Hitchhiking a pirogue With my sister Emmanuelle, we went deep into the amazonian jungle, hitchhiking through the “oil road” during two days. José should drive his tourists group to an eco-lodge, three hours away with pirogues. He offered to take us, for free, in a Huaorani village –natives-, one hour away with pirogue on the Rio Shiripuno and to come pick us up four days later. He entrusts us to Margarita, the chief of the village who welcomed us in her family

Souvenir photo The village of Ñoñeno has only six families, so that is about twenty people. It is not connected by a road or by drinkable water, electricity or the telephone network and internet. However there are some solar panels allowing us to charge our phones to take a souvenir photo before our departure.

Magnifying glass effect Margarita, 27 years old is the chief of the village. She has been married with her husband for twelve years

At home The chief of the village lives in the biggest house. She has four kids with whom Emmanuelle spends a lot of time playing.

Ñoñeno, village amazonien

Les autres maisons du village sont plus modestes, composées d’une ou deux pièces.

In the living room

Water The river behind the house is the only place we can get water from. We wash the dishes, the clothes, we bathe in it, we drink it.

Little frog

Harvest To collect the fruit at the top of the tree, Margarita decides to cut the trunk, who will finally stay half-notch because all things considered, it is not worth it, there is not enough fruit. With her three sons we get back home empty-handed from the harvest

Can you see it ?

The spider

Naked in the mud Most of the time, kids don’t wear clothes. Adults do. A woman of the village tells me they are civilized her because we are only an hour away with pirogue from the road, but there are villages farther away where people are still naked. She explains, laughing, that one day a group of Japanese people came to the village and slept in the school for three days. For the occasion, all the villagers were naked, each earned 200 dollars…

Domestic monkey

Fishing This is the touristic season so the men of the village are working for the eco-lodges. The wifes make a living from handicraft, harvest and fishing.

Caution Kids play with knifes, fire and in the rivers. Nobody worries. Except me.

Anaconda baby

My sister Emmanuelle

Daniel, a family friend

Trap Such as the webs made by spiders, this trap build by an insect allows him to catch his preys

View on the Amazonian jungle

Millenary forest In the jungle, everything jags or bites. The trees protect themselves with big thorns on their trunks.

Parrot eating banana

The mothers Women are always walking around with their kids, nearly always carrying the youngest. However, I am shocked not to see any sign of kindness, no hugs, no kisses.

The waiting Close to the bridge of Rio Shiripuno, women are waiting for the tourists’ pirogue which will drive them to their village. They also do pirogue-hitchhiking

The Waiting 2 The men are drinking biers and arm wrestling as they wait for the bus. In the village, there is only water.

Surprise of the nature

Roots The roots of this tree start at one meter outside the ground.

Tiguino The village of Tiguino lies at the end of the ‘oil road’ about 100 kilometers into the Amazon forest. Oil companies who have historically exploited the land built this road in the 70’s by and pushed back the borders of the natives’ reservation. In return, modern houses, schools, hospitals were built in the villages. However, conflicts persisted between villagers and oil companies. Sometimes the pipelines break, contaminating the rivers where the natives get their water.

Baños This thermal city is in the valley near the volcano Tungurahua, partially active. Unfortunately, it won’t breathe lava or smoke when we are there.

Typical meal, in Baños In Baños, we were hosted 3 days by Ismael and Yajaira, who had given us their contact information when they picked us up while we were hitchhiking a week earlier. They took us to the city and the neighborhoods, prepared delicious Ecuadorian meals for us. They are sweet, welcoming, and generous. We spoke a lot about Europe (where they lived during 10 years), Ecuador, and life in general… Emmanuelle couldn’t hold back her tears when we left and I had a lump in my throat.

Waterfall of Rio Verde Ecuador is the country of waterfalls, every day we discover new ones. The one of Rio Verde, close to Baños, is surely the most powerful and impressive we saw in Ecuador.

Blanca We arrived by night in a village and we looked for a place to set up camp, which ends up in the garage of a woman named Blanca, who kindly invites us for breakfast the morning after, where she shared stories of her kids and her German daughter-in-law.

The Indian’s face During my trip in South America, I have seen many rocks called « la caja del indio » which means “the Indian’s face” because they are shaped like it. This one particularly fits that description.

Aligned stones The guide tells different stories about the archeological site. It is actually only speculation; very little scientific research was held on the matter.

Emmanuelle My youngest sister met with me for one month to hitchhike through Ecuador.

Ruines of Ingapirca Ingapirca is the biggest archeological Inca site of Ecuador from 500 years ago. Not as much impressive as the ruin from Peru, but, it was on the road…

Young woman, in Cañar In the villages, most women are wearing traditional clothes, which the styles of which differ according to region. The youth dare to mix it with a hoodie or a cap.

The first floor of the market On the first floor of the markets, there are always many food stands serving typical and cheap food, where we can seat down and eat.

Lady, Cañar

Wild camp Although we were thinking about camping on a place close to the bus station, the guard tells us to set up our tent in the hall of the bus station, which is more secured, under his watch. The dog is also following us everywhere and stands guard. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to the liking of the nearby restaurant owner, who opened at 3 am with very loud music.

Whales watching We saw few whales among the waves. So instead of getting nice pictures of whales, I took pictures of boats.

The Andes Cordillera On our way to the ocean, we crossed the country and went down the Andes cordillera. At an altitude of 400 meters, our driver stops so we can take a picture of this immense see of clouds.

Park Caja Another region, anoother altitude, another type of vegetation. This time it feels like we are in Scotland.

Parque Caja

Store, Cuenca

Shoe cleaner, Cuenca

Main square, Cuenca We are hosted by Rafael, from Couchsurfing. His apartment has the best view of the city, across from the cathedral.

Riverside, Cuenca It looks like an European town

Cueanca square

Breakfast On the first floor of the market of Cuenca, we can drink lots of juice and eat corn donuts.

There is a lot of street-art in the walls of Cuenca

Old and new generation in the main square of Quito

The angel, Quito It is dangerous and ill advised to walk to the statue of the angel. While we are looking for the bus, a man gives us the way, but he has a machete under his T-shirt! Finally a policeman on a motorcycle escorted us to the bus stop. We returned by cab.

San Fransisco church, Quito

In one of the numerous churches of Quito

Street Pharmacist Among all the street’s vendors, there is also one selling herbal pain remedies to passersby.

Mother and daughter Women mostly go around with their youngest kid on their back or in the arms.

The magic tree, Otavalo

Chicken legs and heads It is what usually served first in the traditional bowl of soup.

Clementines and tomatoes’ trees The “tomatoes’ trees” look like tomatoes but have a very different taste. They are only consumed as a juice because they are too acidic to bit into directly.

Christ suffering Loica notices that is the churches of Quito and Otavalo, the Christ is always represented suffering, in agony with thorns and blood, whereas the representations are less shocking in France. The concept of the bucket shaped like a cross makes me smile.

Donuts for sell, Otavalo

The old smily lady, Otavalo