1^st November – heading off to the Amazon rain forest

We were picked up from the hotel at 9am and did the reverse journey we’d done just 2 days before back to Quito airport but this time in the light.  Bonnie, our “tour guide” to the airport was delightful and full of interesting information about her country – economy, wildlife, politics, etc. etc.  She identified the vulture we’d seen on top of the church as a Turkey Buzzard, which is a type of vulture much disliked by the locals as it’s a carrion eater and frequents rubbish sites.  However, have since found out that it’s a black vulture.

We were whisked through check in and security and found ourselves kicking our heels in the departure lounge as the flight was delayed.  Eventually we were told the gate had moved so we all trooped upstairs and sat around for a while longer. However, eventually the plane arrived and we discovered that the seat assignments we’d been given were irrelevant as it was a free for all once we got on board.

The morised canoe

We flew over the east Andes (Quito sits in a valley where the Andes splits) and in no time at all descended back to a much more comfortable altitude into Copa – a wild west frontier town which is an important centre in the oil drilling industry.  As we descended the steps we were hit by a wave of muggy hot air and felt as if we were entering a sauna. Mum was very happy!!  Luggage collection was a bit chaotic, but eventually we were bundled with our luggage into a taxi and taken to the river to pick up our motorised canoes.

The canoes are large boats with single seats down either side separated by a central aisle and probably carried about 20 people.  We set off down the muddy brown and very wide Napo river which runs into the Amazon and our vessel picked up speed quite rapidly and soon we were zooming along.  It wasn’t long before I discovered that I was in the wet zone and soon half of me was soaking wet.  Our guide then issued us with wet weather ponchos which we were all quite glad of as zipping along at high speed was quite cooling.  We saw the oil drilling sites which were very obvious as you could see the pipes where the excess gas was being burned off.  Apparently they’ve just discovered huge oil reserves right inside the national park and inevitably a lot of protected habitat will disappear to fuel man’s insatiable appetite for oil.  We also saw what looked like moving mats of vegetation floating down the river, which turned out to be exactly that but accompanied by groups of young soldiers totally immersed in the river apart from their heads - apparently on an army training exercise.

Soldiers in the river on a training exercise

Our water taxi

After 2 hours, we went a short way down a small tributary and swapped our large canoe for a much smaller one that was paddle power only.  We had 2 paddlers, our guide, and 2 other passengers so 8 of us in total.  The tributary was really quite narrow and shallow in places and the water was an inky black colour.   The lush forest came right down to the river bank and we could hear the constant cries and squawks of various birds and got the occasional tantalising glimpse of some of them.  At one point, we were lucky enough to see a troupe of squirrel monkeys, which were as tiny as their name suggests.  We were told this next stage of canoeing could take between 1.5 and 2 hours, but with thunder ominously rolling around us our paddlers and even our guide started paddling really hard.  When the wet weather ponchos were handed out, we guessed that rain was on its way.  Sure enough, a gentle drizzle soon turned into a steady downpour and we hunkered down feeling the rain pooling on the seats and soaking into our clothes as we crossed the caiman infested lake with lightening flashes behind us complete with almost instantaneous thunder.  Thankfully, the hard paddling paid off and after an hour and 10 minutes we crossed the lake in darkness and were very glad to arrive at our camp whose twinkling lights had beckoned to us from across the lake.

A very welcome sight!

The hammock is VERY comfortable!!

After a brief welcome from the camp manager we were taken to our rooms and our luggage soon followed.  The rooms are absolutely lovely – very reminiscent of the sort of places we’ve stayed in before in Africa.  We have a large bedroom area with a huge bed complete with mosquito net. The floors are a lovely hard wood and there is a very adequate en suite bathroom with a shower.  Outside, there is an open veranda over which the thatched roof extends so effectively, we have an outdoor sitting room – which also includes a hammock.

Once we’d dried off a bit, we went down to the bar and had a pre-prandial drink before having dinner.  The lodge accommodates about 40 people, but you all sit in your own group so it’s just the 3 of us and our really nice guide, Jairo.  He gave us the low down on activities and told us that the next day we would be woken at 6am and at 7am would leave on the canoes to take us to an area for a bush walk - the whole activity taking about 3 hours.  So, we headed off for bed and hoped the rain would have stopped by the morning.