Welcome to the Jungle! (Part 1)

Cuyabeno Amazon, Ecuador

Day 1

Our time in Ecuador started with a trip to the Cuyabeno reserve in the Amazon jungle. Our friends from back home, Ben & Shannon, and Shannon’s sister Christianne traveled to Ecuador for vacation, and together the 5 of us enjoyed an amazing 4 day/3 night tour in the jungle. The tour started in Lago Agrio where we were picked up by the tour company and driven to “the bridge” (the meeting point where the highway crosses over the river that runs into the jungle) where we boarded a motorized canoe and set off into the jungle.

The 1.75 hour journey along the river started out decently enough, but was soon plagued by what would unfortunately be the norm during our tour: lots and lots of rain. And not just a light sprinkle either, I’m talking about non-stop, POURING rain. Luckily we were provided with ponchos!!

After arriving at our destination (Caiman Lodge), we got settled into our room and then enjoyed a visit in the lodge by the friendly neighbourhood monkeys! These guys came out everyday in hopes of getting a few bananas. I couldn’t believe how close they got!!

Once the monkey show was over, we got back in the canoe for what would be a nightly tradition of a sunset cruise. We set out while the sun was still high in the sky and cruised along the river trying to catch a glimpse of some wildlife. Our guide, Camillo, was amazing at spotting animals and we were able to see lots of animals! We saw pink dolphins (fresh water river dolphins that actually turn pink when they swim really fast), a black caiman (a relative of the alligator. The black caiman can grow up to 4m (13 ft) long!), and an ant eater.

After our wildlife spotting, we headed to the lagoon to watch the sunset. Once the sun had disappeared over the horizon, it was back to the lodge for a late dinner and an early bedtime.

Day 2

Our day started with a great breakfast at the lodge before heading out to our first of two hikes for the day. We set out on the trail and again, thanks to our awesome guide, we saw a LOT of animals/critters: spiders (ugh), tiny frogs, lots of monkeys, giant ants (bullet ants), and lots of birds. A lot of the birds were too high to see, but boy did we hear them! Their songs were SO loud!

Given the fact that it rains more than it doesn’t in the jungle, the trail we walked along had it’s fair share of mud puddles. At one point, we had to trudge through a huge puddle (more like a small lake) which involved walking along fallen trees, and where one wrong step would send you knee deep into the water. Fortunately, we were provided with rubber boots which kept our feet nice and dry (unless your boots had a hole in one of them, like Ben’s did. Yikes).

After our hike we headed back to the lodge for a much welcomed lunch followed by an even more welcomed siesta!! After relaxing, we went out for another sunset cruise. This time, we saw a sloth & monkeys. Both were very high in the trees so we didn’t get a great view of them.

The sunset was another great one (I’ve said it before, but is there ever such a thing as a bad sunset?).

After the sunset, we set out on our second hike of the day. I’m sure you can do the math here, but hiking after the sun has set means that there is no light, and thus it was a night hike. I can definitely think of more than a few things I’d rather do than head into the jungle when it’s pitch black out, but it turned out to be pretty cool. We saw a lot of toads, and they were HUGE! Other giant critters we saw? Spiders. And lots of them. I only went as close as necessary to take a picture before quickly retreating to the back of the group.

One of the craziest things we saw happened as we were getting back into the canoe. Autumn, another traveler on the tour with us, spotted a snake 2 feet away from the canoe on the beach. Camillo was quick to point out that it was poisonous, so we all took a giant step backwards. As we watched it slither along the beach towards the bushes, a spider jumped out of it’s hole and bit the snake!! The spider was also poisonous, and Camillo gave the snake about 4 hours to live. If that’s not a true Amazonian jungle experience I don’t know what is!!

My limit for creepy-crawlies had been reached by that point, so I was more than happy to head back to the lodge for dinner. Unfortunately, the critters had other ideas and we were greeted by a huge turtle-looking cockroach thing in our room. I let Mac take the reins on taking pictures of that thing while I calmly walked away squealed and put as much distance between myself and the bug as I could.

Thankfully, the rest of our tour was less heebie-jeebies inducing (if you exclude our TWO encounters with anacondas!). Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!