June 2 – 6, 2014

Day 1

After a long restless overnight bus from Quito we arrived in Lago Agrio in the wee hours of the morning. We had several hours before convening with our tour company but we went straight to the Hotel D’Mario where we were told to meet our guide just in case. We tried to kill some time and curb our appetite with a continental breakfast which effectively killed maybe 20 minutes of the 3 hours until meet up time so despite our exhaustion we decided to make something of our free time and explore instead of occupying a table in the hotel restaurant all morning.

We wandered the streets, the fish market, and a few parks and both found Lago Agrio to have a very island feel, similar to the non-touristy parts of St. Thomas. There was great people watching and some sort celebration with students parading around decked out in outfits made entirely of recycled materials… CDs, plastic bottles, ect. All of this helped to pass the time and before too long we were meeting up with our group. The recycled fashion parade continued to pass by as Brent and I, three Canadians, and two from Spain loaded onto the bus. We made a pit stop at the airport to pick up 2 Belgians and we were on our way. We had 2 hours in the bus to the loading point of the river which was the entrance to the Cuyabeno Reserve. Always maintaining a parallel bearing with the oil pipes bordering the road, we drove through the pouring rain towards the river.

When we arrived we all huddled under a small sheltered sign and watched boat-fulls of soggy tourists unload onto the river bank. I thought… “Whelp here’s to the start of another 4 days that we paid to spend outside in the drenching rain”. But I dismissed it with the fact the we were actually in the RAINforest and well-weathered in terms of crummy weather. We enjoyed a tasty box lunch and some more rain before loading up in long boats and heading down river. To our surprise as soon as we settled into our ponchos and soggy seats on the canoe… the rain stopped. Miraculous! That never happens when Brent and I sign up for something.

Brent and I lucked out with the front two seats for the two hour cruise to the lodge. The trip was fairly uneventful in terms of animal sightings but we were excited to be there taking in all the green and different levels of the canopy.

By the time we arrived at the lodge, the sun was starting to come out which was a nice change of pace. As we unloaded from the canoe we were pleasantly surprised with the lodge – it was a good distance away from all the other lodges, had a nice boardwalk out onto the river, and really nice facilities. Everyone immediately went for the coffee, all still suffering a bit from the sleepless overnight journey, before reconvening to meet our guide Miguel and go over the itinerary for the next few days. With Miguel there was no shortage of intensity but his enthusiasm, interest, and knowledge of the area was really spectacular and made the trip. So with this fervor, we set out on our first adventure with Miguel to watch the sunset over the lagoon. It was a perfect end to the day – we returned to the lodge for a big dinner and a cold beer before crashing.

Day 2

The next morning we set out early in the canoe for a leisurely coast down the river. This was the start of many many bird sightings to include Stinky Turkies (hubo mucho), Oro Pendulous, King Fishers, Wood Peckers, and many many more. The most striking of them, to us at least, was the Oro Pendulous. Its nest swinging from the branches of the tallest parts of the canopy and its sound which is very similar to that of a sonar ping. After an hour or so of bird watching/spotting we unloaded on to the banks of the river to start a jungle trek through a sample of primary forest. Upon disembarking we spotted a long trail of ants marching along each with the own chunk of leafy green. It was probably one of my favorite jungle experiences – it was so simple but perfect in that way.

We made our way through the forest, stopping every few feet for an explanation of a type of medicinal plant, or small insect all with the same intensity that was Miguel but that made it all the more interesting and exciting. He showed us how many of the plants are used by the natives as means of survival as well as explanations of invasive plants that leech life off one another. We made a pit stop at a large termite nest where Brent had a tasting of the bug itself. I think it was so small that there wasn’t much flavor anyhow we continued deeper into the forest until we had ditched the trail and were wading so deep in the water that the complimentary rubber boots were of no use. They were now more like buckets than boots. Our alternative route kept us in the jungle a little longer than the shedule called for but we most definitely earned our lunch. On the way back to the lodge we continued to see birds, huge morpho butterflies and a few monkeys here and there.

After lunch we had a little bit of down time before heading back out for another sunset cruise and to look for caimans. We didn’t get too far before agreeing that there would be no sunset. They sky was ominous and deep but we all agreed we still wanted to look for caimans so we headed in the opposite direction into the darkening skies. Miguel was pivoting the flashlight on the bow of the conoe looking for the red reflections of the caimans eyes floating on the surface of the water. At this point we had all slipped on our ponchos and tucked in as we were motoring into a driving rain. Before too long the thunder and lightening was thrown into the mix and it was obvious that it was time to turn back. Now we were about thirty minutes from the lodge and really in the shit as they would say. But that moment was really vivid – in such a way that Brent braved his camera to torrential rain to capture it.

Once back we were all really relieved to be out of “the shit” but all really exhilarated by the experience. We settled in with some rum, an orchestra of sounds provided by the surroundings and the rain, and a great group of international folk. With this we enjoyed dinner and at the end of the night we still had a caiman spotting – lurking in the wetlands beneath the lodge were those red eyes. With that we retired for the evening.

Day 3

The day started as usual with an early start and a cruise through the network of rivers spotting various animals. After an hour or so of crusing we arrived and disembarked on a river bank and began walking towards the Amazonian community where we would have lunch. Along the way we spot many interesting, colorful bugs. Once in the village we were greeted by several of the children who kept us company throughout the day and helped us prepare a typical dish known as Casabe which is made with the yucca plant. We took part in the entire process from cutting down the yucca and obtaining the root to cooking the final product over an open fire. This is the part of the trip that we found a bit uncomfortable… Walking into a tiny native community where the way of life is very minimal as full blown gringos. The activity itself seems very staged and for show and here come all these tourists who generally don’t speak the language snapping pictures with their fan dangle cameras. I know they say the money goes to the community and often helps to pay for the kids to get an education ect ect but it all still feels a bit forced. In the end I think it might be something exciting for the kids to have all these visitors and the oppurtunity to share a meal that is different from their everyday diet (the guides bring a prepared lunch to eat along with the Casabe which was very similar to a tortilla) but I am still not sure what I think about it. Either way, they were all thrilled to eat what was brought by the guides and showed us several pieces of jewelry they had made using local seeds, and fibers found in the jungle. Everyone purchased a few pieces and thanked the kids for their hospitality and headed back towards the river to continue with the day. All the kids followed us down to the river to take part in an afternoon swim which was my favorite part – seeing them having so much fun.

I forgot to mention that we went on a short hike through the surrounding jungle to find a ginormous tree that was over 200 years old. It was pretty spectacular.

After waving goodbye to the kids floating around the river in their pilfered life vests we ventured to another community, Tarapuy, to visit a shaman. Again another staged thing but I actually really enjoyed it and the shaman himself said that tourism in a way was positive becuase it helped to preserve and spread the true story of the shamanic practice and that it is often misunderstood with all the rage about taking part in ayahuasca ceremonies as a tourist. That in original practice the shaman was the one taking the drug to make the diagnosis and understand ones being not the other way around. It was also really interesting to learn about the long process of becoming a shaman which begins in ones childhood where they partake in many many many ayahuasca trips.

This visit concluded the days activities but we had a night walk a caiman searching on the agenda for he evening. Both of which were successful – we saw some incrediblely large insects, a beautiful bird known as a Trogan. We had one small caiman sighting and other than that things went as expected. We returned to lodge and passed out before even getting the bug net over our heads.

Day 4

We had absolutely perfect weather for our final day in Cuyabeno. We started extra early to watch the sunrise over the lagoon. We continued to see several birds and finally had the chance to see some pink river dolphins. The sightings were brief as they were only coming up for air but it was pretty exciting just to catch a glimpse. We returned to lodge for breakfast and loaded up in the canoe for one last trip up the Cuyabeno. (Brent took a quick dip in the Cuyabeno before departure). The rest of the return was uneventful other than the loads of sunshine and crystal clear bkue skies. We had a final lunch and said farewell before loading up to head back to Lago Agrio and then Quito. The drive from Lago Agrio to Quito was spectacular – the scenery in that area (Baeza, Santa Rosa, ect.) was breathtaking so much so that we almost ditched the bus to stay a night. Along the way we thought we were having a near death experience – as we rounded one of the bends in the round we spotted a huge plume of smoke from a peak in the distance. We seemed to be the only ones to notice and we couldn’t believe it, an eruption it was happening! We were too excited for words just hoping we’d catch another glimpse of the peak at the next bend to see how it had evolved. To our dismay we never saw the peak again. Once back at the farm we immediately googled to area and found the temperamental peak which is known as Reventador. Apparently it frequently heaves a large breath of smoke and it was no wonder that we were the only ones getting excited about it as it is a normalcy for the locals we were cruising with. None the less it was a truly powerful image and my excitement over the experience was not tainted at learning that it is not entirely uncommon.