The Amazon

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After one failed attempt to get to the Amazon, failed because the local agency we booked through decided they couldn´t take us at the eleventh hour, it took a nightmare 13 hour bus journey to even arrive at the edge of Cuyabeno.

Cuyabeno is an area of primary rainforest located along the northeast border of Ecuador and Columbia. An area we later found tourist groups had been advised to stay away from! We should probably have realised this when on arrival we sat down to breakfast with the Ecuadorian Army.

From the edge of the national park we ventured 3 hours downstream to our lodge. On the journey we saw kingfishers, electric blue giant butterflies and 3 types of monkey.

We had been warned that the lodge was basic, but it really was basic! It consisted of 4 wooden huts, one was to be our living, cooking and eating area, the others were for sleeping. All were open to the elements.

The first evening we went on a torch-lit night walk, the best time to find all the insects. Fully covered up, to avoid bites and stings, we saw bugs and arachnids of all shapes and sizes, including scorpion spiders and an Amazonian lobster (a type of grasshopper larger than your hand!!). The highlight was a huge red backed tarantula, the down side was that it was within metres of our bedroom. Even more worrying was the tarantula we found later beneath our bedroom!

The next morning we went for a 4 hour trek through the rainforest that included wading through muddy swamps. This became all the more amusing when after a few minutes Lorna found her welly had a hole, towards the end the hole made no difference when she decided to take a dive into one anyway!

On the trek our guide attempted to show us how to climb a tree using a vine wrapped around the feet. Mark and the other 3 on our trek attempted and failed miserably. He cheered up however when the guide let him take ownership of the machete for the remainder of the walk.

In the evening we paddled out into the lagoon to look for Cayman. After a while we found their red eyes staring at us in the torch light. We managed to pull the boat within a metre of a pair of these eyes and sat watching. Mark´s thoughts were largely centred on the fact that a few hours earlier, at sunset, he had been swimming in the same water!

Day three, the rainforest lived up to its name ... the heavens opened! Most of the day was spent in a hammock watching in awe the amount of rain. Mark and the other guys ventured out on the boat for piranha fishing, with fishing rods made from trees cut down on yesterday´s trek.

After 3 days we were pleased to be returning to civilisation, in particular, running water and dinner unaccompanied by giant cockroaches and other bugs hissing in the candle light.

On the final day we were still hoping to see pink river dolphins and anacondas on the boat trip back. Unfortunately we didn´t get to see either, but were able to see a sloth and numerous other types of monkey.

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