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Published: October 29th 2007
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For me, this was the part of our visit to South America that I was looking forward to most. I have always been intrigued by the Amazon rainforest. I had also been eager to visit Coca since I read Joe Kane's book "Savages" (a fascinating read if you can get your hands on it(. Not because Coca is a particularly beautiful place, in fact it is far from it, but to see for myself both sides of Ecuador's Oriente - on the one hand, the most biodiverse region in the world, and conversely the devastating impact of the oil industry on both the forest and it´s indigenous people. Coca became the heart of the oil industry in Ecuador when the oil companies arrived on the Rio Napo in 1987. With them came the Capuchin missionaries, uncontrolled colonisation and crude oil pollution. The impact of oil exploration on the environment, the national economy and the national psyche is most pertinent in the Ecuadorian Amazon and in his book, Kane chronicles the gradual destructive impact of both Ecuadorian and foreign oil companies on the native Huarorani people.
I was pleasantly surprised by Coca and didn´t find it to be the dirty oil
town that I had read about. I guess that over the years the oil companies have cleaned up their act somewhat and Coca seems to be thriving on both oil and tourism (it is the main departure point for trips into the surrounding rainforest). We stayed at the infamous Hotel El Auca, the poshest pad in town. This is where the high ranking oil execs stay when they are in town. Our room overlooked a lovely garden complete with four resident macaws! Again, not the gritty town I was expecting...
Our 5 hour bus journey through the jungle over rough terrain really put us off catching the 10 hour bus back to Quito at the end of our stay here, so at the last minute we made the wise decision to splurge $56 on a flight back to Quito. We still maintain that this was the best decision of our trip so far...
We were collected by the Sani Lodge people at our hotel at 12am and they brought us to the little port on the Rio Napo, one of the biggest tributaries of the Amazon. There we met some of the other guests. Mark and I looked
Sani Lodge
On the way to Sani Lodge, down the Rio Napo on a motorised canoe so ill prepared compared to most of the others! They came equipped with full on safari gear, binoculars the size of NASA telescopes and cameras with lenses as long as Inspector Gadget´s arms. Thank the Lord, there were two other left out souls who we latched on to straight away, a lovely couple from New Zealand. So off we went on the motorised canoe down the Rio Napo. The boat ride was stunning. We passed by children coming home from school in canoes, tiny settlements along the river, and people bathing in it. We also saw the some of the oil settlements on the way, ugly and unattractive barges lining the banks. We had a lovely lunch, wrapped in banana leaves. About two hours into the journey the rain started. It was incredible, it was some of the heaviest rain I have ever felt and we were soaked to the skin (despite being adorned with rain ponchos by the staff). The rain didn't bother us though, it was beautiful. After 3 hours of motoring we switched into a smaller canoe to bring us down the narrow tributary to the lodge. Half an hour later we arrived and enjoyed a welcome
Sani Lodge
Kate with our sambos wrapped in a banana leaf! drink and snacks at the bar, overlooking the lagoon. We dried off and settled into our beautiful private cabana in the forest. There was no glass in the windows, just a mosquito mesh, so we could hear all the sounds from the trees.
The next morning we were up at 5.30am, enjoyed a filling breakfast and headed off with our guides Javier and Patricio trekking through the rainforest. It's not hard to believe that there is more life in this place than there is anywhere else in the world as you walk around, listening to the chorus of birds, insects, monkeys. Sometimes its almost deafening. Javier, who spoke fluent English knew so much about everything in the forest. He knew the sounds of every bird and could talk for about 10 minutes on everything he showed us. The symbiosis between so many different organisms, from ants to trees to plants, is incredible. Mark was particularly fascinated by the ant trails, in some places you can see a trail of ants, for as far as the eye can see. They are all working away frantically, its really cool. We spotted lots of wildlife, including monkeys. Now, at this stage I
Rio Napo
Oil activity on the Rio Napo was taking quite a fancy to Patricio, our native guide. I don't know whether it was his long silky hair, his mysterious eyes, or dark Ecuadorian looks which won me over, but my god, he was handsome. When he swung his machete through the air, clearing branches and thorns out of our path, my heart just skipped a beat.... Luckily, Mark being a great boyfriend, totally understood the attraction. He even spent hours trying to capture the elusive Patricio on camera for me. I think even Mark found him strangely endearing...
That evening Javier and Patricio brought us out in the canoe to a little lake where we did some piranha fishing. Only our Kiwi friend, Adele actually caught one (of course, Patricio caught one too... that goes without saying(. Mark and I proved ourselves to be the worst fishermen ever, as each time we loaded up on bait, the little piranhas managed to steal it without attaching to the hook. It was really good fun though. The best part was being out on the water and hearing all the wildlife. Stunning. That evening Mark went on a night hike and saw a tarantula which he still has nightmares
about. When he arrived back to our cabana, he was as white as a ghost, terrified of the tarantula, or "death machine" as he likes to call it. He also saw loads of stick insects which was pretty cool.
Next day, another early morning hike up to the bird tower where we actually enjoyed looking at birds for an hour. It's not as boring as it sounds, we discovered! We also saw and heard howler monkeys, they sound like wild boars, totally weird. Their sound reverberates throughout the forest for miles. In the afternoon, we went to visit Patricio's brother's house. This involved an hour long motorised canoe ride along the Napo and then a little further down a tributary. When we got there, the whole family was so welcoming and Patricio and Javier showed us around the place. Patricio's brother and his wife live in a tiny hut with their nine children. Amazing really. We sat around drinking chicha and chatting for a while. Javier showed us plants used by shamans which was cool too. This outing was definately one of the highlights of our trip so far. It was an incredible feeling to be so warmly welcomed
into a home. In the evening we went out on the canoe on the lagoon searching for caimans, and we saw LOADS! It was amazing, but they are not so friendly, and thrashed around a bit when they saw us. It was so nice being out on the lagoon in the dark, and seeing lots of glow worms. Unreal.
We were sad to leave Sani the next day, but we are both agreed that it was an experience of a lifetime and one which we will never forget.
Before I sign off, I have to thank everyone for all their comments and messages left on the blog. You have no idea how nice it is to receive them and we really love to get feedback. Keep them coming!
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Fiona
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I love that you get an Amazonian God and Mark gets... a mouthful of ants and a tarantula! Your Gisele will be hanging around the next tree, I'm sure of it Mark. I'm off to Edinburgh this wknd, can't wait!