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We finally made it to the Amazon jungle, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth! After a long 8 hour bus ride from Quito (we were told it would only be 6, but apparently it takes longer if you leave from the North Terminal like we did) we arrived in Lago Agrio, the jumping off point for trips into the Cuyabeno Reserve. We were told to meet at a certain hotel and we were given a small map of Lago Agrio with 6 streets on it, so we figured it was a small town and finding the hotel would be easy. That was hog wash. We found another Gringo couple standing near the bus station looking just as confused as we were so we joined up with them and set out to find this place together. After more than 30 minutes of walking and stopping to ask directions a few times I finally spotted the meeting place. We knew we were in the right place when we saw that almost every table was filled with Gringos. We had vouchers for breakfast so we sat down with our new American friends, Eric and Aleah, and discovered that they were going to the same lodge that we were, the Samona Lodge. There are probably about 10 lodge options in Cuyabeno but Samona lodge is the cheapest. After hanging out for a couple hours in Lago Agrio, one of our guides from the lodge finally came for us at 9:30. We found out it was only the 4 of us going to Samona Lodge, while there were bus loads full of people for some of the other lodges. That suited us all just fine.
It was a 2 hour ride to the park entrance, El Puente, at which point we transferred to a motor canoe to take us the rest of the way to the lodge. The ride in the canoe was almost 2 hours and it poured rain almost the whole time. It was still fun to be on the boat on the small Rio Cuyabeno and soak in the scenery around us, but we didn't see much in the way of animals because of all the rain. At least we were given rain ponchos to keep us relatively dry, though we soon realized that we wouldn't really be dry for the next 5 days. We arrived to the lodge at 1:30pm, just in time for lunch. There were already 5 other people there, though it was their final day in the jungle. For a brief minute we were foolish enough to think that after the following day the 4 of us would have the place all to ourselves, though that dream was quickly squashed the next day when we were told 4 more people were to come. Lunch was really good and consisted of 3 courses, which we found out was the norm for all the meals. The vegetarian food was really good, contrary to what some crazy person had written on trip advisor. The other group was really cool and we found out they had seen a lot of animals, which we were hoping for. Our guide Clyde was really cool as well. He's a native to the Ecuadorian Amazon so his native tongue is Kichwa (similar to Peru's Quechua but with a different dialect), but he also speaks Spanish, English and French fluently. He apparently studied at a culinary school in France for 5 years, which is where he learned the language.
After lunch we were taken to our rooms, which were cozy and simple; each had a private bathroom and each bed had a mosquito net so we wouldn't wake up with new friends crawling on us in the middle of the night. I had been told by someone in the other group that they had woken up with a pocket monkey on their mosquito net, so from that moment on I was obsessed with seeing one. A pocket monkey is the world's smallest monkey at less than a foot long including the tail. Tiny things that cute shouldn't even be allowed to exist because people like me begin to obsess over them. There were no critters in our room when we put our things in there; the cockroaches, tarantulas and giant ants would visit later. That afternoon we had free time until 4:30 so we hung out on the dock and swam in the river a bit, the same area where they had just seen a caiman crocodile hanging out a day or 2 earlier. The water was warm and refreshing and that afternoon was the first of many times I would swim in caiman, anaconda and piranha infested waters. At 4:30 we all climbed into the motor canoe and set out for Laguna Grande, the large lake near the lodge where we would swim some more, have a beer or 2 and enjoy the sunset. I had a large grasshopper friend that climbed onto my shirt on the dock and he stayed with me on my shoulder throughout the entire night, welcome to the jungle. The sunset on the lake was picturesque with many different shades of pink and orange, and the reflection of the trees on the water completed the feeling of being inside a postcard. None of the pictures I took could do the scenery justice. It was such an incredible feeling to be riding in a canoe and swimming in a lake in the Amazon jungle. Once it got dark we headed back to camp, all the while looking for caimans who like to lurk in the branches near the river banks. Clyde had a flashlight that he would shine along the edges of the river and it was really easy to spot the gleaming eyes of the crocodiles in the light. We saw one or 2, which was cool, and once we spotted them our driver would kill the motor and we would drift closer to see them a bit better until they disappeared under the surface. The stars that night were incredible, riding on the river at night was quite an experience. The next 3 afternoons were all very similar to that first day; we always had a break after lunch until 4:30, when we would load into the canoe and do a sunset swim in Laguna Grande, always looking for caimans on the way home.
On our second day we did a morning nature walk through the jungle. There was a group of 4 do to arrive that afternoon, so it was just the 4 of us for the morning walk, which was great. Our guide didn't talk a whole lot about any of the plants during that first walk, which would have been nice, but it was still incredible to be trekking through the rainforest. There was a very narrow path that wasn't very well defined and there were tons of slippery tree roots to climb over and vines hanging down to avoid, all of which allowed us to truly experience the jungle. We didn't see many large animals during the walk, though we heard them, but we did see many large spider webs and beautiful butterflies. All in all it was pretty cool. Later that day the new group showed up and they were pretty much the coolest people you will ever meet. There was a hilarious couple from Barcelona, Juan and Katie, though Katie is actually British so Juan speaks excellent English with a perfect British accent. It's awesome. There was also a father/son duo from Belgium, Bernie and Colin, and they were the sweetest people. Everyone was really fun to hang out with so we rather enjoyed meal times, and there was always someone interesting to sit next to and converse with during the canoe rides. One day the 8 of us took a canoe ride up the river, and then we got to paddle a smaller canoe back to the lodge. This canoe didn't have a motor so it was a much quieter ride, and we finally got to see some monkeys! They were large and black and looked a bit like spider monkeys with a scruffier face, and they are called saki monkeys. We were very excited because it was the first time the original 4 of us got to see some large animals, even though we had already been in the jungle for a few days.
On our 3rd day we had 5 more people join our group. They were all nice but we didn't click with them as much and the group size was just too big with 13 people. 2 of the newbies were an older French couple who didn't speak any English or Spanish, but luckily they had Colin and Bernie to converse with, seeing as how they speak French in Belgium as well. That night after our usual swim in the lake we did a night walk through the forest, which was both fun and a bit creepy. We saw a tiny adorable little snake that was probably only half a meter long and as thin as a pencil, so that was awesome because it was our first snake. Clyde also caught a scorpion spider so we each got the chance to put it on our face. Even though he was relatively harmless I think I was still shaking a bit. It's nerve wracking to have a giant spider on your face!
The next day we got to go to a local village and learn how to make Cassava bread, which is a thin crepe-like bread made solely from yucca root. They don't add salt or anything else to it so it was a bit plain but I thought it was pretty tasty. It was fun to participate in the entire process, from pulling the yucca out of the ground to actually making the bread over the fire. It was very interesting to visit a small village in the middle of the jungle and see that they were all wearing jeans and cute shirts and eating potato chips, not exactly the uncontacted tribe you might expect to live in the middle of the Amazon. We were supposed to visit the village Shaman that afternoon but he apparently had an emergency so he had to go to the hospital with a pregnant woman who was experiencing complications with the birth. Obviously that is a more important situation than entertaining a bunch of tourists, so instead of seeing the Shaman we played a friendly game of fútbol with some of the locals. The teams were the tourists (plus Clyde and Miguel, our boat driver) against the locals. It lasted an hour and a half, far longer than we anticipated, and we actually held our own against the Ecuadorian team. The final score turned out to be 6-5, we lost, but it was really close. Lauren and I were the only girls that played for our team and it was really funny because all the guys were super impressed with our mad skills. They apparently expected girls to be useless on the soccer field, so the strikers were quite surprised that they encountered a great deal of difficulty breaking through Lauren's defense and scoring on me in the goal. The look on their faces when we did well was priceless, and every time one of us kicked the ball up the field or moved the ball easily around one of the opposing players, the Ecuadorian men on the sidelines would laugh and laugh at their fellow countrymen. Afterwards we got quite a few compliments from the guys, and one striker seemed to have taken a liking to Lauren. He asked for pictures with both of us, it was really funny. At the end of the day I think we all preferred to play soccer instead of visiting the (corny) shaman anyway; the day was definitely not wasted.
We were supposed to leave the next morning after an early morning canoe ride to look for birds but we awoke to a torrent of rain. Because it was raining the bird watching excursion was cancelled, so collectively the 4 of us decided that we did not want to leave on the same sour note on which we had arrived: in the pouring rain. We all decided to stay an extra day and do the activities planned, which included visiting 2 lakes we hadn't seen and going on another walk in the forest. It only cost $40 per person to stay another day, bringing the total amount to $300 for 6 days, exactly what I had planned on spending in the first place. After all, we were in excellent company in the middle of the jungle, I couldn't bear the thought of leaving so soon. It stopped raining by mid morning and turned out to be a beautiful day. When we went out on the canoe we saw squirrel monkeys for the first time, so we got to stay and observe them for awhile. They are so freaking cute! We went on another hike through the forest, where our guide talked a bit more about all the plants and we saw some crazy spiders and the biggest ants I've ever seen. They are called Bullet Ants and are probably bigger than my pinkie nail; apparently a bite from one of these guys is one of the most painful bites or stings you will ever experience. One bite can bring on a fever that lasts for days, and it takes only about 8 or 10 bites at one time to kill a human. These ants are no joke; needless to say we all kept our distance.
I'm so glad we all decided to stay another day, it was beautiful and sunny and definitely worth the extra bit of time and money. After an early morning boat ride the next morning to look for birds (we didn't see too many but that's ok) we all packed our things and headed out in the motor canoe, all 13 of us. My time in the jungle was wonderful, and being surrounded by such funny and positive people greatly enhanced the experience. I think I will always remember my early mornings spent on the dock, watching intently for the monkeys and dolphins that never showed themselves and enjoying the sounds of the 10 or so different species of birds flying over the river. I will miss the beautiful colors of the sunset over the lake, the reflection of the trees on the murky slow moving river and the feel of the warm Amazonian water. Most of all I think I will miss the new friends that were made there, though I know one day our paths may cross again (when I go to visit them in their various home countries hehe). Cuyabeno was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to visit the jungle in all the remaining Amazonian countries in the future!
Here is a list of all the animals we saw during our 6 days in the jungle (species names not necessarily included):
- giant colorfully patterned lizard (about a foot long)
- dolphin (I caught a glimpse of it's back as he swam by the lodge, don't know if it was a pink or gray one)
- birds: black cara cara, stinking turkey, swallow, vulture, heron, kingfisher, yellow-rumped casike, owl, snakebird, blue and yellow macaw, toucan, black Annie, red-capped cardinal, and probably at least 5 more that I never caught the name of
- caiman crocodiles
- tiny little brown bats
- frogs
- tarantulas (one we named Vlad that hung out in the dining room)
- insects: butterflies of all shapes and sizes (at least 7 species), moths (all shapes and sizes), bees (possibly the biggest I've ever seen), wasps, bullet ants, at least 3 other species of ants that weren't that much smaller, cockroaches (disgusting little things, they ate my chapstick), grasshoppers (green ones and brown ones), and probably a good deal that I'm forgetting about
- sloth (he was probably my favorite to see)
- huge crab
- Saki monkeys
- squirrel monkeys
- pocket monkeys
- scorpion spider
- tiny green and yellow patterned snake (non venemous)
- fish (a few different species, didn't see any piranhas up close)
- comments
Aunt Pat Amazing experiences! Your dad said a while ago you're out of the Amazon now. Hope you are well. Your energy and spirit are so impressive. Hope to see you when you get back. Love, Aunt Pat