Jim Verdonik, Founder of NOT DEAD YET TRAVEL:
“If you’re still learning about the world, then you’re NOT DEAD YET.”
Jim is also a novelist, lawyer, journalist and teacher.
Do you like wild places? We do.
But what’s wild? Are there still wild places left in the world? Or is everything the same all over? Europe was exotic when I first visited fifty years ago. Why did Europeans choose to mimic Disney World?
We decided to find out on a South American adventure in Ecuador and Brazil whether some places have resisted the Disneyfication of the world.
Our adventure included hiking in the Amazon jungle, Amazon canoe and Kayak journeys, dancing in streets in the party jungle that Rio de Janeiro becomes at Carnival and a visit to Rio’s Vidigal Favela, where a gang rules in an uneasy truce with local police.
Sound exciting? Sound uncomfortable?
Being fans of the show “Naked and Afraid,” we knew we weren’t interested in suffering the worst of the Amazon. So, we glamped on a very nice boat – a dry, clean place to take a shower, eat and sip some wine at night after hiking along slippery jungle trails.
Here’s our adventure. Every minute had a high dose of WOW factor.
“Who’s we?” You ask.
Jim, my daughter JJ and son-in-law, Chris. JJ and Chris took good care of JJ’s 73-years old Dad. Yeah, I admit I’m not the same guy I used to be when I joined the Peace Corps and started exploring the world. Sometimes I need a rest or a hand, but I still do 90% of what I used to do. I call it “Not Dead Yet Travel.”
Our trip raises the question: Why do we Travel?
JJ and I share a love of learning about the world. We’ve been on safari in Tanzania and Kenya, hiked the Inca Trail and driven across America together. Some of the best weeks of my life have been spent travelling with JJ.
I wasn’t a terrible father when JJ was growing up. I did what I could. But making a living kept me working late a lot. I might have shortchanged JJ a bit back then. Glad she’s letting me make up for it now.
So, why confess my imperfections here?
I think humility makes good travelers. It’s easy for competent people to think we know everything when we’re in our own environment. We’re all the kings and queens of our own jungles. It’s easy to forget our limitations.
Jumping into a new place with new rules is a good way to build humility. Humility also saves your life when you travel – it helps you take advice from locals who have survival skills that are important on their home turf. Ignore them at your peril. That’s why I place such a high priority on finding great local guides.
OK, my travel philosophy is over. Here’s what JJ, Chris and I did in South America.
PART 1 – ECUADOR’S AMAZON RIVER
Our first stop was Quito Ecuador – only a 5-1/2-hour flight from Atlanta. But we wouldn’t see Quito until later in our trip. We arrived at night, stayed at an airport hotel and early the next morning, we took a half hour flight to Coca, Ecuador – town on the Napo River that feeds into the Amazon. Coca is a center of Ecuador’s oil drilling industry. Most of the modern infrastructure was built by oil revenue. We stayed in Coca less than an hour. So, we don’t know much more than it has an airport and a river.
That’s’ JJ and Chris in from of a statute of Francisco de Orellana on the waterfront in Coca, Ecuador. He was the first European to explore the Amazon River beginning in 1541.
After saying “Hi” to Francisco, we hopped into a motorized canoe that took us on a ride of about two hours to meet our boat – the Anakonda.
Check out the Anakonda. The crew and native guide took good care of us for three nights and four days.
Two Canoe Lessons
Our canoe ride from Coca to the Anakonda taught us two things about the Amazon.
February starts the rainy season here. During dry season, the Amazon’s water levels fall dramatically. Lots of sandbars now separated Coca from where the Anakonda was docked. A 20-mile journey on the map turned into 30 miles as our canoe navigated back and forth across the wide river to get around sand bars that will disappear a month from now as the rainy season progressed.
An hour after our canoe ride began, we were soaked by a sudden downpour. It halted our journey as our canoe found the shelter of a sandbar, because the wind and rain make it impossible read where sandbars and other dangers lurk inches below the water.
CLICK HERE to see and hear the power of an Amazon storm.
Don’t go to a rain forest unless you’re prepared to get wet.
Glad our guide gave us these heavy raincoats. He also had waterproof boots for us to wear on our jungle hikes. Our feet never got wet.
Why is JJ smiling in this storm? What’s JJ thinking about?
Hint, one of her favorite songs growing up was Just Around the River Bend.
Our adventure was about finding surprises just around every river bend.
Rainy season was just beginning in mid-February. It rained every night we were in the Amazon. But except for this storm, the heavy rain was at night and the light daytime showers never stopped our exploration.
A Big Surprise at Our Boat.
We knew mid-February is off-season for Ecuador’s Amazon and we didn’t expect a full boat. But arriving at the Ankonda, we were surprised to find that we were the only passengers on a boat that holds 40 and has a 12-person crew.
We enjoyed having private yacht with a personal bartender and native guide. We appreciate that they didn’t cancel on us and gave us the trip of our dreams even though they operated the boat at a loss to do it. That, my friends, is integrity.
We enjoyed having a private yacht with a personal bartender and our own native guide.
They even let us drive the boat.
That’s Chris taking this turn at the wheel.
How great is that!
Yasuni National Park Preserve for Animal, Vegetation, and Indigenous People
Much of our adventure was in or bordering Yasuni National Park – one of the world’s largest remaining nature zones.
Talk about a great place to get away from the world, we didn’t see other tourists until the third day of our experience there. Imagine having the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone to yourself. https://en.unesco.org/biosphere/lac/yasuni Check out the linked video about the animals and birds there. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/yasuni-national-park/
Here’s JJ ready to explore the jungle.
This girl never takes a bad picture – at least that’s what her dad thinks.
HERE ARE SOME PICTURES OF THE WILD LIFE WE SAW ON JUNGLE HIKES
CLICK HERE to hear the Howler Monkey Howl.
More Parrots than You Can Imagine
Have you ever seen hundreds of parrots? We did. They gather to lick minerals off a clay cliff.
Check out this parrot video.
On our jungle hikes, we also saw three sloths, a porcupine, many parrots, toucans and other birds and millions of ants and other insects.
We didn’t see a Jaguar, but we saw its tracks.
Naturally, we didn’t go into the jungle unarmed.
What’s the most dangerous animal we encountered?
Here’s a hint: A machete won’t protect you against this beast, as Chris would soon discover.
More about our Great Guide
We wouldn’t have seen many animals on our own. Our guide, Avel Coquinche, was amazing at spotting the wildlife.
Born in the jungle, he hunted birds and monkeys with a blowgun to win his daily bread. Nothing sharpens the eyes like an empty stomach.
Avel lives in Coca, but still has family who live in a traditional community.
He explained that people don’t own land – they have the right to use land as long as they are active in their community.
Quechua People
Avel is a member of the Quechua People (Also written as Kichua on many websites)– the largest local indigenous group. Although millions of people across several countries speak a form of the Quechua language (also known as Runasimi), Avel identifies most closely with the 135,000 Quechuan speakers in Ecuador.
Other indigenous peoples who have much less contact with the outside world also inhabit the Yasuni region. It is believed that some groups remain isolated from all contact with outsiders. https://www.iwgia.org/en/news/4437-neglected-isolated-indigenous-peoples-in-ecuador.html According to Avel, these people still guard their hunting grounds and use self-help to punish intruders. Avel said contact with them is dangerous.
Guide Stories
We explored about a hundred miles on the main river and, tributaries and lagoons over four days in our motorized canoe. Every great guide has a stash of stories to tell when animals were scarce. Avel was no exception.
He regaled us with stories of indigenous “shamans” who brewed hallucinogenic drugs from native trees, tribes that still shrink heads and anacondas who play with people’s minds. Avel believes anacondas have the ability to lull their prey into a false sense of security when they hunt.
Like all stories guides tell, it’s difficult to sort fact from fiction. Personally, I don’t care. A well told story is a priceless gift from the teller to the listeners. Later, I did find this interesting article about snake dreams that confirms that snakes haunt our dreams in many cultures. Sweet dreams!
Swimming with Pink Dolphins
We swam with pink dolphins. Here’s video JJ and Chris took of me and the pink dolphins. From the canoe, they saw more of the dolphins that I did down in the water with the dolphins.
Little did I know what perverts pink dolphins are. CLICK HERE before you go swimming with pink dolphins.
And don’t piss in the water while you swim. The penis fish might get you.
It’s a jungle out there.
Piranha Fishing
We caught piranha from our canoe, which the crew immediately cooked for our lunch.
The fish I caught was too small to keep. We threw it back.
Later the crew caught a bigger one, they grilled for our lunch.
Since we ate piranha for lunch, it was only fair to give the piranha a chance to eat us.
Here’s the three of us surrendering to the piranha.
JJ and Chris decided on one last kiss, just in case the piranha were really hungry.
Lunch With the Locals
We ate lunch in an indigenous village that consisted of grubs, yucca, plantains, fish, and other unknowns. We ate every bite. The grubs tasted OK with the hot sauce the people made – this confirmed our belief that everything tastes better with hot sauce.
Blow Gun Practice
After lunch, we tested out a blow gun. JJ was pretty good at it. Check out her video.
Watch Out Chris: What You Don’t See Can Hurt You
Chris was stung by a Bullet Ant near the end of our last jungle hike. Here’s the famous Bullet Ant sting video by Coyote Peterson.
Ants are a big deal in the Amazon. Sometimes, we’d see thousands of tens of thousands at a time. Our guide cautioned us that they would crawl up our boots if we stood still to watch them. Here’s a Hollywood version of what Amazon Ants can do – The Naked Jungle.
Chris suffered for several hours, but after a few shots of Tequila and relaxing in a hot tub, Chris was OK.
On our last day on the Amazon River, we saw a rainbow that stretched from one bank to the other. We couldn’t reach either end.
But, we wondered: What if we could? What would we find?
Rainbows inspire people to search for what we dream about.
We interpreted it as a positive sign for what lies ahead of us in Rio de Janeiro.
Would Rio be the over-the-rainbow land of our dreams?
Go ahead, click on the song.
You know you want to.
Why not?
If you don’t click, ask yourself: “Have I given up on my dreams?”
Hope you clicked.
Goodbye Amazing Amazon
Sorry to leave the Amazing Amazon. It was so beautiful watching sunsets from our canoe.
But we weren’t going home. We were beginning our next adventure.
Quito
The next morning we said goodbye to the crew of the Anakonda followed by a two-hour canoe ride back to Coca. A half hour plane ride brought us back to Quito.
We had lunch at the Vista Hermosa restaurant. The food was OK, but it had a great view of old Town Quito.
Ponies and Dreams
JJ loves horses.
So, we stayed at a Polo Club just outside Quito – a place where monied Ecuadorians play.
Rent a room and you can watch your polo team play from your room.
We don’t have a polo team but the grounds are very nice and the have a lot of horses.
Every time I see JJ with a horse, my grownup daughter transforms back into an innocent child.
JJ fell in love with the pony in this picture.
It serves to remind us to never outgrow our childhood dreams.
Keep them with us always.
A HAPPY ENDING TO PART 1 of OUR ADVENTURE
I began this article describing my relationship with JJ, my daughter.
The animals she most wanted to see in the Amazon were sloths.
Don’t know why. Her thing, not mine – until this trip.
Before we left Ecuador to go to Brazil, JJ gave me this card.
I’ll keep in the treasure box of things I’ve saved for JJ to remember our adventures together when I’m no longer around.
All the planning was totally worth it.
But now we’re off to a new adventure in Brazil.
Hope I don’t blow it.
I mean, how does Dad keep up with the next generation in Rio at Carnival?
Up all night? Drinking? Dancing in the streets?
Been awhile since I did all that. Survived the Amazon, but am I up to partying?
Stay tuned for the next episode of Jim, JJ, and Chris in South America.
PRACTICAL TIPS RE ECUADOR
Its in the same time zone as the Eastern United States.
Except for local coins, Ecuador has no local currency. Ecuador uses US dollars instead. Makes shopping easy.
Most electric outlets take the same plugs as in the US. You don’t need an adapter.
Quito is over 9,000 feet elevation. It can get cold at night.
Credit cards are accepted in most places, but many places want to see a passport or a photocopy if a passport. They copy down the passport number.
Tips for our guide and the crew were in cash. We could not charge to the boat.
Characters in Jim’s books blog about their trip with Jim.