Sean wrote:
> What's been so far, the best journey that you've taken in or within
> South America (by either road, rail, plane, boat, bus, or a combo of
> any of these forms of transport) and please elaborate on what caused it
> to be so good and memorable for you ?
>
No question, none at all: a week visiting the Cofan Indians
at Zabalo, Ecuador, and trips out from there. Getting there
is a combo of "all the above" except train: fly from Quito over the
mountains to Lago Agrio (a drive is possible but longer) then by bus a
few hours to Chiritza, then by a succession of smaller and smaller
speedboats down the river to Zabalo itself, from there in motorized canoes.
I've been all over the world, and this was one of the high points.
These folks have the jungle, the real thing, the original big trees
and all the animals are still there. We didn't see a live jaguar ...
but they are there and another group there when we were did. We did
see just about all the other animals except anacondas (and worse
snakes!) I personally watched a family of howler monkeys in the
pristine jungle for a whole morning, amazing. I've been to the
big commercial Amazon lodges with their beautiful rooms and
great food, but none could come even close to the quality
of jungle experience I had here.
Doug McDonald |