From urban to real jungle

Ok, we heard about loads of petty thefts here in Quito and some people we spoke to even got robbed with knifes. We were quite cautious especially when it got dark, but we really didn't expect to get robbed at 10pm only 1 street away from all restaurants and bars and just about 50m from our hostel... 3 guys came towards us and suddenly two of them hold me and tried to get my wallet and one of them tried to rob Franziska. I shouted twice towards the nearby street, but nobody reacted. Fortunately they only stole my wallet (with 2$ and my cards in it) and Franziska was able to successfully hold back her assaulter. Fortunately for us, because she had all the money and even the passport on her :) A somehow very frightening experience which stayed in our mind for days after...

We were glad to drive away from Quito towards the south to Tena, the heart of the Amazon, as they call it here. A cute little city and a gateway to the surrounding jungle. We booked a tour for 3 days and slept in the middle of the Amazonas in Cabanas (little wooden houses), went for jungle trips, lay at the nearby riverbank and got in contact with the local community of Quechua. We also tried a shaman cleaning ritual where we drank some hallucinogen 'drugs' made out of jungle plants - a very interesting experience :) !

After this jungle-trip, our five weeks in Ecuador already came to an end and me and Franziska go separate ways for a bit more than a month :( . She is now already in San Franzisco where she's doing her Assistant Teachership and I arrived in Nadi on Fidji where I'm most probably going on a island-hopping-trip starting tomorrow...