Speeding down the Cuyabeno river into the heart of the Amazon
Welcome to the (Ecuadorian) Jungle!
From Baños we took an overnight bus to Lago Agrio which is a springboard destination for gringos wanting to reach the Ecuadorian rainforests. We booked with a company called Dracaena, based in Quito and it was a great and pretty varied 5-day tour. Highlights included piranha fishing, pink dolphin watching, jungle night walks and visiting indigionous people.
Our adventure began with a 3 hour bus journey followed by a 3 hour boat trip into the Cuyabeno wildlife reserve. It was a long day and we arrived to our lodge at dusk feeling tired but full of anticipation. We had time to settle into our hut and have a healthy dinner before we set off at 8.00pm for a night walk into the jungle. As most animals in the Amazon are nocturnal this was our best chance at seeing something...It was a lot of fun to begin with, we saw loads of insects, snakes, bats, frogs, a deer and the shining eyes of large rodent type animal which was the size of a small dog, however after a couple of hours of constantly batting away mosquitoes it began to be tiring and we were looking forward to getting into bed under the relative safety of the mosquito net.
Our guide Enrique, was brilliant and enthusiastic
The smallest tree frog in the World! (its in the centre)
The following day started early at 6.00am, we got into the boat that bought us here and set off looking for animals along the river edge. After 5 minutes we spotted a 3 toed sloth high up in the top of a tree. Our guide told us that this particular type of sloth had moss on it's back as a way of camoflaging itself from predators, it also survives solely on a diet of leaves which gives it little energy. Sloths stay high up in the trees only venturing down once a week to defecate.
Just before it started to rain we spotted a few red howler monkeys which make a noise not too dissimilar to a barking dog.
In the afternoon we went for a 3 hour trek around the same area we did the night trek. As we had less chance of seeing animals our guides pointed out various plants and trees of interest.
A REALLY dangerous red spider
The next day we declined another early morning boat trip so we could catch up on some much needed sleep, after breakfast we headed out again in the boats looking for more animals along the river edge. This time we saw more monkeys of various species and plenty of birds. In particular Tocans, blue and green Macaws, scarlet Macaws, a King vulture and Kingfishers. On the way to an indigenous community we were extremely lucky to see a grey river dolphin and a group of pink river dolphins! The community was really interesting, they showed us the plants that they grew to sell (cocoa and coffee) and also their fish farms. It was also great to see that they had a river turtle conservation project. One of the girls cooked us a typical meal of yuca, yuca flat bread and fish and then we headed back to relax before heading to a very dangerous looking bird tower.
An indigionous family making us our lunch
Our last full day included a 3 hour trek in a different part of the reserve (this meant constantly batting away mosquitoes which seem immune to DEET) before trying our luck at a spot of piranha fishing. Our guide seemed unsure that we would catch anything as the water level was so high...and he was right, still we got some beers and relaxed in the boat for a few hours!
Our final day was a 7 hour slog back to Lago Agrio by boat and bus. We had an amazing time exploring the reserve and seeing lots of animals and insects and making new friends.
So this is why they call it a rainforest!
The view from our room. Thank God for our mosquito net.
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