I can sometimes lie to myself and get
away with it – I found a pathway leading in a different direction. This
path was covered in a fine ground covering making it look like a green
carpet leading the way through the forest.. I almost did a little jig
like the Tin Man on the Yellow Brick Road, but instead found myself
singing!! Wow. I had not seen anyone else at all in the Park, nor heard
anyone. It was just me on the island all by myself so I sang – loudly,
making up words to an unknown tune, while waltzing down that green paved
path with a smile that led right into my soul. It was lovely!

I walked for about three hours in total, revisited the animals in their
cages, hoping for some change – but it was still sad, and it still stank
to the point of not breathing through my nose. I tried again to get the
alligator to move – no luck, so I headed back to the big field and the
construction site that held my ride home. As I came up to the field,
there was something I had not thought to do in years! A simple plank on
a very long rope hung from a very tall tree - a swing!! Yep, on I went
and I swung that sucker like never before! Feet up, head back and more
laughter. What a joy. The fast moving air shoo-ed the mosquitoes away
and cooled the sweat in my hair. Another good moment. ok- well, it was
here that I really HOPED that I was truly alone on that island.

And then to my cage. The cage was there, but no operators! When I came
in, I thought he said it would be two dollars to go there and back and I
could pay him when I go back. Now I wondered if he said he would only be
there till 2pm – and, of course, it was nearly 3pm. "Dos dollars", and
"dos horas" sound pretty similar if I am not listening carefully. I sat
on a pile of bricks yelling HOLA HOLA! (silent h's) to the wind, walked
around counting locks on doors not about to open for me, I walked back
down the side of the island, called across the river and actually got
them to understand what it was I wanted, but they could not help me.
Across the rivers I could see many people going on with their day, and
now here I was stuck on this island with no way to get off. There
literally was no one else on the island and no one to get me back over
the river. So I sat on a boulder and thunk for a while – what to do,
what to do. And came up with............ nothing! I saw really big three
toed spoor in the sand and figured that with my luck it would be the
tiger that escaped! I walked around again, yelled, thought mean
thoughts, wondered if anyone would see me, I know no one was expecting
any contact with me till tomorrow evening, so …... After about half an
hour, I walked back up to the cage thing and rattled the heck out of it
– making a not very nice noise. And bingo! There came a little wizened
old man with no sense of humor in his eyes at all, he flicked his hand
at me to get on and gave me a good old jolting ride all the way back
over.. Where was he when I was yelling and pounding on those doors?

When I got off on the other side I sat and laughed again for a while. I
frikken did it. I did what I wanted to do today, everything! I got there
and back I enjoyed it, I sang and….......... well, I am proud of me
today :) At one point, I wondered if I was doing a wise thing, walking
there by myself...... well, if I have to wait to have company, I would
be spending my days locked in my hotel – no way am I doing that!

Heading back up the road to my weekend home in Tena, with newly bought
cold water, some fruit and a smile on my face with a thunderstorm
approaching, was one of the best feelings.

I peeled my soggy clothes off when I got into the room and happily –
yes, I said happily – jumped under an ice cold shower – took the time to
wash my hair and even scrape my legs...... That was interesting, I have
so many insect bites that I look diseased! But most of them still dont itch.

What a day :)

Love, light and laughter

Annie

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