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Published: September 6th 2006
(sings) "And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain..."
Well, actually, it's been nearly two weeks since I left Ecuador, but I haven't had the time and inclination until now to write up my last two and a half weeks there. This is partly due to travelling the length of the country for the ten days I went travelling, and then not having the will to sit down in front of a computer and put fingers to keyboard... So, better late than never, is what happened in the last days:
So when I last wrote I was in Quito about to head off to Sasquisili market, having just heard that there was a bomb plot in London and my friend Tilly, who'd been hoping to come to Ecuador that day, won't be coming until the following Tuesday, five days later. Unable to do more than change her room reservation, we hopped a bus to Sasquisili. It's a much smaller market than Otavalo in the North, but here there is much more of a mixture of goods available, from 8 rolls of toilet paper for a dollar, to intricately carved gourds for $25 and more... Rather
Rainbow
Where's the pot of gold??than having huge amounts of tourtist offerings, there were less but these were higher quality and the stallholders were willing to offer a 'discount' readily. I managed to get a lot of presents here, but probably that's because I had a reasonably clear idea what I wanted for whom.
In the afternoon we headed back to Quito and repacked our bags so we wouldn't bring our gifts to the jungle, left some bags in storage, and then turned in. In the morning we headed off to the airport for the 10.30 flight, but after delays only arrived in Lago Agrio at 12.30. The flight was brief, giving us a dramatic sight of the magnificent Cayambe as the clouds moved by its snowy peaks. The humidity and heat hit us as soon as we left the plane, and we waited in a small room for our bags before meeting the rest of our tour group and getting on a bus that would take us to the river and our canoe down the Aguarico river to the Cuyabeno National Park. After a bumpy, sticky ride along half-formed roads that ran along the oil pipeline, we arrived at the river back where
our guide 'Maple' was waiting with a packed lunch and our onward transportation.
It was 3.30pm when we headed off down the river, and immediately I knew I would love this trip. The landscape, deforested as the riverbanks were, was amazing. The dark river rippled and eddyed along its wide expanse, small families washing and bathing in the shallows by the banks, locals motoring past us in motorised dugout canoes. Everyone trying to avoid the huge submerged driftwood trees whose branches poked up through the surface of the water. The water level was low, a symptom of the dry season, and everywhere the low water revealed huge sandbanks, the white beaches of Amazonia, as unexpected as penguins in the tropical Galapagos islands.
As we continued to speed downstream with the current a rainbow arched over the river above us, giving way to an amazing sunset that cast the forest into dramatic silhouette. Just as the light was about to fade completely we turned off the Aguarico river and turned into the smaller Cuyabeno Blackwater, where our lodge lay fifteen minutes upstream.
Our lodge was built on stilts beside the river, and consisted of a roof and a raised
floor. The bathroom stoodm on its own and had walls, but the rest of the area was open, and privacy was given by the tentlike mosquito nets that were our beds, a mattress build into their bottom. The other area was our eating area. There was no electricity, so we lit our rooms with candles and ate dinner by candle light, getting to know the other people in our group. We were lucky as we were nine in total, which was a good size to get to know everyone, and meant there were no big waits to use the bathroom! After dinner we had a quick introductory chat from 'Maple', who told us about our itinerary for the next three days, and told us that our native guide would join us in the morning.
The next morning we went in the canoe along the river for about fifteen minutes and hiked back to the lodge through the forest. On the way Domingo, who was our native guide, showed us giant centipedes, lots of tree frogs, a tapir footprint and a massive leaf-cutter ant nest. When we were near the nest we could hear a beeping noise under the ground,
and Domingo said it was a boa constrictor snake that lived in symbiosis with the ants and protected their nest in return for food. It sounded pretty close to the surface but we were reassured that the snake was five or six metres underground. In a way I hoped it would come out and have a look around as I really wanted to see what it looked like (I really like boa constrictors after having held one at the Vivarium in Quito a few weeks before). But we moved on, Domingo telling us about all of the medicinal uses of the plants, that some of the larger trees live for 500 years, and showing us some of the ways to survive in the forest (he built a shelter in five minutes from palm leaves, and showed us how to call for help by hitting the sides of large tree roots). I was really surprised how open the forest floor was, and the variety of plants that were similar to those I saw in the cloud forest at La Hesperia.
After a hearty lunch we set out in the afternoon in the motor boats with the dugout canoes and drove
upstream to a sandbank from where we would paddle back to the lodge. In the yellow sunlight the forest looked beautiful, and we paddled along the banks lingering to look at birds and plants. Half way home we came across a pink river dolphin that surfaced a couple of times round a bend of the river, and we were all left rubbing out eyes and wondering if we had seen anything at all. These dolphins don't leap out of the water, or follow boats like their sea-dwelling cousins. They are very shy and rare to see, so we were very lucky to catch a glimpse of them. As we paddled back to the lodge was had further sighting of toucans flying over the river and could hear parrots and parakeets screeching in the trees. That night after dinner we went for a night hike in the forest surrounding the lodge, seeing lizards, frogs, huge nasty-looking spiders and a land crab. The sounds of the forest were amazing, and very difficult to describe. As we walked we could hear monkeys jumping from tree to tree above us, but too high up in the dense canopy to be seen with our torches.
When we got back to the lodge we found tarantulas in holes in the ground under our bedroom (which was a comfort!!).
After a sound night's sleep (I'm not scared of spiders - honest!), we woke up at 5.00am to go to the lodge's observation tower to watch birds at sunrise. It was a beautiful half hour canoe ride upstream to the tower, where we climbed to the top and watched toucans flying from tree to tree, saw white forest hawks, and macaw pairs flying by and heard the odd piercing birdcalls that pervaded the still morning air. On a huge tree on the opposite bank of the river I watched a black bird with a yellow-striped tail make a sound somewhere between a wood pigeon and a submarine. As it did so, it flicked it's tail upwards dramatically in a gesture I guess was meant to get it noticed, as it's silhouette stood proud and clear of the tree branches. I will always remember that moment, with the clear blue sky above, the black silky river waters below and the early rays of the risen sun turning the upper parts of the trees yellow and orange. It was
Domingo's Jungle Shelter
Built entirely out of palm leaves, with no glue, string etc to hold it together... so peaceful that morning. I didn't bring my camera that morning. And I'm kicking myself!
We returned to the lodge, had some breakfast, and then set out in the boat again, this time to find a quiet spot to do some pirhana fishing. The first couple of locations were not good, but we did see a little family of terrapins sitting on a rock on the river bank, and a huge flock of green parakeets that screeched and flews around in avian clouds as we passed by. After our third try we moved to a place where our driver caught a pirhana almost straight away. After ten minutes, Anders, a Canadian guy on our boat, also caught a pirhana, and we kept it to try a little pirhana meat at lunch. As we went to leave our fishing spot and head home, we caught sight of more pink river dolphins, and this time watched for about fifteen minutes as they came to the surface to breathe, and then arched their pearly-pink dorsal fins on their way back underwater. Spotting where they would surface next was a problem, but for some reason they hung around a while and this time
Domingo's Jungle Drums
Just hit the side of this tree root, and they'll know where to find you (it sounds like a bomb going off!) we got a proper look at them.
After a spot of pirhana fish for lunch (Anders generously let everyone have a taste) Domingo, our guide, invited everyone to try a spot of waterskiing on some waterskis he had made out of huge pieces of balsa wood he had found in the forest. After much hilarity and some of our fellow group members almost losing their swimwear, we had to stop and head off to our penultimate destination on our tour - the indigenous Quichua community where Domingo lived. We drove downstream to the village and Domingo again showed us medicinal plants and trees. We saw another kind of heliconia I hadn't seen before, balsa trees, bitter cane, guanabana, achiote (which is used as a red dye - and Domingo made designs on our faces with it) and some tiny little monkeys called Pocket Monekys (about 10cms high) clutching the trunks of trees next to the path. In the village itself we met some of the locals, looked round the school, and bought locally made jewellery from the Quichua women. As we were leaving a spectacular sunset coloured the western sky, turning the walls of the wooden houses golden. I
was truly sorry to think of leaving this place, and couldn't believe that time had passed so quickly and we would leave in the morning.
At dinner the staff made a cake to say thank you for our visit, another delicious item on the lovely menu we enjoyed at every meal. We headed out after dinner in the canoe (under a sea of stars) to see if we could spot any caiman. Not long after we began we saw the orange glow of repile eyes from the riverbank, and Domingo brought a young caiman into the boat so we could take a closer look. We drove on and saw a few more adult caiman swimming in the shadows, and then returned to the lodge to pack for the morning. After a fun evening we all headed to bed, with the knowledge we were in for an early start as road protests had been warned at Lago Agrio, and could potentially delay our journey back to the highlands.
In the morning we took the four and a half hour canoe ride back upriver and were met by a truck that had managed to get through the roadblocks that surrounded
Lago Agrio. After an eventful journey that included changing trucks three times, hiding at road blocks, and walking a few kilometers between rides, we got to Lago Agrio, only to see that the way out was well and truly closed. We had hoped to take a bus to Cuenca, but decided that the best thing to do would be to try and get on the last flight back to Quito. With only 45 minutes to spare, we started walking from the town centre to the airport, when a guy offered to give us a lift with our bags, taking us right round the town and round the road blocks. At 5.22 we got to the tiny airport and asked if there were any seats left on the Quito flight. The reply was yes, they held the plane, and we took off on time at 5.30pm - not something you could do at Heathrow - but thank goodness for South America! We had just got our breath back when we arrived in Quito at 6.00pm, grabbed beds in the dorm room at our usual hostal, and relaxed.... It had been an exciting end to our trip! Tomorrow would see us heading
down south overnight to Loja, with a view to spending a couple of nights in the town of Vilcabamba, nestled amongst the mountains in what the Incas called the Valley of Longevity.
To be continued....
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George y Rosie
Rosita Crespo
Beautiful, Anna,
Just beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful adventures!