Intro

Day 198 found me deeper into the Ecuadorian jungle, specifically within the Yawa Jee Reserve. This was the second day of a ten-day adventure, a journey that felt less like cycling and more like an immersion. My spirit was high, a quiet motivation humming beneath the humid air, ready for whatever the dense foliage held.

Ride Overview

The day's movement covered a mere 3.63 kilometers, with negligible elevation changes, around 9 meters up and down. We moved through the jungle on overgrown tracks, often needing to cut our way through the dense vegetation. The weather was partly cloudy, the air thick with the scent of earth and growth. My average speed was incredibly low, reflecting less a ride and more a slow, deliberate trek, lasting over three hours for what was a short distance in pure terms.

Highlights

In the heat of the afternoon, David, Charip, and I ventured into the jungle again. Our mission, or rather, our discovery, led us to a fallen palm tree where we found Chontacuros – plump, creamy larvae. We carefully gathered them, wrapping them in broad leaves, a precious cargo for the journey back to David's home. Along the winding, barely visible path, David, with an effortless grace, pointed out medicinal trees, sharing the ancient knowledge of what each could cure. He even collected bark and leaves to brew a remedy for a relative recovering from an appendix removal.

The armadillo trap we’d painstakingly set the previous night proved to be a bust. The creature, far more cunning than we gave it credit for, had simply dug a new tunnel next to our blocked entrance and slipped away. Undeterred, our companion dog, Corajo, sniffed out another armadillo hole, and so we spent a good while constructing a new trap, hoping for better luck this time.

As dusk bled into night, we began our trek back to David’s house. Initially, our headlamps cut sharp paths through the encroaching darkness, illuminating the immediate jungle floor. But once we reached the main trail, a wide, luminous full moon hung overhead, bathing the path in a soft, ethereal glow, allowing us to walk without artificial light, guided by its silent watch.

Dinner was a revelation. The Chontacuros we’d collected earlier were fried in their own rich oil, served alongside crunchy popcorn and patacones – perfectly fried plantain slices. We ate under the stars, David sharing stories from his life, his voice a quiet counterpoint to the jungle's nightly symphony.

Lowlights

The morning had started with a trip to Puyo for supplies, and it was there that the stark reality of David's life struck me once more. The weight of his sons' education seemed to consume so much of his income. I paid him for the ten-day jungle volunteering, and watched as the money immediately went to settle a debt for his wife's mobile phone, a necessary expense in this connected world.

It was also clear, after some conversation, how many basic necessities David, despite being a guide for twenty years, lacked. Simple things like robust pots and pans for cooking over a campfire, or reliable Tupperware for food storage in the humid jungle environment, were absent. It was genuinely sad to witness this, a veteran guide making do with so little.

Overnight

I spent the night back at Anita's home, where most of my belongings were still safely stored. While David's hospitality was generous, the logistics of moving my entire setup to his house for just a few days within this longer jungle stay simply didn't make sense. It was a practical decision, ensuring my gear remained secure and accessible.

Reflection

Today confirmed for me the profound contrast between my world and the one David inhabits daily. It highlighted the deep wisdom held within traditional knowledge, passed down through generations, often existing independently of material wealth. The jungle offers its own kind of abundance, and David navigates it with an intuitive understanding that far surpasses any modern convenience. It's a quiet reminder that true richness can be found in connection to the land and its ancient ways, a lesson I seem to relearn with every step here.

Route summary

• Date: 03.02.2026 16:13
• Distance: 3.63 km
• Elevation gain: 9,621 m
• Elevation loss: 9,788 m
• Duration: 189 min
• Time in Motion: 62 min
• Average Speed: 3,489 km/h