The Amazon Fruit Festival 2020 and the Waterfall Hike

Welcome back fellow web wanderers! We’re in the thick of it now. It’s time to get onto the Amazon Fruit Festival proper and all the fun things I got to do and see during my time exploring Ecuador.

Now the festival itself had a chock-full programme, which kept me busy and out of trouble. Liable to change, due to the misbehaving weather (we had at least a couple of days with non-stop rain and never-ending mud), the week didn’t completely match the programme of activities handed out at the start. Most activities were simply moved about though, with the festival consisting mainly of talks and workshops. Meditation and yoga started the day, massage sessions occurred each morning by appointment with the therapists, and sharing circles happened every evening.

• 

• 

I didn’t partake in any of the yoga, meditation, etc, lurking as I was in the background, but I did get to sit in on all the talks and workshops. While I wasn’t much taken with the grafting workshop (since I couldn’t join in), I did enjoy the tour (in the pouring rain!), the talk on the history of Terra Frutis and the one on Group Land Buys in Ecuador, which was essentially a how to guide for starting your own community (not as easy as you might think!) Evening talks in the community centre, with everyone gathered around on huge cushions, yoga mats or swaying in hammocks, with the darkness encroaching from outside, are cosy memories, consisting of some of the best talks and a true sense of community.

Hands down, my favourite part of the entire festival though, was the waterfall trip to Fruit Haven. This had to be rescheduled due to the rain, but I’m so glad we got to go in the end. In a hired ranchero, which is a local bus, we piled in and on top of it to make the hour-or-so long trip to the Fruit Haven property. We stopped off along the way for sugar cane juice and to use the toilet (flushed not in the normal way, but with scoops of water from a bucket beside it). Cold sugar cane juice is wonderfully refreshing in the equatorial sun and, as you may have guessed, incredibly sweet. It’s great to see the reactions of the locals too, with a bunch of white foreigners piled in, around and on a ranchero – not a sight you’d be expecting to see in the deep wildlands of Ecuador!

• 

• 

• 

• 

We disembarked before a wide river and a long suspension bridge over it. Bouncy at the best of times, it’s not a place you’d wish to linger on too long. On the other side, is one of the fruit haven plots, where a couple who’d attended the festival were constructing their own house in paradise, with their very young son (my new friend). The view from their property is drop dead gorgeous.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Further along the river is another fruit haven territory, which we toured and I filmed. Overall, I liked the property, though Terra Frutis is the more developed of the two, with its dedicated kitchen, dining room and community centre buildings. Fruit haven has just the one building, with volunteers staying in tents pitched on the property.

On a side note, the community centre at Terra Frutis is truly a thing of beauty. A circular building with a gorgeously polished floor, a truly spectacular central structure and an adjacent hot tub room. This was the building I spent a large amount of time in. When I wasn’t babysitting my batteries or my camera during events, I was taking part in ecstatic dance or lounging in a hammock. During my second week there, I spent a large part of my time (when I wasn’t trying to problem-solve away my tech stress) in a hammock, listening to the sounds of the rainforest and reading Attila. A rather fabulous way to spend one’s time.

But anyway, I digress. After the fruit haven property tour, we headed up to the waterfall. Anticipating an easy hike, I had not planned for the truly tough trek that it took to get up to this hidden paradise. What I realised from that trip onwards, was that things are described in South American terms. If they say it’s easy, it’s not. If it’s tough, then you better get your mountaineering gear on.

After a nice flat (for South America) initial walk, we came to the mother of all grassy hills, which of course we ascended. The grass was high, the ground was slippery and we incurred our first few casualties due to slipping and sliding. Onwards into the jungle, we followed what can’t really be described as a path by normal standards, but by South American standards was a relative highway. Health and safety is not exactly the order of the day in these countries, and a slip or fall from some of the sections we traversed would not have ended well.

• 

• 

• 

Now, I’m sounding negative aren’t I? The reason why is because of the heat. I’m a happy bunny, scrambling all over the place in most instances, but add some humid equatorial heat to the mix and it’s a different kettle of boiling fish altogether. That, and the fact I was hoiking up a small fortunes worth of filming gear. I shouldn’t complain though! This is my desired career path after all!

The trickiest part by far was heading up a near-vertical muddy slope, with naught but a rope and your balance to put faith in. Manoeuvring the uppermost section was trickiest, and since the group had split up, some of us found ourselves heading in the opposite direction. Luckily, we realised quickly enough, and had to go back, traversing the slippery section again, with a few extreme lunges and stretches added in for good measure.

Then we were there: we had made it! Stripping down to our swimming costumes, we headed straight for the refreshing water of the glorious waterfall that made all our efforts and exertion worth it. Some people opted to dive straight in, some opted to paddle in the shallows or sit in the stream, some even chose to cover themselves from head to toe in restorative mud masks. Not me! I chose to climb up the waterfall and jump in with the adrenaline junkie guys! WOO HOO! Terrifying, but so much fun!

• 

• 

• 

All too soon, we had to begin the treacherous trek back home, and at least gravity was working for us this time. Refreshed as we all were from the waterfall and pool, it was somewhat easier and less strenuous on the way down, though our balancing skills were tested again.

Back across the wobbly rope bridge, and for the ride home I opted for a top deck seat – literally sat on top of the ranchero. One of my favourite memories of the trip was the feeling of being free, with the wind in my hair (and drying out my contact lenses), trying to grab a low-hanging ice cream bean as we whizzed past. (We did not succeed).

• 

• 

The waterfall trek, while hard work, was definitely something I’ll remember for a long time to come! Next, find out what I loved spending my (rare) free time doing.

Until next time!

From me to you,

Jenni

👣