"Gateway to the r ..." a Puerto Misahuallí Travel Page by metteks

On our 6 day tour to the rain forest, arranged from Misahualli, we (meaning mostly our guides) made a raft from balsa wood, and floated down the rivers of the rain forest.

It was a great trip, where we got to do and see a lot of different things. It was also a very basic trip. We slept in tents and had no mattresses, only sleeping bags. We ate basic food made on the fire, of what the guides caught with the spear.

We left our rafts and hiked into the rain forest. We stayed one night at this families place in the forest. They worked for an American oil company, which recently had found oil in the area. This is why they lived in a house made of logs, black plastic and palm leaves.

The situation in the area was a little tense. People from different tribes had arrived to work for the company, and they weren’t all getting all so well.

It was also a little sad to see how they now lived between a material world and their old culture. Also the damage done the rain forest was brutal. They had made big roads in to the deep rain forest, so they could drive their big machines.

We found tarantulas in the area, and one scorpion as well, but I didn’t dare to put that on my shoulder too:-)

The guy I traveled with in the rain forest had a huge passion for the creatures, so he did in fact look for them and collect them.