From Coca it is a 2 hour power boat ride up the Napo river (a main Amazon tributary) and a further 2 hour canoe ride up Anangu Creek (paddling done by staff of course) to get to the Napo Wildlife Centre. It is remote.

It is owned and run by the Anangu Kichwa tribe and so all the money goes back into the local community. I guess that helps justify the hefty price tag! The hotel is beautiful, and considering all the materials were brought to the site via canoe, nothing short of a miracle. We were in one of the newer, even more luxury, suites right on the lakefront. Bliss.

And so we spent 5 days and 4 nights being shown the wonders of pristine Amazon rainforest. Except it didn't rain, we had exceptionally nice weather. Happy days.

I won't turn this into a Galapagos style blog. During the canoe trips and jungle hikes we saw countless birds, monkeys, insects, caymans, the odd lizard, the occasional spider, and the star attraction, Giant Otters. I'll stick a few photos up.

One encounter was a little extra interesting. We were visiting the local community and being shown how to use a blow dart pipe from a hide. A few of the group had already been in, with a few shots almost hitting target, and my turn came. I got into the hide and immediately noticed a relatively large spider on the wall. I bravely (!) took my shot anyway (missed) and then got Fabrice to pass in the camera for a shot of the spider. Showing the picture to our guide he immediately identified it as one of the more dangerous types of Wolf Spider and stopped anyone else going into the hide!

And that's that. An amazing experience of the Amazon in the lap of luxury.