Trees as far as you can see in every direction! Near Tena, Oriente National Park, 11 hours by bus from Quito

Rivers are the main form of transport through the jungle as the vegetation is too thick and fast growing to build roads. 

Rivers provide the most efficient means of transport in the rainforest. Trading posts often develop where goods can be exchanged for tools. Medicinal plants or cash crops like cocoa (chocolate) can be exchanged for metal saws. 

Sometimes the roads you want to use are still under construction. The road to Tena.

Anti-narcotics police very nervous about the delay, perhaps they are moving a precious cargo?

Most settlements are made up of extended families, and houses go through phases of development. Volleyball is very popular in Ecuador, surprising when you stand next to a local as they are typically 4 - 5 feet tall. 

Trees which have a value, or of use, are left within the village. Look carefully at the banana tree, what colour is the single flower below the bunch of bananas? 

Travel by foot in the primary jungle can be very slow with many obstacles. Half a kilometre per hour is not unusual. How far do you normally walk in one hour?

"Dragons Blood". The sap from this tree flows crimson red and has been used as treatment for one type of cancer. It is also very effective when swallowed as a treatment for diarrhoea. If the sap is rubbed on the skin it changed colour and can be used to stop bleeding. 

This leaf is very toxic. Most often it is used for fishing. A rock dam is built across a stream or river, the leaves are crushed and dropped into the water and the fish suffer toxic shock and float to the surface. 

Buttress roots on a liane (vine) - this vine grows backwards. It starts life in the canopy after its seeds are deposited there by birds. The vine then grows down to the forest floor where it then re-roots. Once this has happened it begins to grow vertically again. It does this as it cannot compete for the light as well as other species of tree. 

What do you think this is? I think you like it!

Cocoa (chocolate) is found inside the husk. The beans are covered in a milky latex which tastes of pure chocolate. The beans are refined and turned into powder for export. Cocoa is an important cash crop. 

A panama palm used to make the famous hat. Sold in Ecuador for $12, sold in the USA for $240. What is fair trade and how would this help communities living in the jungle?

Shifting cultivation can only succeed where the population living in the jungle does not exceed the carrying capacity of the land. If the jungle cannot regrow quickly enough then soil erosion takes place. 

Once the canopy of trees has been removed then "leaching" can take place. This is where the tropical rain infiltrates the soil and soluble plant nutrients are washed out into the rivers and streams, slowing down the regeneration of the rainforest.