The time when I spent a couple days in the jungle with Julie three months ago.

Since Julie is offended that the construction workers outside my house are post-worthy and she isn't I am going to make (or finish a post) about the lovely 3 days I spent with Julie in the Jungle way back in July...

Alright, so following my living dangerously phase, I decided to take a wee trip to the Jungle.... or to the closest and cheapest "secondary jungle". My reason for going was to visit my friend Julie in the town of Tena, about 6 hrs from Quito to the east. While there I swam in a gorgeous emerald green river, got downpoured on (Paul Janz style), visited a place known as Monkey Town, helped build latrines (ok, I well took pictures), and all the while with Julie and two crazy Colombians. Here are some pics and with any luck a video clip too... for best effect turn the volume up on your speakers... and tilt your heat to the left (sorry, I will learn soon!). This is the tiny little deserted road we drove down for maybe 15 minutes to get to the river.

The beautiful river.

This is Juan Pablo and Mauricio as they alternate back and forth from the edge of the "cliff" trying to work up the courage to jump. Julie had to show them how it is done. JP eventually jumped.... Mauricio stood there for probably an hour while the rain poured down, eventually climbing down the way he got up. haha

Then it started to rain.... it POURED!

Mauricio, weighing his options, standing in the rain.

This is what happens when you let your town go to the monkeys. They drink and they smoke (and trust me... they are heavy smokes and not polite about it at all) and then they leave their garbage all over and smash their bottles. We visited a town on the side of a river called Misahuallí. Apparently some monkeys had been brought into the town 30 years ago or something and they never left.. now they rule. This is a video clip from while we were sitting in a restaurant on the edge of the plaza and a couple monkeys thought they would see what was going on.

Ok, now you are going to have to tilt your head. Sorry. Turn up your volume for the best effect.