Writer’s note: It’s now May 9th and I’m back in wifi range so here is one post that I wasn’t able to send from the jungle lodge.
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Well, the morning started off raining and ended that way. But in between, when it counted it stopped. We spent the day in a Cloud Forest and the Amazon Basin Jungle, so really what were we expecting.
On a trip like this where you’re doing well to just see the highlights, there are many places where we would have liked to stay longer. Papallacta, and the Termas Papallacata Hot Springs, in particular, was one of those places. However, the tour must go on.
As I mentioned yesterday, our journey today went from 3300 metres to 600, so as you can imagine we spent most of the time heading down hill. The roads are not that bad, but there were a few places where recent washouts caused small landslides and in one instance the guard rail was gone and the valley was a long way down. The views were spectacular, with green hills and waterfalls all over. Yes, they get a lot of rain. The roads were really windy, and so as you can imagine we couldn’t stop to take pictures.
Our first stop of the day was at the Guango Private Reserve. Ecuador is one of the top countries in the world for the diversity of species of hummingbirds, with 50 different varieties from the size of a bumblebee to that of a pigeon and 15 of them are found at the Guango Reserve. The number of them was overwhelming and some of them were really pretty and of course different than the ones we see in Canada. But I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed in the muted colours. It might have been that it was overcast and we weren’t seeing the true colours. You can see by the picture below what’s required to get a good picture of a hummingbird: huge lenses; lighting; tripods; etc.
But one very exciting discovery was “Slo-mo” on iPhone. I took some slow motion pictures and if nothing else it will give you a sense of how many birds were flying around. We often heard the buzz of them as they went by our heads flapping their little wings at an average of 80 times per second. Something I didn’t know was that the hummingbirds go into an almost dormant state overnight called a torpor state of temporary hibernation when their heart and respiration slow right down. I figure that’s the only way they can keep up their wing flapping during the day.
After our fill of picture-taking we were off for a nature walk, and because it had been raining for a few days we were issued rubber boots for the walk. Our CEO again amazed us with her knowledge of the flora and fauna of the area. We saw a duck that is apparently one of the most prized finds on birders’ “life lists” (who knew birders had life lists!). It was called a Torrent Duck and was sitting just off shore on a rock in the torrent of the river. There were lots of species of birds including a couple of different varieties of Tanagers, and a really beautiful bird called a Blue Trojan which has a bright red belly with an iridescent green back and blue head.
There were all sorts of beautiful wild flowers, orchids and special mushroom varieties. Ecuador exports Hearts of Palm and since I normally see them coming out of a small can, I assume they were small plants, like asparagus or something. Not so. They come from medium size palm trees and the pieces are cut from the inside of the trunk of the palm. And we even managed to see the back end of a kind of rodent the size of a rabbit disappearing into the undergrowth.
After about 45 minutes we looped back and handed in our rubber boots.
On the bus once again, surprisingly, it was already time to eat again and we stopped a short distance away, to a pre-arranged set lunch at a restaurant/bar overlooking the most beautiful valley. It was a little surreal as they were playing North American county western music. Turns out the proprietor was an Ecuadorian who had lived in New Jersey for a few years and loved country music. The first course of our lunch was tomato soup, served with a side of popcorn. Yup popcorn. Marie Sol explained that instead of putting crackers or croutons in soup, they use the ubiquitous corn, this time popped, to add some interesting crunch to the soup. It was actually very good. The restaurant/bar owner had a beautiful garden in back of the restaurant and he took us on a tour before we headed off for our afternoon of adventure.
Before long at all, we came to a spot where in front of us was a bridge that obviously the bus was not going to be able to go over. It was for cars and pedestrians and we became some of the pedestrians on our way to the small town of Misahualli were we hoped to see some monkeys indigenous to Ecuador, Capuchin monkeys. We had in mind that we’d have to truck through another jungle to see them but in fact they were hanging out in trees of the main town square. The shop owners around the square have a feeding post set up and the monkeys come in from the jungle to feast then move on. There were 5 or 6 of them playing in the trees and stopping in to nibble. Our guide told us that the monkeys normally behave for the shop owners and don’t try and eat the things in their stores, but they have been known to create havoc with the tourists who come to visit.
A little while longer down the road, at a town called Tena, we came across another river, and another bridge that the bus couldn’t cross. This time instead of becoming pedestrians we climbed down stairs to the side of the river and became passengers in “motorized canoes” that would take us to our resort for the next two nights. You’ll notice I didn’t say down to the “dock”. There were some cement steps most of the way down but only mud at the bottom of the stairs. The logistics of climbing in for the first time was hilarious, but we figured it out and no one fell in or got their fingers crushed between the two boats. Score one for the tourists.
It was only a 10 – 15 minute ride in the power canoes down the Arajuno River through the mist and clouds to home for the next 2 nights, the Itamandi Lodge. We weren’t sure what to expect, but none of us expected to find such a fine establishment so remote in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. The lodge has only 23 rooms, with only our group of 16 and one other group of 16 (from Germany primarily) staying here. I’m writing this after having been here for two nights and the food has just been fantastic. Not huge portions, but really nicely seasoned, obviously fresh and interesting. The dining room is outdoors, with a high roof over because of the frequent rains, with the sound of the river to enjoy with our meals, and with a bar and swimming pool adjacent. The picture of the plugs below is a station in the dining room where we could plug in our cameras and other electronics for recharging since there weren’t plugs in the rooms.
My room is one of the furthest from the main area, and the walls facing the river are all just screens, not walls. It’s delightful to get the occasional breeze through, and it’s really quiet except for the cacophony of sound from the insects, frogs and other jungle life. My white noise is the sound of the river as it makes it way to the Napo River, and then after that to the Amazon.
The Lodge owners are very supportive of the local indigenous community, ecologically sensitive, and concerned with using sustainable technologies. The whole lodge is run on solar panels, they recycle, even though that means sending it out on the power canoes, and they even supply special biodegradable soap for our use here. One of their codes of conduct is to use canoes that are rowed, but thankfully we didn’t have to use those since the distances we covered on the river were pretty vast. (But now I’m getting ahead of myself since I’m writing this the day after.) And they hire all of their staff from the local community.
After dinner tonight the first group of 8 went on a night walk and I am with the group that goes tomorrow. Tomorrow promises to be busy and interesting. Not expecting anyone will have time to use that lovely pool.
Lois' Adventures 