The Amazon Jungle

We’re in the Amazon, and its raining.

The journey to our lodge was an adventure in itself, starting with a short 30 minute flight from Quito. On our way into land we had a good view looking down on the rainforest. The canopy is packed so densely that it looks like an enormous broccoli floret from the air.

We landed at Coca, a ramshackle, frontier town built on the proceeds of oil exploration in the region. We hopped into a motorised canoe on the Napa river, imagining a relaxing chug downstream. Actually, this canoe really motors, and it needed to as we had a 60km journey ahead of us that took 2 hours. So we both increased our lifetime canoe miles by, well……………. 120 kms. We probably should have joined a canoe miles programme. The Napa river is one of the major tributaries of the Amazon, and is a significant river in its own right stretching from 1 to 2 kms wide and running for 700 kms. We disembarked and hiked through the jungle for 30 minutes before arriving at a canal. Here we piled into more canoes, but hand powered this time. After 100 metres the canal opens up into an impossibly scenic lagoon, like a secret Elven hideaway from a Tolkien novel.

The locals describe the water in the lagoon as black water, and it is indeed black. The colour is a result of all the leaves and dead wood that falls into it, which rots releasing tannins. This also makes the water acidic and Mosquito lava can’t survive there – hurrah!
The Napa river itself is described as white water, but it is actually mud brown with all the silt.

Our guide surprised us on the first night at the end of dinner by suggesting we take a night walk. Let’s go into the jungle full of scary creatures, known and unknown in complete darkness. Great idea, we’ll lead the way. Yes, we’d had a few glasses of wine by then. The walk was probably the best we did, as a lot of the wildlife is nocturnal, and the cacophony of sound in the jungle at night is amazing.

Our native guide was called Seconda, a hard, wiry man of incredible strength. He carried a gigantic machete that he used to clear the path at the head of the group. If Paul Hogan had shown Seconda his knife, Seconda could have replied “That’s not a knife”

His wife makes bags from fibers of a particular palm tree. Incredibly strong and decorative. 10$ each. “Absolutely” we enthused. “We’ll take two”, seriously anxious not to piss him off.

The lake is inhabited by Piranha and Caiman, although it’s apparently safe to swim in. Like the intrepid travelers we are, and having just swum with Sharks and Sting Rays, we jumped straight to the bar.

The jungle is full of natural medicines. Here’s just 3 of the ones that were mentioned to us.

- The bark of one tree that accelerates child birth
- The jungle rose that is used as a contraceptive by women – this is boiled and the resultant liquor drunk providing 4 months respite, but too much can cause sterility.
- The red sap from the bark of another tree that is good for healing cuts and sores, ingested it is good for stomach ulcers, and is also applied to mosquito bites. Mags rubbed it on a cold sore and it really eased the throbbing.

Our English speaking guide was a biologist from Quito called Oscar – Oscar of the Wilde. He’s definitely a glass is half full person, usually beer.

Everything we spotted was “Good for you, guys”.
“Hey Oscar, look at that blade of grass!”
“Good for you, Guys”

Oscar was telling us about his trip to London one night over dinner and Mags actually said to him, “Good for you, Oscar”. I nearly choked on my fried plantain, but Oscar didn’t seem to notice.

It is the rainforest and water lovers will not be disappointed. In the brief periods in between downpours, steam rises up from the tree tops. It’s so humid here that the air is literally wet and nothing dries. We were reading in bed on the first night and noticed that the pages of our books were beginning to get damp. Showers are available, but not really necessary.

Naturally, we saw lots of creatures during our stay, although the wildlife is not as accommodating as the Galapagos. (Ok, David Attenborough, it can be tricky sometimes.). We did manage to spot the following animals, although sometimes it was only a fleeting glimpse.
- Tarantulas;
- 3 kinds of monkeys. Just small ones but superb athletes jumping from tree to tree;
- Spiders;
- Leaf cutting ants. These are amazing creatures. You see them marching to and fro between trees and their nest carrying leaves 4 times their size. They don’t actually eat the leaves, but grow fungus on them, and they eat that; fungus farmers. Try saying that after a few beers.
- Dozens of species of birds including pigeons, a stinky turkey so called because it eats, regurgitates its food and eats it again. The food starts to ferment, hence the smell and the name; swallows, toucans, vultures. It’s a real bird twitchers paradise. Bill Oddie would have kittens here, or at least chicks;
- Bats;
- Dozens of different ants, some of which were scary large;
- A cuddly toy (Gift shop).

On our last night we were treated to a barbecue on the terrace overlooking the lagoon. Being so close to the mosquito free lagoon, we foolish donned our shorts. Not a good idea as we were soon slapping our lags like a demented Austrian folk dancer. G’day mate.

Overall Ecuador Rating

People 9
Food 7
Wildlife 10
Scenery 9
Flamenco dancing 2