Having fun in the Amazon Rainforest

(Amazonas, Ecuador, 4-8th of October 2017)

After a last swim in the hot pool in Papallacta we packed our things and took a taxi down to the main road where the bus leaves for Lago Agrio, the meeting point for our Amazon tour.

The bus came within half an hour and six bumpy hours later, we arrived to Lago Agrio which turned out to be a really boring town if you are there as a tourist! The most funny thing we did was trying to find an ATM that worked with our cards (we found a lot of them but it was not til the 4th one we got any cash.) and then to have an Ecuadorian chinese meal, which we really enjoyed.

We met our bus driver at 9 am at a meeting point rather close to the hotel we stayed in. After picking up some more people and paying for the tour (3 nights and four days for 320 USD per person) we travelled a couple of hours on the bus before arriving to the river and our canoe.

Our group was a mix of people from USA, Ireland and England and our guide David from Ecuador. We all got into the canoe, a really comfortable one, and travelled for a couple of hours before we arrived to Caiman Lodge, our home for the next three nights. Already on this first canoe trip we saw a lot of monkeys and birds.

We really enjoyed our stay at Caiman Lodge.

Our room was basic but nice and clean, the food was delicious and David was an amazing guide.

 

He did everything he could to make our stay as good as possible. He went into the water to pick up snakes and small caimans and he found so many animals and insects for us to come close to.

 

Our days often started really early in the morning with birdwatching and all days and evenings we were busy with jungle walks and canoe tours. We saw an anaconda, loads of monkeys, beautiful birds, snakes, spiders and a sloth.

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One day we went for a visit to a small village in the jungle.  We accompanied our host out into a field were we participated in digging up yucca roots and then we helped her to peel, grain and dry them.

 

 

Then the lady made bread out of the yucca flour and we had it together with a stew and some delicious black chili.

 

The same day we also met a shaman who told us about his way of working, a rather complicated process involving drugs

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The group we spent our jungle days with were great and we had much fun. Especially the last day when we went for a jungle walk and ended up walking right through a swamp.

We all got wet but me more than most of the others as I missed one step and fell into the swamp…..unfortunately for me …we got it on film….

// Christel