Senoia to Ambato: Day 2

Today we met the rest of the Yancey family. We started out with a good breakfast at the hotel. I don’t typically eat wontons and fried plantains for breakfast but I did today. The best part was the coffee and the fresh pineapple. We checked out and headed down to the valley which also means down into the jungle. The elevation near the airport in Quito is about 9,000 feet. This morning was nice and cool and dry! Then we began our climb over the mountains before descending into the valley. We climbed close to 12,000 feet before stopping for lunch at Puerto Mono in Puerto Misahualli: potato soup, grilled pork chop, rice, beans, and jugo jamaica.

After lunch we checked into our hotel, Banana Lodge, and dropped off Madeline, Gloria, Levi, and Luke for afternoon naps. By the way, the altimeter now reads about 1300 feet, the thermometer is several Celcius notches higher, and the hygrometer only reads 100% because that’s as high as it’s capable. Chris took Bob, Don, and me over to the jungle camp, UNPES, to observe a typical youth summer camp. The youth check in on Sunday evening and camp runs from Monday breakfast through Wednesday lunch. (Madeline had told us earlier today that some of the kids, from the same tribe that Jim Elliot and Nate Saint tried to reach, have walked 17 hours in the jungle just to arrive at camp on Sunday night. Parents sent their kids off through the jungle, not on a well worn path, but just through the jungle to go to summer church camp. The same jungle with anacondas, jaguars, etc. Wow!) Anyway, back to camp UNPES. Chris showed us the soccer field, swimming pool, kitchen, dining hall, and training area for pastor and church leaders. Then we made our way to the arena where all the teens were gathered for worship. We heard them sing a few songs but the excitement was all about the race…

The teens were divided into 4 teams, rojo, amarilljo, azul, y verde. There were about 75 students on each team. The teams were released in 10 minute increments to compete against the clock. We got to watch part of the race. When it was time to go, the teenagers would sprint uphill to a water balloon station. Only these were no tennis ball-sized water balloons; they were at least the size of volleyballs and players had to bust them by hugging each other. Next they head to the pool to look for rocks on the bottom. Kids had zero regard for clothing, zero, though some did take their shoes off. Many jumped in with bluejeans, dresses, etc. I’m not exactly sure which route was next but they had to climb a muddy hill with a rope, army crawl downhill under tires buried in mud, run through the jungle, crawl in the mud under a system of ropes, and climb a utility pole to reach the prize at the top. I noticed some never put their shoes back on after the pool. What a crazy sight! And all the smiles and laughter!

Before we left, we met Pastor Jorge. He’s a pastoral giant in my book. He has planted over 35 churches and the one he leads now has planted 15. He looks to train up men from within his own congregation and send them to be pastors at new church plants. He also looks within his own church to fulfill ministry positions. He says the benefit is you already know the character and work ethic, you know their doctrine, you know their family. When you hire someone from outside the church, you don’t really know what kind of man you’re hiring. I told him I loved that model and wished more churches in America would do this.

After our tour of the camp concluded we met back up with the rest of the Yancey family and headed toward the boat dock on Rio Napo. We went down river (a couple miles?) to a village that, until recently, was only accessible by boat. There’s a museum and zoo there where you can learn about the indigenous people. Our tour guide, Byron, knows Spanish, Quechua, and is learning English. His father-in-law is pastor of the local church but has been sick recently. This has left Byron to lead the church but he admitted he knows he is not a pastor. He asked for prayer before we left and expressed a desire to work with the jungle camp. Our canoe returned just before dark.

We concluded the evening at a nice restaurant sitting outdoors along with the monkeys. After my milanesa, I found some ice cream. Now back at Banana Lodge, it’s time for a shower and some sleep. Tomorrow we leave the jungle to go back to the mountains with cooler temps, lower humidity, fewer bugs, and less oxygen.