Today's I leave Quito and take a short (30 minute) flight to the town of Coca, which is in the Amazon rainforest, east of Quito and on the confluence of the Coca and Napo Rivers. My home for 3 nights will be the Yachana lodge on the Napo River. My research on Yachana (www.yachana.com) found that it is more than just accommodation and my trip notes indicate that I will be doing more than just looking at animals and plants, including visiting their training centre (more on this later), visiting some of the local commercial activities and experiencing some local culture. Have a look up the website if you have a spare minute - it is a very interesting story.

As expected, I was up early, ready for 7am departure, however the driver was late, due to heavy traffic and then to the airport in 45 minutes. I was taken inside by one of the tour people and after 10 mins of waiting in a long queue that I calculated would take to my departure time to get me to the checkin counter, my minder found the rep from Yachana Lodge, who whisked me away to an empty group tour checkin desk and within several minutes I was checked in, through security screening and had found my gate. Yippee.

However a quick check of the departures board revealed that my flight was delayed so I filled in the time with a coffee and half a piece of delicious chocolate cake - not my usual fare but I figured that I had 3 days of fruit and veggies ahead of me at Yachana lodge so a bit of indulgence wasn't going to hurt. Besides - see pic, I did resist going for the special offer of 2 Heinekens and nachos for $15. Too early!

Just going back for a second I must mention that when I met the Yachana Lodge representative, she handed me a much taped up shoebox sized package in an equally taped up plastic bag and told me that it was a boxed lunch for myself and my guide. I must admit that Schapelle Corby did spring to mind and I wondered what have penalties in Ecuador are for carrying packages that you don't pack yourself. My comfort was that the box was labelled 'Yachana Lodge' so I hoped that I would be safe. :)

In the end the flight boarded about 10 mins after the departure time - luckily I noticed that boarding had started as the electronic board continued to say 'delayed'. Fortunately I had a window seat and just after takeoff spotted what I took to be massive greenhouses. I hadn't realised till I got here that Ecuador's largest export is oil, followed by flowers. It seems that Russia is one of their largest markets, the red roses that they sell for Valentine's Day alone is a huge share of it. I thought that perhaps some of the greenhouses were used for flowers - as I wouldn't have thought that outside would be the best for flowers in the tropics.

At Coca I was met by a quite young Alfonso and after my obligatory bathroom stop ahead of a 2.5 hour car trip (usually travellers go by boat to Yachana but in my briefing yesterday I learnt I would do the car thing to the lodge and boat back). While waiting for our car / taxi Alfonso told me that he had been working for Yachana for about 8 months and while he grew up about 2 hours from here he went to high school at Yachana and won a scholarship to complete his last year of high school in the USA - living with a family in Austin, Texas.

Pretty soon the flamboyant taxi driver Nelson arrived, loaded up my bag and we headed off, with a short detour around Coca to show me the town and buy some bottled water. As we drove out of town Nelson was kept busy responding to the many toots, waves and greetings he got from other drivers, riders and pedestrians. We then got going at Nelson's preference for one speed - as fast as possible, though at one stage Alfonso did check with me that I was OK with the speed. I must add though that with most of the windows down for air conditioning, we probably weren't going nearly as fast as it felt and that his complete disregard for solid yellow lines may have been a local custom.

Our 2+ hours trip took us further and further away from built up areas / farms and after a brief stop in Loreto, the town that Alfonso said was the closest to the lodge, we turned off the main road and went into an area that had farms growing cattle, corn, bananas as well as lots of uncultivated looking areas.


We went across some interesting river crossings and along a country road that suddenly became dirt, then mud, then very very rocky and Nelson's driving skills became apparent. As we drove we continued past some small farms but mostly jungle (or at least 'bush') with a few houses here and there and lots of kids who looked like they were either on their way home from school or just hanging around. I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to arrive when all of a sudden there was a sign for Yachana and we were here. We dropped my bag at the 'office' and made our way up a short path to a large, high ceilings building that was clearly a dining area and kitchen.

Here we took time to admire the view and Alfonso filled me in on the facility, our program for the next 3 days and the Foundation that runs the Lodge and programs for the community. We were then joined by Douglas who is the owner and initiator of the foundation, who had come to the dining hall for lunch, so we joined him. Alfonso and I opened our boxed lunch and I was pleased to find just sandwiches, fruit and juice. Nothing else in the box. During lunch I had my first opportunity to eat an Ecuadorian mango, which I had seen for sale in long bags, by street hawkers. These mangoes are about the size of a lemon and are eaten by first of all squishing them until the pulp and juice are semi-liquid. Next you bite off the end where the stalk was and suck out the juicy pulp. It was delicious, if somewhat messy.

After lunch Alfonso showed me to my cabin. I am at the end of what are several rows down steep and rocky paths.

My cabin is fantastic - I think I may have died and come to heaven and if I never see you again, this is where you will find me. Pics attached probably don't do it justice, but see the hammock on the left on the verandah, well that is where I am swinging as I write to you.

But some descriptions: as above, my cabin is at the end of the row and I have a glimpse of the others along to the right. The buildings are a little over a year old and beautifully finished in timber with great bathroom accessories and I love the way the towels are folded (pic). Most importantly the view is to die for - the river looks magnificent and when I leave I will be heading down the river by boat to Coca, which should be interesting - and no less safe than Nelson's driving, that's for sure.

Wifi is great, hence I can post every day, no windows, just fly / mosquito screens. Minimal curtains.

A tour group is coming in later today with their own guide to share the facility but Alfonso has let me know he is my personal guide for touring around, though there are some visits to local families and a culinary experience (food preparation and cooking) that I believe I will join with the tour. I am meeting him shortly at 2.30 for a 1.5 hour hike and have been issued with gumboots and a poncho as it is likely to rain. I also have instructions to wear long pants, long sleeved top, insect repellant, camera and binoculars. Sounds great.

Well, the walk is over and it was great, but also humid, sweaty, soggy, slippery and heaps interesting. I am back in the hammock as the sun sets - pic of the view.

Despite being difficult walking, the hike was great. The area around the lodge that Yachanda has bought, around 3,000 acres now, is mainly new growth jungle, with a few old growth jungle areas, which are quite different - much bigger trees, less daylight and a dense canopy. My snaps attempt to give you a sense of what I saw and the pic of me is on an enormous capoc tree with huge buttress roots. As young trees they have spikes to deter the many plant climbers, including the strangler ones. However once they are mature the spikes fall off and on this one I could see brown marks on the lower trunk where the spikes used to be. I also saw another tree with spikier spikes, heaps of vines, trees of all sizes, a few birds, heaps of insects, several streams and fortunately not the boa constrictor that Alfonso and the staff saw in a tree near the road yesterday.

While we walked Alfonso also told me a lot about the local communities, how they function, the impact of mining by a major Amazon company, an Ecuadorian company and more recently the Chinese. He also filled me in a bit more on the work being done by the Yachana foundation In encouraging education and supporting micro financing of local business. I am sure I will hear more about this but the website is interesting.

Just about time for dinner. I will post this before I fall asleep and include any interesting dinner points tomorrow.

PS: its insect capital now that it is dusk. The peace and quiet has been replaced by a noisy insect din.