San Miguel and her Rio Cayapas

Hola Chicos!

Allow us to dedicate this blog to the memory of Mamie Carmelle.

We've travelled a lot so far in Ecuador, it's been 2 months now. The last segment, the North Coast, was pretty interesting. Here's the third and last part of this adventure post-Rio Muchacho.

San Lorenzo was an ideal departure location to go in the jungle, because it's located in the middle of the Magalares Cayapes Mataje reserve, one of the most densed mangrove reserve on the planet.

Unfortunately, some touristic activities, mostly in parks and national reserves, are way out of our price range. We had to carefully chose where our money would be spent and the mangroves had to be eliminated.
But we heard of San Miguel, which is located 5 hours (en motor-canoe) upstream the Carapas river. From San Miguel, we supposedly would be able to hire a guide for 10$/day and do a tour of the Cotocachi-Cayapas reserve. That's an activity in our price range... well that's we taught.

First of all, San Miguel is not the easiest place to reach. Indeed, you can only go there by boat. The best port to depart from is Borbon's, which an hour south from the end of the world/San Lorenzo.

 
FIrst thing that comes to mind when we stop in Borbon: a nice whisky. A man can miss life's little pleasure. By the way, Simon is avoiding any alcoholic beverage since is arrival in Ecuador. But seriously, this little river port is as charming as a-barely-digest-end-of-bottle from the bad guy of Clint Eastwood movie. The smell is far from pleasant, few teeth are missing but the plot is too good not to enjoy it.

 

 
We will have barely time to ingest an encebollado while waiting for our wave to San Miguel. But surprisingly we would have ordered another meal in that eccletic city.  So at 9h45, we hop on our Poseidon, canoe-cab of Clemente, our new friend. Of course, our super boat wouldn't leave at 10 as promised. But it's Ecuador, we're getting used to it.















 

















And since we're not in a rush... even if it's 5 hours of  water travel.

This trip was particulary interesting and was the most expensive one also. No surprise here since the price is calculated by gas comsumption and not distance.

Simon and Soa, even with thousands of hours of travelling under their belt, are more then happy to say they had their longest river trip on boat.





The view was amazing. Dozens of really small communities are located all along the rio.

 

Mc Donald's

After few hours of speeding on the "highway", we stopped at the local Mc Donald's  (but healthier) on the Cayapas river. Clement took advantage of that stop to enjoy a power nap. Driving is tiring.
. 

Power napping

Apart from that, the river is inspiring and at the same time depressing.

It's strenght and beauty is unbelievable. It welcomes an amazing river flora and allows hundreds of people to live comfortably.

 
Locals use it for everything. It's a road of course, for transportation of merchandise and of people, but it's also a bathtub, a washing machine, a toilet and tragically, like many rivers, a garbage bin.










On the way there, Simon thought a lot about is african friend, water lover, Catherine Ferland-Blanchet a.k.a. Sally Traoré.

As usual, Simon can't sleep at all during the trip. In fact, scientific reviews, done in more than 25 countries, have shown that ways of transportation (plane, buses, train, boat, tuk-tuk, bike, etc.) are like a high dose of cafeine for Simon.
Which contrasts highly with his sweetheart, for which, any motor-transportation, whatever it is, is a high sleeping drug.

After many years, but still at our first big big trip together, we still enjoy those astonishing differences. 

Four hours and forty-five minutes later (not a lot of traffic), at 3h15pm, we landed at San Miguel paradise.

San Miguel financial center

San Miguel's port

This village of 300 persons charmed us on arrival.

The idylic village on the Cayapas river is only part of the charm.

Our 5-star hotel

It's like they were expecting us. Merlie, the spokesperson for the women association of the village was waiting at the dock and brought us up the hundred stairs to the communal hotel.

Like every village, there's a church and a sport field   

Tourism being around for many years now without really helping the community, the women's association decided to build the hotel, modest but luxurious in our heart. The association also provides breakfast, lunch and diner at reasonable prices; althought you could use the kitchen freely.

The money gathered by the association is distributed in a rotative system to the mothers of the families.
Meals are tastier that way!



It's not dark yet, so we take that time to admire the view from our wonderful hotel, hidden in hammocks (we're now far from the boat bench)

After our relaxation session, we're off to get some information on our options to visit the reserve.
We discover indeed that the national guard of the park is also the self proclaimed travel agent. So, we are in front of that nice man, who should manage the park entrance fees period, but no. He is the only one controlling and allowing the persons in and out of the reserve. Price to get there: 50$
Unfortunately,  not a third or any part of that amount goes to the community.


So.
We'll meditate on that.





Meanwhile, we visit the smallest town we've seen and we talk with people, Soa is getting checked out ( no surprise here) and we learn that a man is offering a farm tour for few dollars.
We like farms! So we get tell that this farmer will come by this evening to tell us more about it.

Angel

Soa's monkey-ing.

As promised, Angel arrived during dinner time, then follows a mouthfull price dealing session. Before the end of our meal, we had a price and 8 hours later, we were in the jungle for 3 beautiful hours.

We say jungle because, here you eat what grows and what grows has been there before civilization came in. Angel knows a lot about trees and plants and weird fruits. We're estatic of all the knowledge we're getting.
There goes another dedicace, one to the unconditionable love for every trees of Kate Monosiet..
















We walk down a long river, learning along the way, eating bananas, sugarcane and chocolates (the fruit , not the candy) and, to Simon's delight, meeting with many bugs making us want to sing"Hakuna Matata".

*WARNING TO SENSITIVE HEARTS!

On our return, Simon and Soa will go for a little dip in the Cayapas river. Ok, Soasoa might have gone with her eyes only.... but she still enjoyed it.

White head in the water

Two nights later, we were waking up at 3am for what would be, a very wet ride. A pouring rainfall was welcoming us in the boat, our driver was taking out garbage bags to cover our snail gear and the rest of the stock (including ourselves!).
Simon, once again, didn't sleep at all, hoping to catch a glimpse of spectacular sunset on the river. Unfortunately, the sky remained dark.

But the rain didn't stop Simon from lightening up.
Imagine a deep moment of loneliness. Aside from the driver (thankfully), everybody's sleeping, protected by a plastic sheet.
Alone, this young quebecer remains awake, looking to undress darkness, trying to find dawn.

Alone, he gazes upon the world's drowsiness.

For him, the cold tears of the sky, running on his exposed face, in the middle of a boat heading into the night's mouth, are a hymn to life.
Rarely did he felt so alive in his life.

All of a sudden, the sky stopped crying.
But, Simon's tears continued their way through the early morning. Because, when the rain was bringing him back to life, Simon himself cried for his grandmother's life. Sad from realising that he could be losing her at this moment, or few days later. Happy to have known her, to have been sculpted by her, to have become, thanks to her, the sunrise over Cayapas river.

Few minutes later, the day was finally rising.


 

Our return to Quito was without hiccups (or almost).

So, this concludes our first big steg of our trip.

Little summary:
2 months of travelling
2 farms/ agricultural communities worked
11 town visited: Quito, Pujili, Guantubamba, Canoa, Rio Muchacho, Jama, El Matal, Mompiche, San Lorenzo and San Miguel.
8 beds and borrowed plywood
35 bus hours
9h of motor-canoe
1510 km travelled

Next big step: Guayaquiland the residency visa!