Bugs and Butterflies

Hello readers! Welcome back to another episode from Jenni in the Jungle. In this post, I’ll be chatting to you about one of my favourite things, or combination of things, to do when I’m let loose in a rainforest. Read onwards to discover just what gets me hyped up and excited, even in the scorching heat…

Touring with my camera, which I affectionately refer to as The Beast, is my absolute favourite thing to do. Why is it known as The Beast? Because it’s bloody heavy, that’s why! It’s great for toning the arms when it’s attached to your side 24/7. It’s also on the large size, especially when I’ve got my zoom lens on, and a microphone with its huge fluffy windshield!

The camera I now use most often, and the one that accompanied me on my journey around the South American continent, is a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. It was the latest Canon DSLR when I bought it at the end of 2018/early 2019, but as with the optical market, changes happen quickly. I chose this particular model, because I’m a Canon brand lover (not an ambassador though…yet), I had used the previous model at uni so was comfortable with the interface and capabilities, and because it was a great option for both stills and filming. My GoPro, my back-up b-roll camera, I bought specifically for Galapagos snorkelling and general high-octane madness. It’s a great action camera, but as I found out, it doesn’t perform well for either close ups or in the dark.

Let it be known, let it be shouted from the rooftops – that I like wildlife. You may have heard me mention this before, but I’m never happier than when I am out and about with my camera, in the midst of nature and with a host of wildlife. Growing up surrounded by and generally covered in countryside has instilled in me a love of the natural world, as did watching all the David Attenborough programmes I could get my paws on.

One of my favourite moments of the Amazon Fruit Festival 2020 was when I discovered that at the top of the driveway, right by the new swimming pool, there congregated a plethora of butterflies, licking up the salt from the rocks in their own little sunny paradise.

The biggest, brightest and most beautiful butterflies are the most anxious and thus the hardest to get any footage off. These were big incandescent blue butterflies, obviously the most noticeable and enticing to predators, that took off as soon as you looked at them. I managed to get a few precious photos before they deemed me too threatening for their liking.

There were smaller butterflies nicknamed the 89s, as they have that number patterned on their wings, and subdued brown and orange numbers among their more boldly patterned siblings.

My favourite was Bonita the butterfly. A gorgeously patterned little madam who, enticed by my butterfly leggings, decided I was a flower and rode on my hand all the way back to the community centre, lapping up the sweat from my hand. Charming. It was a special moment and felt slightly tickly and very delicate. It’s crazy how such stunning, delicate creatures can be so attracted to disgusting things! Those who wish to attract butterflies need not bother with offerings of sweet nectar, the pungent aroma of a urine-based drink will work wonders! (Disclaimer, I did not do this.)

She was attracted by my ‘butterfly’ leggings…

I also discovered a chain of ants, going to and from a hidden nest. After quite some time spent squatting down in the mud and blazing sun, trying to follow individuals with my macro settings, I eventually gave up. It’s hard work! Kudos to the camera people who do this, but I’m pretty sure they set up rigs and sliders to do this! Keeping the camera still, within focus range, and the ant in frame is darnright near impossible when doing it free hand!

I found a few other interesting specimens around and about the place too. Luckily I was glued to my cameras, so managed to grab pictures of most butterflies and a lot of interesting bugs I found. I didn’t dare venture into the jungle by myself, since that’s a foolish and dangerous thing to do if you don’t know the lay of the land. I didn’t see any interesting mammals, sadly, as I was too preoccupied with the two-legged humanoid variety.

Unfortunately I didn’t have nearly as much time as I would have liked to chase bugs and butterflies, let alone birds and species of a bigger variety. When all is said and done though, I look at those times spent rummaging around in the blazing equatorial sun as some of my favourite moments of my time in the Amazon. Even now it seems like a surreal experience, and one I hope to replicate in my career ahead.

It was hot, ok? So yes I’m really sweaty! (As a side note, my sports bra and ‘butterfly’ leggings match! Adulting skills 10/10!)

In my next post, it’s high time I get going! Join me on my trip back to Gualaquiza, and from there on to Cuenca again.

Until next time!

From me to you,

Jenni

👣

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!

A wild Ecuadorean Croc at the sugarcane stop

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.

Up! It wasn’t the easiest of places to get to…

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

👣

Fighting With My Fruit: Vegan Living in the Amazon

Hellooo everyone and welcome back to the next post about my Ecuador adventures. This time let’s delve into the intricacies of raw vegan living and what it was like for an omnivore to eat like this for 2 weeks while maintaining a very active lifestyle. See my previous post for more information on the calorie-burning stress I endured during this time! I’ll also touch on where I stayed for the duration of my time at Terra Frutis, The Cabin. Is it just me, or do I feel I short horror film coming on?

The festival itself began with a 3-day coconut water fast. This in itself shook me, because 3 DAYS??? That’s a hell of a long time to not eat. Apparently I was wrong, as I discovered during this time that people can fast for 30 days, or even longer! A wake up call for me truly, as I learnt about the benefits of putting your body through such a journey.

You might be sat there thinking how unhealthy this all sounds, and perhaps even that it seems rather dangerous. Well it can be dangerous if not prepared for, implemented or recovered from properly, so a trained nurse was on hand to oversee proceedings.

For me, as well as you I’m sure, this whole raw vegan lifestyle sounds crazy and a lifestyle that seems to deny too much gastric pleasure to commit to. I thought that to begin with, and to an extent still do, but the festival itself opened my eyes to other ways of living than our own. ‘Our’ being a westernised and highly commercialised lifestyle.

We all know that junk food isn’t healthy, and that we must try (very very hard) to eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. I’ve realised that this prescriptive way of thinking is only one way of thinking about it. Of course there are loads of diets and strategies out there, with the sole goal of helping people to lose weight. Surely these in themselves aren’t healthy? I’m sure plenty of people go into these diets knowing nothing about nutrition, putting their faith in some person who claims to be qualified to help them lose some pounds in an unsustainable way.

The people in the vegan community seem to know their nutrition better. Not in all cases of course, hence the festival talks and workshops on things such as fermented food and ensuring a proper diet. Within this small community, I found conflicting beliefs and ideas of what it meant to be a healthy vegan.

From committed vegans (who eat cooked food, not solely raw) to fruitarians, everyone has their own idea of what it means to be healthy. There’s sense in eating food grown in an organic way in an uncorrupted land, but it can be difficult to do back in a heavily urbanised western society.

Some of the ideas I’ve been exposed to, and have had time to ruminate on, have stuck. I’ve never been a fan of the very vocal vegans who preach and threaten to try and change peoples’ attitudes, but there might just be something in the principles and ideas I’ve learnt about.

My Diet

The way I coped with my 2-week diet-change consisted mainly of the following:

Breakfast – This meal for me consisted of at least 2 Kent mangoes (the best!) and bananas, with perhaps a dragon fruit (don’t eat too many, or you’ll have some bowel issues!) or another type of fruit thrown in. My favourites were the granadilla, passionfruit, although these took a long time to eat and probably burnt more calories than I gained from them. I was always starving in the mornings, and after my trek up from The Cabin to the dining room, I would be famished. I always had to photograph and film the food first, since that’s the most important aspect of marketing a raw vegan fruit festival. By the time I got down to eating, I’d be ready for a full English! Since this option was not available, then fruit it was.

Because I was usually thinking about the day of filming ahead, I was never too bothered by having only fruit for breakfast, but you do have to eat a lot more than you usually would in order to keep your calorie count up. I don’t think I ever ate enough really, but I was a busy bee! Particularly in the second week when I had more time to think about it, I started to struggle with dreams of my beloved marmite toast (it’s the best: if you disagree, we can’t be friends.)

Turns out I’m allergic to fresh pineapple

Lunch – I can’t actually remember what I would have for lunch, and didn’t note any of it down. This isn’t surprising as by this point I would be well and truly stuck into whatever the day was throwing at me. I have a feeling it was just a less fancy dinner – there were always plentiful bowls of lettuce, shredded or diced vegetables, usually sauces of some variety (although I stayed away from the very spicy stuff… didn’t need to contend with that as well!) and ground nuts and fresh DIY lime juice to tie all the flavours in together.

Dinner – The best and biggest meal of the day, most likely planned to mimic our westernised lifestyle of having a big dinner. For South Americans, lunch is the main meal of the day, allowing more time to digest and not having to do so before bed. The raw vegan gourmet chef did a fabulous job. My favourite food there was raw vegan garlic bread, (absolutely incredible) the make-your-own pizza, and the fake meat made from walnuts (YUM!). Generally I’d eat about 2 or 3 big bowls full, since you need to eat more than usual to extract enough nutrition and I would be very hungry again by this point! We generally had something for dessert too – vegan cinnamon rolls, energy balls or even vegan ice cream!

Snacks – When I’m busy I don’t tend to feel hunger, rather I just run out of energy (and turn into a monster). My friend Charlotte was good at keeping an eye on me, particularly in the beginning, and urging me to keep eating. Her advice was to just eat all the time! As the staff were always so busy this was necessary, but time consuming (and kind of boring!)

The snacks I tended to opt for were bananas, which were plentiful and readily available, or mangoes, but these are messier and take longer to eat. There was always food out in the dining room, so you could generally find me musing over fruit that I had no idea what to do with.

These included cherimoya (tastes exactly like the drumstick lollies you had when you were a kid), peanut butter fruit (self-explanatory), ice cream beans (self-explanatory again, and with the texture of a fibrous marshmallow) and once even the odd jackfruit (incredibly fibrous and actually caused me to gag because my body was like the hell is this?!) It didn’t have a bad flavour but apparently I need to ease into some things!

Drinking – If you take a moment to think about how exactly you get clean, fresh drinking water in the bonafide middle of nowhere, then you might be wondering how Terra Frutis managed it. Well funnily enough they had plumbing (don’t ask me about the wheres and the hows). The water from the taps would then be poured into ceramic filtering contraptions, that would purify the water. Perfect! There were also smoothies, juices and plentiful coconut water, but you’d have to be quick to grab a smoothie or juice! I can’t stand coconut water, so couldn’t partake in that.

And do you know what? I did feel better. It can’t have all been in my mind, since I was eating such a clean diet, free from pesticides and chemicals. (One issue of this was finding a small burrowing bug in a piece of watermelon and being highly shocked and concerned, because eww bugs.)

No bugs were harmed in the making of this photo

I lost weight quickly too. I feel it worth mentioning though, that I’ve never been a fan of losing weight too quickly, since it’s dangerous, but I felt like this was a healthier way to do it. Perhaps it wouldn’t be sustainable in the long run, but 2 weeks was enough for me. Of course I put it all back on relatively quickly when I was let loose back in the world of restaurants and FOOD! My travelling self managed to stay in shape for my journey, but I doubt it was to do with my diet hereafter!

* The things in the photo are ice cream bean seeds – see the middle of the main image at the top of this post for a gander at the flesh of the bean!

The Cabin

Now, let’s talk about The Cabin. I feel that it’s worth mentioning my stay here. I’ve touched on this briefly before, but let me tell you a little bit more about it.

Now, by no means am I a princess when it comes to roughing it. I can bivouac with the best of them if need be. After a childhood’s worth of trips to our beloved little Dartmoor hut/shack/shabby old village hall, and camping whenever wherever, I can deal with spiders and bugs with an attitude of don’t look too closely.

The cabin is in pretty good shape for an old rainforest building, (it was the first structure built at Terra Frutis, right by the “main road”) but it’s not exactly the secure, all-gaps-plugged housing you may have come to expect living in Babylon. (Which the full-timers at Terra Frutis dub the real world, thus making all visitors Babylonians.) There are gaps and it is open to the elements, but since Ecuador, as it’s name suggests, is on the equator there is no need to fear the elements. If it rains, it rains straight down.

The Cabin – I could film a great horror film here!

Thank goodness for the compost toilet down there, because there is no way I could have made it up the hill without incident in the morning! Fruit-poop, as we dubbed it, is pretty soft and when you gotta go, you gotta go! Plus it smells funny, kind of sweet. Speaking of toilet business, I discovered through the talks (not personally) that when you’re fasting you flush out the parasites that live in you and can see them in your waste. Some people found that remarkedly more fascinating than me clearly… I wasn’t too interested in checking that out!

I had been most worried about the toileting situation, but it turned out to be completely fine and surprisingly hygienic. Compost toilets are basically buckets with sawdust in; you do your business, then cover it with sawdust. Thank goodness I never had to empty them, which was to be one of my jobs originally. You just chuck them on the compost heaps and then use it all as fertiliser, like farmers using cow poop to nourish crops. Yum.

I didn’t actually mind staying in The Cabin – it was all part of the adventure – but what I did mind was the walk in the dark when I had to do it by myself. In the morning, when the sun was shining, all was well. Indeed, even when it was raining it was alright walking up to base camp. There were flowers to see, birds to hear and breakfast to get to (I was starving most mornings and the trek uphill seemed like a slog up a mountain for the most part).

Looking downhill after emerging from the trail to The Cabin. Main road is at the bottom

At night, in the dark, it is a terrifying prospect. Turns out all those years convincing myself that I’m not afraid of the dark came to nothing. I am, in fact, afraid of the dark. Most likely you have never known true pitch black, miles from the nearest town, void of light pollution. I know what it’s like. I experienced it truly for the first time on the Welsh Three Peaks challenge, climbing Cadair Idris at night. It was truly magical seeing the far-off town alight with the flickering beacons of tiny streetlamps. I felt like a moth drawn to a flame, though luckily I was with a group of bobbing headtorches to keep me sane.

Jungle pitch black is much louder than Welsh pitch black. That in itself is a comfort – the ever-present sound of the rainforest. You get used to it and it soon becomes a soothing presence, which can never be replicated by those Spotify playlists claiming calm rainforest sounds. Walking down the hill to an old, empty, and not at all secure cabin in the middle of the jungle is not my idea of fun. With nothing but my phone torchlight, which nocturnal creepy crawlies would charge towards, and the odd bug I had to avoid stepping on, my mind raced with the thoughts of every single creepy, spooky and downright terrifying thing I’d ever seen, read or heard of. Let me tell you now, it’s incredibly difficult for me to rationalise any of that when I’m all alone plunging headlong into wild territory.

An 8 or so minute walk down the driveway, and you come to the shortcut, which cuts off a corner and is easily identifiable. What is harder to spot is the trail afterwards, which heads off into jungle proper. It probably takes a couple of minutes at most to get to the cabin, but it feels like forever. That, coupled with the eerie glow of the cabin as your torchlight picks it out from the dense surrounding wilderness, and the awful feeling that you’re being followed (I never was, but it’s that pesky fear of the unknown) and it was all I could do to not give in to that fear and barrel along into the room I was sharing with Charlotte. I know it was all in my mind, because the door didn’t lock, and my mental self figured I was safe in there, even with one of the walls half open to the night. I’m happy to report I didn’t die, thus meaning that my mind was playing tricks on me. Next time I’m requesting the 5-star hotel and private pool. 😉

Well, that’s it for now – that turned out a longer post than I was anticipating! Hopefully it’s keeping you out of boredom and/or mischief for a short time during this global lockdown. Let me tell you, after these adventures, I’m struggling being inside all day!

I want to know if would you ever try a crazy diet or lifestyle change as an experiment? I’ve found myself much more willing and open to ideas, so maybe I’ll try some diet changes in the future to see how they affect me. Would you?

Next time it’s onto the festival proper and all the cool and crazy things myself and the attendees got up to. It’s going to be a good one!

Until next time,

From me to you,

Jenni

👣

Jenni in the Jungle

Welcome to the Jungle

Hello and welcome back to the next installment of my Ecuador adventures! Ecuador has seen its fair share of unrest, but depending on where you go, it may be one of the best countries for solo female travellers in South America. With a lot packed into one little country, including a plethora of environments and things to do, it truly is an adventurers’ paradise. Of course, with every South American country, you’ll need to keep your wits about you, especially in the big cities, but if you’re looking to get off the beaten path in South America, this is the place to go. I already can’t wait to head back!

My time living in the Amazon rainforest was something I will never forget. I hadn’t truly given it much thought (apart from the bucket toileting situation, which originally I was supposed to be emptying, but mercifully ended up being too busy to do, so other volunteers had to do it!) I also hadn’t done any preparation whatsoever for my 2 weeks of adopting a raw vegan diet. I have copious amounts of notes from my travel diary (both on my iPad and phone, whichever was to hand), so bear with me as I forage through them and try to sum up my experiences!

Upon arriving at the land of Terra Frutis, I dropped my copious amounts of luggage off at ‘The Cabin’, an ominously named structure located truly off the beaten track in the middle of the rainforest. This is where I would be staying with my friend, Charlotte, and another staff member. I then magically managed to hitch a ride up to the community area with some of the staff. Of all the times and places that Terra Frutis pick-up truck could have been driving, I was happy it appeared just as I emerged from the jungle.

The locked storage room where I kept my bags

First things first, after greeting my old school friend in the midst of her jungle home, we took a tour so I could see the main parts of the property. We discovered a snake in the swimming hole (no swimming for me then!), checked out the newly dug swimming pool (I can’t wait to see how that progresses!) and the bungalow buildings, where the full time members and visiting volunteers usually stay, but which had now been turned over to the paying guests. According to my notes we also had watermelon juice ‘at some point’, which I apparently found noteworthy.

View from the kitchen to the community centre

That first night after dinner was… interesting to say the least. I was by now worrying about the effects that eating purely vegan would have on my totally unprepared body (remember my McDonalds and Pad Thai previously?). I am happy to tell you that the evening I am describing was the only issue I had, which happened to be nothing more than a bit of, ahem, wind. Overall, I coped surprisingly well with the subsequent raw vegan cuisine, though I did actually get bored of all the eating I had to do to stay full and fit. I lost a lot of weight rather quickly, which also had to do with the active lifestyle I was participating in.

Clean Eating – the lime juice really brings out all the flavour

I stayed at Terra Frutis for two full weeks. It seems longer due to the amount of work I had to pack in, the newness of the experience and the major raging tech issues I stressed about for my entire stay there (and still am!)

But anyway, onwards and upwards!

Filming an Event Solo – A Summary of Technical Issues

The first few days consisted of me setting up and testing my kit, which takes longer than you probably expect it to, as with all filming tasks. I had a few issues working out the sound, since I am least experienced in this area, and m not really as interested in it as I am with the visual side of things.

What I’ve always said I love about filming is the problem-solving. I was wrong. What I actually love is the relief after you fix something. I’ve always preferred working in a filming team (although that can bring it’s own issues), and realised that when it’s just me trying to work something out, it can be frustrating and tiring, since all the pressure is solely on my shoulders.

By no means am I a well-seasoned event filmmaker. I had done some event filming previously at Greenwich during my 1^st year of university, using proper broadcast cameras and in a team of 3 people, one for each camera. I also edited it, which was super easy with the proper university equipment.

You would think that my rainforest shoot would be nice and easy. I had spent the best part of a year preparing (I’ve got articles coming about that), but it turns out an iPad is not conducive to smooth editing and subsequent file-sorting. WiFi connection in the rainforest is also not strong enough to support my huge files and 4K B-roll (extra shots), especially when the clouds roll in and it stops altogether!

B-roll: Timelapse of the sunset during dinner

My main issue was storage, something that I had planned for, but for which nothing went according to plan. It may be a rookie mistake to not have back-ups for back-ups, but for once I placed my faith too much on technology.

The iPad is not a machine built for proper filming. I bought it since the adobe programmes, which I pay a lot of money for, were available on it (silly me, thinking they’d be available on any tablet). The editing works well enough – a highly stripped-down version for a machine that doesn’t have the processing capabilities of a laptop – but the storage capacity was not enough. I clearly hadn’t realised just how much footage I would be shooting, how big the file sizes would be, and just how useless the Apple systems would be for storage. Every option I tried, I hit a dead end.

Reviewing the schedule – you can see my rig (fixed with gaffer tape because it broke) to the right, as well as my dry bag storage system. To the left of my camera bag is my battery grip

I always assumed that cloud storage systems would allow you to delete the files locally, but alas not. Trying to upload to the Terra Frutis cloud storage was painful and downright impossible, since the connection was too slow for my massive files and I had to babysit the iPad while it struggled on. No leaving it as an open tab, like on laptops, and carrying on with something else – oh no!

Eventually I left early to try and get a hard drive in Cuenca, but hard drives AREN’T COMPATIBLE WITH iPADS!!! Le sigh. Took me a week of technical Spanish explaining to work that out.

In the future I plan to purchase something like a LaCie hard drive, which is rugged, rainforest-proof and industry-approved. Back up systems, however, are expensive and these are no exception. With all the money I spent on my kit and saving for travelling, I overlooked this, since I thought the iPad would do the trick. Did it ever *rolls eyes heavenwards and emits a deep sigh* I am also planning on getting a lightweight laptop that I can take with me for editing purposes, since I plan to spend a career in the field (try and stop me!)

As for the actual filming itself, it was easy enough. I would set up my kit at the beginning of the day after breakfast. Preparing for each separate event meant setting up meant framing, focusing and sorting the sound (switching it on!). I had to babysit during the filming itself, to check on the sound, and because, due to some obscure EU import law, DSLRs are only permitted to film continuously for 30 minutes before they cut out. So every 30 minutes I had to press record again. *Sigh tres*

When I wasn’t babysitting, I was lurking around with my GoPro capturing B-roll, which is essentially just extra footage. I found it tricky to film non-stop throughout the day, as it meant I was always tired at the end of the day and didn’t have the time or energy to get to know the attendees of the festival. As a staff member (I had the t-shirt to prove it), and the fact that I was constantly busy, I felt cut off from the attendees. As time went on, I got to know the festival staff – permanent members living at Terra Frutis and Fruit Haven, and volunteers who had been living at Terra Frutis for some months before the festival. I always had the unpleasant feeling of lurking in the background however, and found that to begin with, some people were wary of the camera being there, and by extension, me.

Another major hurdle was that I couldn’t be my true self there. I was a fake vegan. These people were committed vegans and participants in the festival activities while I was only watching from the sidelines. It’s weird to feel you don’t belong and not a welcome feeling at that. I was always on edge, because I understand that people have strong feelings on this topic, which made me uncomfortable. I learnt a lot about a completely different way of life to the one I lead, and have definitely taken certain aspects on board (though they’re difficult to implement when you’re back living with your parents and broke beyond belief!)

These feelings combined to make me feel uncomfortable and cut off, particularly to begin with, until I began to feel more like a human, and less like an extension of my kit.

I did get to know people better by the end of my time there, this isn’t just one big moan, don’t worry! I simply wish to highlight the tricky parts as well as the good bits. The people I met there were beautiful souls, each and every one of them, and I do wish I had had the chance and the time to get to know them better. The worldwide vegan community is a relatively small one, and some people knew each other already from other vegan festivals. I highly respect the way of life these people have chosen to lead and getting to be a part of such a unique event was truly special. I think if it weren’t for my high stress levels most of the time due to the issues I’ve mentioned above, I would have been able to relax into the experience more.

It’s a lot to film an entire event non-stop and I learnt some useful lessons. It clarified for me, what I don’t want my career to be, while my subsequent Galapagos adventure clarified what I do want to do.

That’s it for now, getting the negatives out the way first! Next time I’ll be talking about how I coped with the raw vegan diet and a bit more about The Cabin!

See you next time!

From me to you,

Jenni

👣

Exotic Ecuador

The jungle is the furthest place from where I could be right now. As it turns out I would much rather be running about with a camera chasing butterflies and bugs than sifting through the MOUNTAINS of footage I have from my trip. I was not cut out to be an editor, anymore than I am cut out to be at all productive in a quarantine event.

But getting lost down the rabbit hole of footage from days gone by does at least mean that I want to share my adventures with you. I’m trying to edit a vlog-like slideshow of my photos. I took a lot more photos than videos, but I’ll know for next time that they’re more fun to edit.

Anywho, onwards and upwards. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover…

Getting to rainforest HQ was a MISSION and a half. Luckily, I decided to break up the journey because that first 4-hour bus journey in Ecuador nearly drove me insane… and the huge guy asleep on my shoulder for most of the journey nearly crushed me. Trust me, after 2 flights and navigating the world’s craziest bus station, it was the last thing I needed.

I began my journey of epic proportions late on a Friday evening. It was the 10^th January and I had at least a night and full day of travelling ahead of me. For my first solo trip, it seemed rather ambitious in hindsight, I wasn’t worried about returning to my beloved South American continent. I love a good journey. My childhood was punctuated by summer holidays crammed in the car and off to the continent on day long drives to warmer climes.

Why was I travelling to the other side of the world by myself? The short answer is to drag a ridiculous amount of kit to the rainforest to film. After that I planned to make the most of opportunity and manoeuvre it around various South American continents. Sounds like sense, right?

I left Heathrow that dark winter evening to fly for 10h 40m to Bogota, Colombia for a 3 hour layover at some ridiculous time in the morning (they’re 5 hours behind), and then on to another flight for a 2 hour nap southwards to Guayaquil, Ecuador.

We’ll come back to Guayaquil later, since I stayed a couple of nights there for Phase 2 of South America 2020: the Galapagos. After a long journey already, and arriving somepoint in the early morning, I had McDonalds for breakfast (if the vegans knew, they’d be in uproar, but it was nice to see a familiar fast food face). What hit me first was the heat: boof! Guayaquil, despite being situated on the coast, is humid. And it’s like that all the time.

It’s a nice enough international airport, but it’s got nothing on Heathrow!

There are ponds full of fish you can feed outside the international terminal building, but I headed straight past to the taxi rank. I’ve found that if you look and act confident enough, people will tend to leave you alone. If you’re focused on the task at hand, you’re not going to notice whether people stare at the foreigner or not (they usually do in the less touristy areas, but you get used to it)

Mission No. 1, should I choose to accept it, was to get to Cuenca (Ecuador, not Spain). Turns out it was to be harder than I expected…

Guayaquil bus station is not for the faint hearted… or the tired solo traveller. The Terminale Terrestre (as all bus stations in this part of the continent are called) is huge. Although I had experience of the little micro buses of Chile, those local bus stops on street corners were nothing compared to this monstrosity. Not only is the place a bus station it also appears to be a mall… with multiple levels. After a long-haul flight, carrying three heavy bags it was not a fun place to test out my then rather non-existent Spanish.

As I was to discover, all terminale terrestres follow the same basic structure: ticket offices for each individual bus company, the separate place where you pay the bus tax and then where you actually get on the buses. These are not all in the same place and may not even be in the same building (I’m looking at you Arequipa, but that’s a long way away at this point. Turns out you can get a hell of a lot done in 2 months. Quarantined me take note…)

But Guayaquil: picture chaos. Compared with our neat and ordered little (emphasis on little) island, South America by contrast is BIG and LARGE and HUGE, and therefore, a lot of things there are big, because they have the space to spare. Buses are the transporte du jour of any South American country and Guayaquil is a main city. Buses go anywhere and everywhere – there are even international buses that go to different countries. Long bus journeys are a given and the South American (SA) people are really good at them. I noted down in my digital diary that ‘people can sleep so quickly on the bus!’

When you enter the Guayaquil Terminale Terrestre from the packed taxi rank (where people ask you if you want a taxi even as you’re getting out of one), you enter a huge multi-story building. Armed with printed-out instructions of what I needed to do I went in to look for the ticket offices. Little did I realise that there would be over 100 separate ticket offices. I know, because they were numbered. I wandered down the length of the offices to stares, since I was the only westerner, or indeed foreigner in the entire building. People were calling out place names at me like I had a clue or would just decide that yes, in fact, I do want to go to that random place you’re yelling at me.

I went upstairs, but no luck. A nice security guard sent my bags and I back downstairs to begin the quest again. The bus company I needed wasn’t on any of the signs, and I was HOT. The humidity there is ridiculous, never mind all my cumbersome bags. When I had heaved and hefted them all up for the first time at Heathrow I wondered how I was going to get myself and all that baggage around. Lucky I’m a strong British woman and have my Potter genes and upbringing on my side!

Eventually I found the right office… right next to where I started, because of course. I bought my ticket, gave them my passport number (they all ask for it. You’d be screwed if you came in illegally) and managed to head off in the direction from whence I had previously wandered to my bus on the first floor. Here, you pay the bus tax at a turnstile before the physical bus stations. Bags go through on a conveyor belt next to you, so don’t worry I managed to fit through.

The Alianza ticket office. The only photo I have of the bus terminal, because it has the platform numbers on!

The journey was going to be about 4 hours, so I looked over the snack shops for sustenance, but at this point all I wanted was to get on an airconditioned bus and get going far far faaaar away. Before I got on, the driver loaded 2 of my 3 bags (camera with me thanking you) under the bus. I found my seat number (you are assigned a seat number, an asiento) and sank in for my long bus journey.

The journey is memorable for me due to the fact that this was my first long bus ride, my first view of Ecuador and for the appearance of my 1^st Bad Bus Movie. Bus journeys are so long here that obviously the people need entertainment. This is provided courtesy of Bad Movies. My first bad movie experience is hands down the best, simply because I had no clue what was going on, but after everything, I have dubbed Commando 2 the best Bad Movie I had ever seen due to its ridiculousness.

Stand outs include the ‘Commando song’ that played when the main guy had a fight (every 2.5 seconds), the gorgeous woman who turned out to be the villain but damn did she have the best of the wardrobe budget, and the borderline psychopathic police lady who was also ridiculously school-girlish and innocent in every aspect other than killing. Because nothing screams sexy more than a crazy innocent psychopath. Weird.

Eventually we arrived at Cuenca, where I exited the bus more confused than when I entered. Was I entertained? The jury is still out. It was still light when I got to Cuenca, thankfully. I was desperate to get off the bus and away from the man who had slept on me for nearly the entire journey. I felt like I was going mad.

I took a taxi to Yakumama hostel, which was hands down one of the coolest places I stayed. Bloody knackered as I was, I ventured out for Thai food (I know, I know, no South American cuisine for me yet) and then walked around with my GoPro as it was getting dark. I liked what I saw: it was a colonial town through and through. Much more European than anything I’d encountered before in South America. I loved it (still do!) and I can’t wait to head back there.

Sadly, I was off again the next morning, all too soon, to continue my trip to the rainforest proper. As it was a Sunday, which I hadn’t realised or planned for, everything was closed. But it’s not a true trip, and you’re not really a traveller unless things go ‘wrong’. One of my fellow travellers shared some bread with me while extolling the virtue of my eyes and my ‘vibe’. My vibe was still pretty tired so I’m not sure what he meant!

My bus was at 10am, so I headed back to the bus station, my hostel having called me a taxi. I was quickly discovering that not many people spoke English here, though as Cuenca has a large number of American ex-pats I discovered central Cuenca was pretty easy. I ended up having more success finding the ticket office this time and getting on the right bus. I knew what to expect and the Terminale Terrestre is so much smaller. Most people out there are happy to help, it’s just the trying to understand them which can be an issue.

The bus tax here was 1 dime, which was detailed on my travel instructions. You pay at a machine located before the turnstile. Same deal with the turnstile as at Guayaquil.

This bus journey went much better than the last, since I was well rested and not so desperate to LEAVE. Another 4ish hours of bus-time, except this time we headed upwards and over the Andes. Mountain roads in South America are questionable when compared with the safety-first principles opted for by the Europeans. Thankfully it was very misty while we travelled over the highest and most precipitous part of the route, since there were no barriers of any kind to keep us from certain death, just a void of cloud. A single-lane way, with various passing places was rather hair-raising especially when you’re on a big bus. It’s one of those times when you have no choice but to put your life and all of your faith in the hands of the drivers.

I surprised myself in that I wasn’t overly concerned, since I reasoned that the two drivers weren’t likely to want to plunge a full bus off a mountain, themselves included. There are generally 2 bus drivers on routes, so they can switch and help with pick-ups along the route.

Today’s Bad Bus Movie also happened to be grotesque. Nicholas Cage and John Travolta physically swap their faces. Weirdness ensues. It’s called Face/Off, and I cannot for the life of me understand how this became a Hollywood movie with 2 big names attached. Watching films in another language is a polarizing experience, since you really have to pay attention to the action of the story without the benefit of language to bulk out the backstory. I can only imagine what state the writer was in when he (definitely a ‘he’) dreamt this up. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in that pitch meeting too.

Arriving at Gualaquiza is a feeling of arriving truly in the middle of nowhere. It’s a provincial backwater town located in the Morona-Santiago Province, close to the border with Peru. I was glad to see the AFF sign and the volunteers when I got off. I wasn’t the only white person on the bus and I figured there was only one reason why foreigners were heading into the provincial backwaters: the 2^nd Amazon Fruit Festival.

We took a taxi along the bumpiest road for the 40-minute ride to the Terra Frutis* site (see below). Quite a journey, and a rather apt, if extreme, introduction to the roads of South America. Arriving at Terra Frutis was a relief after all my travelling, and it was nice to know that I would be based here for a good while before I had to attempt the reverse journey again.

My time in the rainforest was to be, above all else, a learning curve and a lot of work for me. I am not a vegan, not even a vegetarian. I try to eat less meat, but this festival was to take my eating habits to the extreme. How did I deal with it? Let’s find out…

View across the valley from the main community hub

*A note on Terra Frutis and the Amazon Fruit Festival:

Terra Frutis is the name of a parcel of land in south-east Ecuador used for the purpose of intentional homesteading for those following a committed vegan way of life. In 2020, the Amazon Fruit Festival was the second annual festival the site held, giving committed vegans the chance to experience homegrown life on a homesteading project.

The Fruit Haven projects are parcels of land nearby where people can purchase homesteading lots, based on a group buy scheme.

For more info:

Terra Frutis – https://terrafrutis.com/

Amazon Fruit Festival (featuring my photos!) – https://www.amazonfruitfestival.com/

Fruit Haven – https://www.fruithavenecovillage.com/

Group Land Buy Scheme – https://www.fruithavenecovillage.com/group-land-buys

It sounds idyllic, but it’s worth noting that even so far in the middle of nowhere, there is a gold mining enterprise across the river at Terra Frutis. It really showed me just how far industry has spread, to some random middle-of-nowhere place in the Amazon. I know we hear about it, but it’s surreal to experience it in person.

On the Road Again

I’m going on an adventure!

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.

And so it begins. The story starts. An epic adventure to lands unknown.

This story does not begin with me, but with my friend Charlotte. You see, she moved to Ecuador about 2 years ago. She’s the reason I’m here now, writing (typing?) to you from under the stars in the Southern Hemisphere. Lounging in a hammock in the beautiful community centre at Terra Frutis. Yes I’m getting bitten, but the price of paradise has never been easy.

Cast your memory back to the distant lands of March 2019, misty for me as I’m sure it is for you. That was when I set my sights, and bought a one way ticket to Ecuador. Game on.

The next 9 or so months were spent in a constant mode of working hard and saving up. Soon my trip was beginning to look a little different… and a lot longer.

As countries were added to my list, the harder I worked. After all, since the reason I was heading out there was to film the Amazon Fruit Festival at Terra Frutis in Ecuador, I was having to invest in some serious kit.

Lenses were bought, camera packs were invested in, rigs, sound kit, the latest GoPro, iPad for editing – the lot. To be a wandering filmmaker is an expensive undertaking, particularly when you’re also saving for the travelling itself!
I’m thinking of writing a more in-depth blog about the kit I used, for those of you who are interested, and to help other roaming adventurers to make smart choices.

Well my hard work paid off, because I’m here! The festival is just about to start, and I’m finally feeling ready for it after all the pre-production and testing I’ve done. I’m just waiting on one part to be delivered so I can hook the receiver for the microphone to the sound system. Getting to town, Gualaquiza, is a trek and I’m glad someone can do that for me!

Getting to Gualaquiza from the UK was a mission in itself as well. Over 24 hours travelling (I haven’t been able to bring myself to count them properly!) By plane, bus, taxi and my own exhaustive efforts carrying my vast amounts of kit, and a stopover at gorgeous Cuenca I made it!

That’s it for now. Come back and visit soon to learn more about my journey!

From me to you, adios amigos! 👣