Samona Lodge - The perfect Jungle trip

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We booked a 4-day-trip to the Amazon basin at the Samona Lodge (http://samona-expedition.com), an ecofriendly and community based tour operator. The lodge is in the Cuyabeno Reserve which is considered one of the most biodiverse sites in the world. Naturally, we were excited!

From Quito, we took an 8-hour-nightbus to Lago Agrio, the town which serves as the gateway to the rainforest reserve. On the bus, we spotted mainly tourists and we were quite sure that some of them would head to the same spot as us but when we arrived at a café where we got breakfast and which functioned as a meeting point, ALL of them showed up as well. In total, we were 24 people heading to the lodge, that was even more than what the staff expected and they had to organize a second minibus.

The trip to the lodge was already an adventure, after an 2-hour-busride, we arrived at a bridge where our big group was divided into two small groups and we would stay in that constellation for the rest of the trip. We really lucked out, our group was a super nice, well-mixed team consisting of a young Russian couple, an older Polish couple, two Canadian sisters and a Norwegian family with two young kids. We changed into a very long and narrow motorboat that would be our main means of transport for the next days and off we went.

The first boatride through the rivers and lagoons of the reserve lasted for about two hours and we were really fascinated by the scenery: around us was a thick forest of palm trees and leaf trees, overgrown by roots, vines and flowers. On top of that we already saw birds, monkeys, butterflies and an anaconda. A very impressive start for the trip!

After we had settled into our little cabins at the lodge, we left for a first tour of the rivers and lagoons of the reserve and saw more wildlife. The most impressive was a 7m long anaconda that was curled up in a hollow tree. We peeked into the stump and took a scarily close look at her. Grim swam in the "Laguna Grande" and we caught the sunset from the boat. After dark, we went looking for caimans in the same lagoon that people just swam in and we saw a small one hiding deep in the trees at the waterfront. Before we headed back to the lodge for dinner, our guide Jario couldn't help but point out the nocturnal animals that were hanging out around the lodge: big tarantulas and frogs. URGH. When we came back into our cabin after dinner, we were promptly greeted by a scorpion spider and cockroaches in our room. There is no electricty at the lodge, so we went around with a candle and a flashlight checking the bed and our belongings. Neatless to say, we tucked the mosquito net very firmly in under our bed. It was such a long, exhausting and impressive day that we fell asleep around 21h. A routine we kept up for the rest of our stay.

After breakfast on the second day, we were handed rubber boots, the equipment for our rainforest walk. For about three hours, we slashed our way through the thick jungle and faced all kinds of dangers: poisonous caterpillars, killer ants, spiders, the smallest and most poisonous frog of the world (everything we saw was pretty much the most dangerous of its kind...). But we also saw some more harmless animals like crickets and butterflies and we got a lesson in healing plants and saw a walking tree, yes, they exist! It was super humid and warm in the forest so that the sweat was just pouring and our guide jogged more than he walked which was impessive giving that the path was rather muddy and rough. But the most strenuous part of the walk was definately our obstacle course through the swamp. We had to balance over a couple of fallen trees, standing in knee high mud, around us thigh high mud. The three year old son of the Norwegian family was carried through the swamp and still burst in tears on the other side, imagine how I felt...

After a well deserved lunch, we headed out to the lakes again and fished for piranhas that we obviously threw back in. Alive. No fishing in a restricted area! I am not sure how animal friendly that whole procedure was but neither Grim nor I caught any, so we have a clear conscience, we basically just fed the piranhas a lot of meat. During the day, we were surprised by some crazy rainforest showers, you have just about enough time to throw over the rainponcho before you are completely soaked. We continued our walk of danger, this time after dark when even more nastier animals come out to play. We saw more spiders, one of them was put on Grim's face and he took it very bravely. When we came across the banana spider, the most poisonous spider in the world, even our guide got uneasy. Not a good sign but we made it all safe and sound and hungry to dinner! The food in the lodge was excellent by the way, we got breakfast and a three course lunch and dinner every day and we could try a lot of local fruits.

The third day was all about the local community in the Cuyabeno reserve. We visited a small village of the Sinoa people, one of many indigenous groups. A local woman showed us how to make bread out of the yucca root and we could taste it afterwards. It was quite amazing, she grated the root, pressed out the water which turned the Yucca into a coconut flakes like structure and then she pressed the flour onto a hot plate on the fireplace and the flakes turned into a solid tortilla. The taste was a little dull but it was still a nice experience, unfortunately, the whole show was stolen by the family's pets: monkeys. The big one climbed on everyone, hung artistically from the ceiling and went after the yucca bread while the small one which was full grown was being cute.

Our next visit was to the shaman of the Sinoa community. The shamans are healers or medicine men and they detect an illness by the use of Ayahuasca, a highly hallucinatory drink. The whole visit felt a little awkward and staged, we could ask him questions and then two of the men in our group received a "cleaning ritual" by being beaten on the back with big nettles. Grim and I would have preferred a more educational visit on what shamans are and what natural materials they work with but it was okay. Support the local culture.

On our last day, we had to get up early to watch birds and dolphins. We saw some parrots and toucans but the dolphins were more exciting. The fresh water dolphins look different than the flippers we know, they have a long mouth and a more compact body, hence, they don't jump high which made it almost impossible to take a photo. We had about 100 shots of water in motion, so you just gotto believe us that we saw three of them, even though we have no proof.

After breakfast, we were on our way back to civilization and that trip was long, two hours on the boat, two hours on a minibus and nine hours on a travelcoach. We were back in our hostel in Quito by 23h, very tired and exhausted but deeply moved and amazed by what we saw during the last days and our trip to the Samona Lodge was one of the highlights of our South America trip!

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Comments

[Lola_from Argentina]

perfect trip_perfect notes
Grim &Sophie: you did really well, your retelling was perfect to make a perfect view of the trip. You sound grateful to the places and to the people. I´m planning to travel to the jungle, but probably on a boat from Coca_Napo River. Thanks for your notes.