Eduador: Flooding in the Rainforest

It has been a little while, and I'm looking forward to sharing some thoughts I've had in the past couple of weeks. 

One of the most incredible things I've seen in a while has been a video the Davalos' found and shared in their latest e-mail from Ecuador. 

While in the Jungle myself, I was mesmerized by the incredible Rio Napa at the Port of Misuahualli, Ecuador.  One day we took canoe rides down the river to see some of the river towns.  The water was nice.  It was smooth sailing.  On our way in at the end of the day, a rain storm was brewing and the sky was getting dark.  This is no surprise in the Rainforest, of course. 

A steady rain started about the time we tethered the canoes, and we climbed up the stairs from the beach to the river walkway (about 15 feet of steps), and walked back to our hotel, which was about 3 blocks from the river walkway.  We had dinner that night, I laid in a hammock under the tin roof and watched the rain and the stars behind them.  Another guy on our team was strumming on a guitar and it was probably one of the most memorable times I've had in a foreign country. 

We woke up the next morning, and there had been a steady rain all night long.  A walk down to the river showed that there was no more beach.  The stairs we had climbed up the day before were submerged.  The river had risen about 15 feet overnight.

How would you have felt?  Another 12 hours of solid rain, and the whole port would have had to find higher ground. It was quite humbling and awesome at the same time. 

Here are some notable times in the video below:

At 1:50, you will see a line of street lights.  These lights lined the river walkway.  As you can tell, the river has risen higher than it did for us when we were there.

At 3:30, you will see a pan down a street.  I am not sure, but this might have been the street our hotel was on.  The hotel was right across from a large open soccer/recreation stadium, which I believe might be on the right hand side of the screen.

At 5:50, this is the type of steady rain we had all night long when I was there.  Imagine that on a hard tin roof with no insulation.  Talk about a noisy night!  Still, I slept the best that night than I had in a long time!

Enjoy!