January 8th-9th 2015
I wake up with what feels like food poisoning around 6 am and spend the net two hours on or near the toilet. I won’t torture you with more details than that, but my mindset has quickly gone from eager anticipation to dread at the idea of going to the jungle feeling like this.
I force myself to pack and leave the room for my 830 pick up but, as is often the case things are running behind. I buy some gum as a mercy for my fellow passengers and lots of water before spending the rest of the hour practicing my Spanish with the hotel receptionist.
Eventually I head outside and meet some of the other tourists headed to various lodges in Cuyabeno National Park, Ecuador’s northern Amazon destination. Slowly people come to pick us up and we’re hurried onto buses and head out to the airport to pick up the next round of passengers. I also meet most of the rest of my 6 person group at my lodge. There’s Matt a young man from Australia, Amber a lawyer from London, and Manon, a lovely young woman from France.
Another half an hour or so later we’re heading off again, the bus winding up through jungle covered hills towards our destination. I’m huddled over an open window trying very hard not to throw up, and finally manage to fall asleep to avoid it.
I wake up with us pulling up to a small wooden hut beside a river. There we are separated into our lodge groups when I meet Alan and Abi a lovely couple from Argentina before we meet our guide Willian, and climb on board a surprisingly sturdy and comfortable motorized Canoe to get further into the amazon.
All around us electric blue butter flies flutter around the brown river surrounded by thick green canopies. We spot a few birds right away but then continue along the river almost a full hour before anything remarkable is scene.
Suddenly the Canoe is slowing down, the motor cut off and our guide pointing up high into the trees. Fittingly enough the first thing of note we see is a pair of Guacamayo’s (Blue and Yellow Macaws for those who don’t speak english) The name of my lodge. The birds are magnificent and I even manage to snag some photos of one of them.
After a while we continue on our way, my eyes refocused on searching for wildlife. some dark shapes catch my eyes and I point them out, they end up being a much rarer find for Cuyabeno, 2 scarlet Macaws, and though they are far away I get a few photos before they fly off, our guide annoyed as he couldn’t get a picture in time.
We continue along and spot a few aquatic birds and a few shy turtles which dive under before any good photo can be captured. Then we encounter the stinky turkeys, a vegetarian bird famous for their bad smell, though i quite enjoy their games in the trees over the river.
About two hours after we climbed in we’ve arrived at our home for the next 4 days, Guacomayo Lodge (240-260 USD 4 days 3 nights). The collection of wooden huts nestled in the jungle complete with a hammock area, dining room, and bird watching tower is very charming, even despite the sudden wave of nausea that overwhelms me and drags me to the bathroom for a good few minutes.
I emerge from the bathroom and watch everyone eat lunch before we all check in to our rooms, I’m in a 4 bed dorm with just Matt for company. We then have some time to relax, which is just what the doctor ordered, then it’s back into a canoe and out into the river to look for animals. Almost right away there’s a big rush of excitement as Willian has spotted a toucan high up in the trees. Ive spotted one or two in the distance before, but this is my first good luck, and my lord is this white throated toucan tremendous.
Eventually we continue on along the river spotting some parakeets, kingfishers, and more aquatic birds. Eventually we reach a lagoon and land, piling out of the boat and walking through thick mud of the uncovered lagoon bottom. The water levels in December and January are very very low, something which makes seeing any pink river dolphins, a very unlikely thing. February gives you a better chance though.
At the Laguna we’re joined by other groups and watch the sun go down, muted by fairly steady cloud cover before piling back into the canoe and heading back to the lodge, searching for Caymans on the way. We see countless of them but only a few let us get close and photos at night are hard to pull off. These Caymans are firmly not around during the day, unlike those I saw in Costa Rica, back when I was 16 years old. Crazy to think that first trip out of Westernized North America was ten years ago.
Then it’s back to the lodge for a dinner which I decide I need to eat and then an early bedtime, drifting off tho the symphony of birdcalls just outside our cabin. Surprisingly I sleep through the night and wake up feeling endlessly better.
Breakfast is warm bread, eggs, fruit and a pancake and goes down very smooth and not long after we’re back in the canoe looking for wildlife on the way to a jungle walk. On the way we spot the yellow handed Titi monkey in some trees but the tiny primates are too quick and elusive to capture on camera from a moving Canoe.
More birds and butterflies abound as we are driven up into the mud, climbing out of the canoe in our lodge provided rubber boots. We clamber through thick undergrowth coming across spiders and bird barely visible high up in the canopy. We balance beam our way over logs fallen over marsh land and see huge trees with crazy root systems, included one that has been gnawed on repeatedly, by a tapir. As the ride winds down we spot more Blue and yellow Macaws up in the tree, though an unobstructed picture seems impossible. the entire walk reminds me of rushing through the jungle in Chitwan, Nepal surrounded by monkeys, birds and deer.
We continue along in the sweltering humidity of the jungle, drenched in sweat and learn about various plants, one often used to grate yucca and other root veggies, another used for contraception, one cup of tea works for two years, and others used for the blow dart guns. We keep going through thick foliage and undergrowth told quite specifically not to touch anything, and while animal sightings are scars we do see a cool looking frog.
After more and more walking and sampling the fruit from a palm tree we encounter two groups of moneys all at once, again to quick to capture on camera. Still we get some good glimpses of a big group of squirrel monkeys and also white fronted Cappuchin’s playing in the trees. We follow off trail through the jungle for a while before eventually heading back to the lodge for lunch and a siesta. But before all that, disregarding all the caymans we’ve seen, all the piranhas we’ve heard about, we jump in the river by the lodge and enjoy a very refreshing swim.
4 pm comes around and we’re back into the canoes searching for more wildlife and encountering lots of birds and yet another group of white Fronted Capuchin’s. Somehow our guide also notices this bird, whose name I have forgotten, but the camouflage is some of the best I’ve ever seen and how it was noticed I’ll never know.
After this bird sighting we find ourselves at the Laguna again. There’s a little more water around this time and somehow I find myself shirtless and running across the mud trying to to get stuck before posing for some lovely titanic inspired shots. You know the scene I’m talking about. “Paint me Jack.”
We again watch a muted sunset before climbing back into the canoe. The skies in the amazon are truly incredible all through the day, and feel somehow closer to you, but unfortunately by sundown too many clouds seem to fill the sky to allow for anything spectacular.
I’m amazed with our driver, a member of the local Siona tribe, as he navigates us with some speed through the very cluttered river in the darkness. eventually we climb out onto a mud bank and follow the incredibly skilled spotter Willian into the jungle for our night walk. Pretty terrifying, especially when I find out my headlamp’s not working anymore.
We disappear into the undergrowth, Willian leading the way on more or less non existent paths. We encounter several scorpion spiders on the trunks of big trees , though they scatter under the beams of light. Still they’re a little scary, especially since their easily the size of an I-pod.
We continue along looking for tapir’s and jaguars but las it’s not to be, that said we find a very small snaked nestled against the trunk of a tree hissing at us. My heart drops as Willian calmly tells us that this snake before us is a type of viper and that if were to bite us we’d have less than an hour to life. My hearts racing as we edge past it and I’m thankful for my rubber boots.
The rest of the night walk passes uneventfully and soon we’re back at the lodge staring up at two hand sized tarantulas on the roofs of the wooden huts. (Keep in mind I have damn big hands) We enjoy a good dinner and go over the plan for the next day, then I head to bed early, knowing that I’ll be waking up early for some bird watching at Guacamayo’s personal bird tower, just another reason I’d whole heartedly recommend Guacamayo Lodge if you’re going to Cuyabeno national park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Trust me; the next two days only get better! Check back soon to read more, and don’t forget to comment or subscribe on the bottom of the home page to get an email every time I write about a new adventure! Trust me there’s lots more to come.
