Ecuador Day 4 - Jungle Horse Riding

We had an early start today. Francisco, the manager of PapaGayo cooked us breakfast for six o'clock as we were getting picked up at 6:30 to head for the Amazon jungle for three days of activities.  He was a very friendly, helpful guy and made the effect to make every guest feel very welcome.  PapaGayo Hacienda was a great place, great accommodation, great food, highly recommended. 

The journey from Quito to Archidona, near Tena, took just over four hours via passes through the Andes to the Amazon rainforest.  We're staying at 'Hakuna Matata Cabanas', a lovely private 360 acre resort in the middle of nowhere.  We staying in a nice wooden cabana, quite basic but all part of the rustic charm of the place.  We get 'full board' whilst here and for lunch we were served vegetable soup with bread followed by wraps with salad and tuna.  We keep saying it but it's so nice to have healthier food. 

After lunch we went horse riding through the jungle which I'd been looking forward to, Nigel hadn't!  I used to horse ride when I was younger, Nigel's only riding experience was on a donkey. It made a change to be doing an activity that took Nigel out of his comfort zone, rather than me out of mine.  I got a well behaved horse, Nigel got the stubborn one - or it just knew he had no idea what he was doing.  The forest trails were extremely muddy. The poor old horses were knee deep in squelchy mud a lot of the time.  We went up and down lots of short steep muddy/rocky bits of trail, through bamboo forests, tall grassy areas, past huge trees and through rivers.  We stopped halfway and had a go at being Tarzan, swinging on large tree vines.  It was an overcast day, dry to start but we're in the rainforest so of course we had rain later on.  It was a great ride, it would have been better had it been less muddy, but we both enjoyed it, or Nigel did once he'd conquered his nerves.  There's not many photos of me, Nigel wasn't able to hold a camera at the same time as clinging on, steering and kicking the horse to go!

We were quite cold when we got back after getting wet in the rain.  It continued raining into the evening.  We expected rain being in a rain forest but also thought the jungle would be warm/hot as we're at a much lower elevation and close to the equator.  It's still cold here, I have my down jacket on.  Hopefully we'll get a hot sunny day tomorrow.

I think we're going to get fed very well the next three days. We got served a three course meal in the evening.  Pate to start, then steak with a mushroom sauce, green beans and chips, followed by ice cream.  Served in their covered but open air restaurant to sounds of the jungle and Latin music, very nice.