The Amazon Jungle

The sleeping giant awoke. For over eighty years things had been quiet and the sleepy village of Baños had continued undisturbed. Baños, meaning baths in Spanish, is nestled is a picturesque location on the descent from the highlands of Ecuador to the jungle in the east of the country. The village gets its name from a number of naturally hot water springs which have been captured to create hot baths in which to relax. But in 1999, on the upper slopes of Volcán Tungurahua, things were far from quiet and sleepy. So much so that 25,000 people were evacuated from the area. It seemed the giant volcano, at 16,479’ (5023m), was living up to its Quichua name – ‘throat of fire’. Amazingly, Volcán Tungurahua has been continually active from that time and continues to be so today, banks of ash and steam clouds being forced up and spewed into the atmosphere.

Baños is like a gateway to the lower and more tropical area of Ecuador that we visited next. It was nice to descend from the air thinned 10000’ to something more sensible, like 3000’. It was certainly a lot warmer – and wetter. The bus journey from Quito was just over five hours with stunning views across the jungle, that would be the Amazon jungle, as we descended past Baños and through a number of very small villages, some no bigger than a few rickety looking houses. Plunging waterfalls cascade down the side of the volcanoes and high ground, landslides occasionally meet the tarmac, as the road snakes its way along the Puyo River. Our final destination was a town called Shell.

You might think this sounds a very non-Ecuadorian name for a town. And you would be right. The town gets its name from the Royal Dutch Shell Company, who in 1937 we carrying out investigative works prospecting for oil. The then village of Shell comprised a number of shacks and a servicing airstrip. However, work in the region did not last that long, not necessarily because of the lack of oil, but because of the concerns for safety. The Indians of the jungle were known to be hostile to any outsiders – this was evidenced by a number of employees being killed. This was clearly a dangerous area to be. So in 1948 Shell, the company, left the area.


Around the next year, an organisation called Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) occupied Shell. MAF are a Christian organisation who seek to care for people both physically and spiritually, in areas of great human need and where being able to fly acts as a lifeline. In the remote jungles of Ecuador, if you are bitten by snake, MAF might just be your only chance of survival.


But being in Shell was quite an emotional experience too. And here is the story why.
In January 1956, one of the pilots for MAF, Nate Saint, who flew a Piper like the one shown in the photograph (located in the centre of Shell), together with four other men were speared to death by the feared Waorani tribe. The men had spent some months trying to initiate contact with these people who lived deep within the jungle, and were keen to share the good news of the Gospel with these tribes people. The news of the deaths of the five men made worldwide headlines – it all seemed to be for nothing. Yet what the men never knew was that through their deaths a door of opportunity opened for a sister of Nate Saint, and the wife of Jim Elliot (one of the other men killed) to return to the Waorani tribe and to share the Gospel. And this in turn, had dramatic results. Increasingly, the Waorani people had become embittered with revenge killings. Anger, immense anger at that it seems, was enough to justify killing someone. Virtually everyone in this tribe knew a member of their close family who had been murdered. In fact you were old aged if you made it to your thirties. The cycle of killing had become worse and worse to such an extent that the tribe was in jeopardy of simply destroying itself. It was around this very time that the five men were speared to death as they sought to share the Gospel – and yet what is most wonderful and amazing is that the very people who acted in this way have been utterly transformed by God’s grace. The killings have ceased and the tribe now wants to ‘walk God’s trail’. The very men who killed have become leaders in the church in the jungle and deep and lasting friendships have been forged between those who once killed and the families of those who were killed. And here we were in Shell, at the very house where these men left, never to return. It is a truly amazing story of God’s rich mercy, forgiveness and grace which overflowed from the families left behind and brought about a wonderful transformation. A quote from Jim Elliot, for me, summarises so much of what these men stood for:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

I was quite excited to have a look at some of the aircraft MAF has. Although we didn’t quite have a chance to fly over the jungle, we were gives a tour around the planes. How the pilots manage to land these things on remote jungle airstrips barely wide enough for the aircraft is beyond me. You must need some amount of craziness!!

Shell is much bigger today, with a whole town built to the one side of the airstrip, but it is still relatively small. Even so, the very real everyday needs of people are very apparent. We were privileged to help at an orphanage for a day, seeing children with physical and mental disabilities being shown care and love. The little girl here is called Grace. The older children have their own little classrooms whilst the younger babies and toddlers are cared for by other volunteers. Some of these children come from families where the parents are still alive but at the current time were unable to cope with the child. So with the possibility that these children may return to their families at a later date, things in the orphanage are kept as simple as possible – which can be a shock. But that is how people live.

One of the days we went into the jungle in an area called Hola Vida (literally being translated Hello Life). We walked in to see a waterfall and plunge pool where you can go swimming. On the way in we spotted leaf cutter ants (some up to an inch or so in length), tarantulas (look for the spot in the photo!) and even walking trees. The waterfall itself was very refreshing after the muggy walk in, the only downside being I felt I needed to look over my shoulder the whole time just in case some other animal decided to join me swimming around the plunge pool. Thankfully, I didn’t look that interesting to eat, except maybe to a few bugs. The force of the water falling from 80’ or so onto your back as you swim underneath the falls was pretty impressive, a little too strong for that massaging feel – unless of course you can hold your breathe for a few minutes and enjoy the experience 3’ underwater.
One of the best views we had of the jungle was from a balcony near Pomona where you can see the confluence of the Pastaza and Puyo Rivers. When we looked across these rivers there were many sand and gravel banks, clearly the river was in low flow. But every 10 years or so there are massive storms dumping rain on the hills, causing these rivers to swell to destructive proportions. You wouldn’t want to be around the river then!
From here the rivers flow on in a generally eastward direction, joining the Amazon on its major trek across this amazing continent.


We really enjoyed the variety and the beauty of Ecuador. It is an amazing country. To all those who made our time there so special we’d like to say ‘muchas gracias!’