Toucans, Tortoises, and More

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Geo: -1.04021, -77.6836

We had a slightly later start this morning than on other days of the tour, and I don't believe we met for breakfast until 8:00am or 8:30am. We had a rain forest tour set for the morning and had again been told to don "jungle wear" -- meaning, long pants and long sleeves. We also wore our Mackintosh boots again. It was already warm at breakfast, and we knew it would only get more so.

After fighting our way into the same boots we'd worn the previous night -- luckily they'd cleaned them for us -- we made our way back down to the boat launch and headed upstream about 20 minutes. We were going to hike through a several-thousand-acre-large rain forest reserve set aside to protect it from the oil industry. As we docked and made our way to a pavilion on the edge of the forest, the foliage was so dense that you couldn't make out the terrain or how high we might be heading. We would soon learn. They had a large collection of walking sticks from which we could choose, and they proved to be lifesavers. If I had read the tour information more closely, I might have noticed that this morning's hike was labeled "strenuous."

We again followed our local guide, who led us up and up and up a trail hacked through the jungle. He would stop periodically to show us things; our regular guide Pato would translate from Quichua into English. We kept hiking steadily upwards, and the mud was getting deeper and the walking more strenuous. The tree cover was so dense, that we still couldn't see how much higher we had to go, so we just kept on plodding along. We crossed one river over a suspension bridge, which could only hold two people at a time. A couple folks had fears of heights, so it was an "interesting" crossing. About 20 minutes later we reached a deep crevasse, over which they had installed a rope chair. We loaded up and crossed one by one. One member of our party -- the wife from Ukraine -- had to call it quits and this point, and our local guide led her back down to wait for us, as we were hiking a loop and would -- we were assured -- be arriving back where we started.

We finally reached the summit, though that makes it sound like we climbed more than we probably did. From the top, we had a clear view out over the river and the surrounding preserve. At that point, the hike was definitely worth while. Then, as if to accentuate how out of shape we all were, our guide emerged from the jungle. He'd hiked all the way back down with Natalia and then sprinted all the way back up to meet us.

The hike down was again challenging, and we were all dripping in sweat when we finally reached the river and the boats. At this point, we had the option of floating back to the lodge on a log raft, ala Tom Sawyer. As everyone in our party was going, I elected to ride back on the canoe -- the raft was already pretty full. I got the job of official photographer, as everyone handed me their camera and I took picture after picture on different people's cameras as they floated down the river.

Lunch was back at the resort and we had an afternoon activity of our choosing. As it worked out, everyone elected to do so the same trip, which was a visit to a local animal sanctuary. Anna was the sole person who elected to skip this trip. She said she had seen enough monkeys between Costa Rica and South Africa, and would much rather take "the world's longest shower." I'm sure, too, she was relishing the idea of some alone time after being cooped up with us for so long.

We boarded the boats again, minus the boots this time, and traveled about 30 minutes up two separate tributaries to the Napo River until we reached a privately funded Swiss animal reserve. It is staffed almost exclusively by volunteers, most of them from Europe, and they care for indigenous animals who have either been injured or, as was the more common case, were kept as pets and then had to be taken away. As we were waiting for our guide to arrive -- a young woman from Germany, spending a couple of months volunteering at the shelter -- we heard a loud ruckus in the trees above us. As if out of nowhere, two monkeys threw themselves onto the roof of the hut in which we were waiting, and then swung down to the trees in front of us. One of them made a grab for the hat of one of our party, but missed. It was a male/female pair, with the mother carrying a young baby. The two had evidently been nursed back to health in the center and released the previous year, but they keep returning on their own accord, and now with a baby in tow.

It was a very eclectic collection of animals and birds spread out in cages and enclosures sprinkled throughout the jungle. Lots of parrots who had been abandoned, as well as quite a few monkeys also kept as pets who can not survive on their own in the wild. We even saw a jaguar, which had evidently been abandoned in a hotel room in Quito. I have to wonder what the maid thought when they entered that room!

The ride back was heavenly, as the sun was beginning to set and we traveled fast enough to dry most of the heavy sweat from our bodies. It had been very humid in the jungle. We showed up for dinner looking like we'd been wrung out, while Anna emerged from the villa freshly scrubbed, wearing clean clothes, and looking like she was ready to hit the mall.

We wanted to swim after dinner but everyone was too tired. It was an early night for all.

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