Amazonas

Day 1: A quick turnaround after landing back from the Galapagos took us to Quito airport the next morning - the 20th May. Met by a representative from Sacha Lodge who had already checked us in and then pointed us in the direction of the airline lounge (nice) - clearly this was going to be a luxury trip with these standards set up front. Then the short flight to Coca which is beautiful to get an aerial view of the river as it snakes its way through the dense jungle.

A quick stop in Coca to gather a packed lunch and visit the loo, and then off on a 2 ½ hr boat ride on the Napa River to the lodge (in a little wooden boat). This is a funny river because despite it being up to 1km wide in many places it is also very shallow in many places and the boat, small as it was, had to do all kinds of fancy manoeuvres bow to avoid the many sandbanks. Guiding us through these was the shotgun who perched on the bow of the boat. Arriving to the lodge path, we walked the ½ hr walk through the rainforest canopy to the lodge lagoon where the final section of the trip was by dugout canoe. The rain had been pouring down on our boat ride, so this was quite a muddy walk, but then I guess this is a rainforest!

We met at the lodge for a welcome drink and briefing, we were then taken to our wooden cabin. This place is so humid that you have a special box in your cabin with a light that is permanently on, to put any electrical stuff so it does not go funny or grow fungus.

A little later we met a guide again, and were taken to the butterfly house. En route we spotted our first cayman (amazon alligator) underneath one of the cabins. In the butterfly house there were loads of beautiful butterflies, (eating bananas funnily enough), including the stunning owl eye butterfly. Even better, the next stop was to see pygmy marmoset monkeys, the smallest monkeys in the world which is only about 3 inches tall!! We also spied an insect disguised as a leaf (you cannot believe how good a disguise this is), and a black agouti (cousin of the guinea pig) which is one of the key sources of food for the anacondas.

After a buffet dinner in their restaurant, we went for a night time dugout canoe ride. The sound volume of the insects at night time is quite something. Being in the middle of the jungle without any background noise to interfere they are so loud, even louder than being in the bush.

Day 2: Up at 5 for a yummy breakfast after which our guide thought he would make the most of having young, fit (ish) people. We went on a 'walk', along a route that had not been used for over a year. This was great - it gave us a glimpse of the 'real' rainforest, as many of the other paths at the lodge have wooden paths laid down. Our native guide Angel took the lead here, and spent a lot of his time using his machete to hack through the undergrowth to make a path for us. We saw some of my favourite things here - coca plants with their pods and coffee bean plants. We also spotted black manta tamarind (bebe leche) monkeys. Much of the walk was through swamps, fetid and stagnant, with the water up to and almost over the top of our gum boots. Slow progress indeed as we tried our best not to topple over into the water as we waded through swamp and mud!! This was a bit of a crazy experience, but well worthwhile. After lunch we went for another walk, this time with the other couple in our group, which was more sedate along the pathed routes!

After this came one of the best parts of the trip - our local guide (Angel) taught us how to fish for piranhas. With nothing more than a stick with some twine and a hook on the end and some raw chicken and beef we cast off the end of the pier. He was really good and started catching them immediately, while we struggled to get the hang of it. Basically you have a split second to feel them start taking the bait to yank up on the line and try hook them. And I do mean split second as these hungry fishies just devour the meat without giving you much of a chance. I won the personal battle to catch the first one!! Sean says he won the challenge of catching the most - but obviously there wasn't any such challenge..... Once you have caught them you get to look at their phenomenally sharp teeth - these guys were made for one thing only.

Then the craziest part of our trip - no sooner had we been fishing for piranhas and releasing them back into the water and we were diving off the edge of the pier into the cool black water of the Sacha lagoon. Yip, they really aren't interested in you....unless you have a cut or something and then it is advised not to get in the water..... As yes I did say black water, it is one of the amazing things of this area where the water appears completely black from the surface! To top off an amazing day dinner was a brilliant outdoor barbeque on the pier with all the lodge guests and guides.

Day 3: The rain come down through the night, amplified many times louder courtesy of the tin roof and the jungles banana leaves. Our activities were delayed by ½ hr due to the rain. We met for breakfast and then made our way to the canopy walkway - 940 ft (275-meter) long. At approximately 94 feet (30 meters) above the ground, imagine exploring the rainforest up in the treetops! The walkway is fixed to the ground by three metal towers for stability, and offers an unbelievable opportunity to spot dozens of animals and birds. At the top we saw howler monkeys, vultures and many other birds. I got too scared, having spent most of my time standing there clutching onto the side and moving only to look through the telescope, so came down leaving the others to cross to the other side on the swinging bridge (gulp). Sean was loving it, not only because of the height and the views, but also because he got to do some of his much loved bird watching. Lunch and mandatory siesta, and we went for another dugout canoe ride, seeing cappuccino and squirrel monkeys. Back to the lodge and Sean went to watch football (Ecuador vs Argentina) with the guides in their accommodation.

After dinner we went on a night walk. The rainforest feels like a different place at night as a world of strange noises and nocturnal creatures come out to play. My mission was to see an armadillo, but sadly we only saw their holes - still that is a start! There were loads of insects that come out under the cover of darkness - stick insects, spiders by the dozen, more agouti, a tree snake and a possum, which our native guide deftly grabbed for us to look at- a hairy face mouse type thing! Our native guide also identified one of the noises we were hearing as ossalo (similar to buffalo) fighting.

Day 4: Our morning was a trip in the dugout canoe, delayed an hour from the heavy rain, to a Kapok tree, with a 40 metre platform built into this old old tree. Getting to the top (this one was much less scary than the canopy walkway) was an amazing experience - basically this is the coolest and highest tree house around. At the top there was a viper on the platform! Quite an unusual sight, especially up there, it was raised up on its belly, showing us we were invading! Our guides got it to move after a while, just in case! From the platform we saw monkeys, birds, and more toucans. Returning to the canoe once we had finished there and back to the lodge as the rain had persisted all morning. It was quite strange though, the rain droplets actually sat on the surface of the rivers before being absorbed into the water......

Our afternoon was spent in the canoe, seeing monkeys & listening to the howler monkeys making their territorial noise. It is an amazing call which sounds like very strong wind rushing through the trees. Apparently they have a special voice box enabling them to throw the noise, which is a really eerie sound.

When we arrived back, we spent time chatting to the other couple in our group, a retired couple who were very sweet and he made us laugh with his dry humour and their funny comments. Sean said they made him think that's how we would be in 40 years (and would hope to be given how happy they were).

Day 5: End of our Amazon adventure. Sadly we have not spotted any anacondas, but it has been an incredible journey through one of nature's most beautiful places in amongst unbelievable greenery broken by splashes of brilliant toucan colour, silent tall giants of trees, musical rain, howling monkeys, crystal clear black waters and a wonderful background symphony of jungle critters. Not only did we see and hear so much, but learnt so much about the rainforest, and to see our local guide putting that into action at times was incredible. A short dugout ride across the lagoon, the walk back to the boat and then the ride back on the Napa River to Coca, our flight back to Quito and our Amazon experience was over.

Back in Quito we visited a local (tourist) market, with all the traditional South American knitted clothes and craft and caught up with ourselves.