9.11. + 10.11. Mines and Cassava

9.11.
Today we visited a village inhabited by indigenous people nearby. Many of the village residents work for the Nicky Lodge. As canoeists, jungle guides, kitchen staff, repairmen, and cleaners. In contrast to other jungle lodges, the managers of Nicky Lodge have a special concept here. They build a jungle lodge for about 10 years and during this time, they involve the residents in all areas. Afterwards, they hand everything over to the village completely and build a new lodge near another village. This enables the local population to make a living from tourism independently.
In the village, we were taught about the way of life in the village. Then we learned all the steps of cassava bread production. We harvested the roots, crushed them, then pressed out the liquid, sieved it, and finally baked it on the fire in a clay pan.

Then it was eaten with salad, avocado cream, rice, and fish.
In addition, there were maggots that were skewered and grilled while still alive. 😳

I thought about becoming a vegetarian again. It's pretty cruel to animals.
I only tried half of one. The consistency was not particularly appealing. In terms of taste, it was okay. One person in our group tried a raw maggot (the locals also like to eat them like that) and he almost vomited. He said it tasted totally rotten. 🤪
After that, they sold their homemade jewelry. I bought a necklace with a pendant made of piranha lower jaw. 😁

On 10.11., we returned to Quito.

Goodbye Rainforest

This time during the day. Luckily, on the way there, we didn't see how dilapidated the roads in the mountains are. There were huge pieces of the road missing everywhere. It looked like Godzilla had bitten them off. And not secured. It's a mystery to me how the drivers manage not to drive straight into the abyss at night. That's probably why there's a huge Jesus with a crown of thorns glued to every bus, and the saying: 'You watch over my path'. Anyway, I won't be taking any more night trips here.