| Andes to Amazon | |||
| Ibike Ecuador | |||
| Dispatch 9 - Amazon | |||
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Looking at a contour map you would think that it is flat between along the highway to the south of Puyo. The road follows a ridge that is above 1000 meters between the Rio Pastaza drainage and the Rio Bobonaza drainage. The ridge never gets above 1100 meters. The road drops down to 900 meters to cross a tributary of the Rio Pastaza and then never gets back above 950 meters. But the road is not flat. It undulates through forests and past farms and villages. By and large the area is sparsely populated. At one point the road nears the edge of the ridge and you can look down in to the Amazon basin. There is literally forest for as far as the eye can see. |
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Towns straddle the highway infrequently. The buildings tend to be a mix of housing, retail, other commercial activities and government offices. There is almost always a square / park, with a church along one side of it. This set of photos comes from La Esperanza, about 20 kilometers south of Puyo. |
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The housing along the road ranges from large, to very modest. It is hard to know how many people might be residing at a house, but they look to be intact, maintained and sturdy enough to protect people from the elements. |
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  In
additional to lots of small farms, with a variety of crops, there are a few
enterprises with modest infrastructure like fish farming ponds (left), sugar
cane mills (right) and lumber mills (far right). |
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There is remarkably little bird or wildlife along the road. There is the occasional rodent-type animal that streaks across the road, but any mammals keep themselves well hidden. The most common bird, though still rare, is vultures. Occasionally they can be seen congregating in trees (left) or on the ground (right). |
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To Paloma / Otto
To Canelos
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