Hola! After we left the tour company in Quito and our heavy backpacks in the hostel (crazy you are thinking!) we attempted to use the local bus system to get us to the main bus terminal Quitombe, for our Amazon trip. This took us 3 buses, lots of translations, and sitting under sweaty armpits! Once we finally managed to speak Spanish to about three different people, we found the right station. It took us one hour and 25cents! Sweet. Luckily Jen could converse a bit by now so we found it, if we didnt have any knowledge of the language who knows where we would be now!
Now, for the nightmare bus journey to begin...but not quite. A further hour of chilling in the airport style station, we hit 9.30pm...it was time to find our seats on the bus. It was a good looking bus, looked pretty comfy and was going to be our home for 12hours. We were given crackers and juice to keep us going..nice touch. The bus journey began.
A loud and crazy Ecuadorian movie began and we headed out of Quito. The bus was to take us from 3000m to 300m...we certainly felt it! The journey started off well but then hit the dirt "roads", lol. Not pleasant. The morning came around, no sleep was achieved and at least 1million school kids were picked up and dropped off along the way, lol. At this point we started to see the Amazon baby!!!
Green, lush, vast and awesome looking. We then arrived at what we thought was our stop, were pushed off the bus and saw a sign for the Cuyabeno Reserve...East of Ecuador near the Colombian and Peruvian border. We were greeted by a fast speaking spanish dude who didnt give us much confidence we were in the right place, lol. After 30mins of waiting in the blistering heat after no sleep on the crazy bus...we heard a canoe heading our way. It was our guide Rumolo!...who we now see as a complete legend!! A 22 year old Ecuadorian guy, who has lived in the amazon his whole life. He has only a pair of binolculars, some welly boots, 2 posters of che grevera and a telescope as his possesions, needing nothing more in life. He loves all nature and loves his job as a guide.
Rumolo spoke fluent english and gave us a great welcome. He helped us on our way to the Reserve which was a 40min canoe ride through the beautiful surroundings to a peaceful and fairly remote, lush group of huts called Cuyabeno River Lodge. There were 6 huts and a main hut all made out of local palm leaves, no electricity and water from the river to wash with! Jen didnt take any shampoo so her hair was matted by the time we made it back..we actually considered chopping it all off!
We had breakfast and were told of the 3hour trek that morning after we had settled in! No rest for the wicked eh.
Our first trek took us through the lowlands with a Belgium couple who had been there for one day. What an eye opener...it was incredible. We were in the Amazon alrighte. We saw things like monkey brushes, lots of different Amazonian birds, spiders, and heaps of other stuff. The trees towered above us and the heat was like a sauna. It was so green, not many flowers as it was the wrong season.
The afternoon we travelled down the cuyabeno river to a great shaded spot to go Pirana fishing. We were both not sure if this was agaisnt our ethics but we were in the Amazon so why not}1 We picked up the beef and put it on the end of our hooks and spent an hour fishing for piranas..Jen caught one..but threw it back of course due to our veggieness, lol. I, luckily, was not successful (Terry that is). Our first evening was pretty sleepless due to the loudness of the nocturnal animals and the acclimatisation we needed. The sound of the jungle was so loud it just kept us awake, also our huts had no walls or doors so the likelihood of animals getting into our cabin was high. We only had a mosquito net to protect us and this even had holes in it! We also had bats living on the outside of what was a makeshift wall.
Day two in the Amazon was spent with a new couple from the UK, Nadine and Duncan, who were on their honeymoon. In the morning we trekked through the highlands torrain where we were lucky enough to see Squirrel monkeys, yellow hand titty monkeys, black mantel tamarins and golden pendulum birds, crependeula birds, millepedes, jumping spiders, heaps of termite and ant mounds, soldier ants, marching wasps (which make a marching sound as a defence mechanism, we shouted march loudly so they started, was incredible to hear), congo ants (that will kill you with 10 bites!!), fire flies, clicking beetles....heaps more!!
We also noticed by this point that there were beautiful butterlflies everywhere you looked (owl, tiger and blue to name a few). They were huge, at least 20 cms long. The afternoon of day two was a canoe ride up the river to go swimming. A paddle of 30mins deserved a lush swim in the Amazon River and then a nice easy flow back to the camp afterwards following the butterflies as we went. Terry jumped off the massive falling tree that was in the river at this point, so brave as it was pretty high and chance of piranas and caiman below. I just sat back and took the pictures..lol.
That evening we took the canoe down the river to see some Caymen in the dark!! You could see them by their red eyes when a flashlight hit them. We managed to see 9 that night...it was pretty scary as they reach up to 6metres!! We also slept much better that night, the sounds of the jungle relaxed us as we got more used to our surroundings.
Day three was spent much like day one, quite relaxed, four hour trek, very similar flora and fauna to our first day. We were gearing up for day four which proved to be the best day by far!
The morning began at 8am where a lush breakfast was followed by a 3 hour canoe trip where we saw around 350 monkeys including the white fronted capijin, black mantel tamarin (baby leche in spanish for their white moustaches), black caracara, vultures in the sky, river side hawk, snake bird (that dives in the river when scared and raises its head like a snake), humming birds, water spiders, stinky turkeys (for their size and smell) macaus (blue and yellow), toads and parrots! Awesome eh. What a day, we were blasted by animals and birds and insects. We couldnt have asked for anything more.
The main plan of the day was to hit the lagoon...which we got to after the three hour beautiful boat ride. This was no ordinary lagoon though...it was massive! Here we were lucky to see pink river dolphins and grey dolphins at which point we jumped in for a well deserved swim as it was around 90 degrees by this point! What a special place this lagoon was. The water was so still everything reflected. Seeing the dolphins jump through the river was spectacular. We then went for a further hour deeper into the jungle to see an indigenous community.
When we arrived to the community there was only around 10 small buildings or huts you could say. All of their buildings were on stilts in case of flood. We trekked into the plantation to find yuca (an awesome potato like root vegetable) where we then watched a lady from the community make yuca bread by squeezing out the milk of the vegetable and then grating it followed by a fire session, spreading the yuca like a pizza. It tasted great with some chilli sauce they made from local plants and some lemon!
A long boat ride back to the river lodge where we spotted a 5mtr Caymen on the way and more river dolphins took us into the evening where we discovered a huge tarantula in the camp!! Not cool, lol.
That evening we unexpectedly ended up drinking 2 bottles of Ecuadorian rum with our guides and few other tourists getting pretty tipsy. Tipsy enough to get in a canoe at 1am with very drunk guides to go Caymen hunting again!! A catfish even JUMPED INTO our canoe in front of Jen, lol. It was quite a crazy experience. She nearly pooed her pants!
Day five was quite hungover but we still managed a 3 hour trek through the Amazonian swamps where Jen fell in bum first, lol. The swamp came up to the top of our wellys and was so hard to walk in, it took everything out of us to pick our legs up to take another step! At one point Terry was walking around with a baby Taratula on his back, we all made him wait so we could take pictures before we told him what he had there! The heat was quite unbearable in the swampy area but was a great time all round. Another swim in the river when we got back, trying not to touch the river floor as we were warned about the snakes and stingray on the river bed that could kill you, lol. What an amazing day.
An afternoon chillaxing in the hammocks meant one thing only...it was the end of our trip in the Amazon. We took the canoe back to the bus area and waited for three hours for the bus to finally turn up. It was definitely not the same bus, a local one of much lower standard. I (Terry)basically nearly spewed due to the bumping around and madness...but luckily didnt!!
A 5am arrival back in Quito, we took a taxi back to our hostel where we had left our bags. Luckily there was a room for us and our bags were still there. Check out some of the`piccies, we have thousands but cant upload them all. Hope everyone is well.
Now, for the nightmare bus journey to begin...but not quite. A further hour of chilling in the airport style station, we hit 9.30pm...it was time to find our seats on the bus. It was a good looking bus, looked pretty comfy and was going to be our home for 12hours. We were given crackers and juice to keep us going..nice touch. The bus journey began.
A loud and crazy Ecuadorian movie began and we headed out of Quito. The bus was to take us from 3000m to 300m...we certainly felt it! The journey started off well but then hit the dirt "roads", lol. Not pleasant. The morning came around, no sleep was achieved and at least 1million school kids were picked up and dropped off along the way, lol. At this point we started to see the Amazon baby!!!
Green, lush, vast and awesome looking. We then arrived at what we thought was our stop, were pushed off the bus and saw a sign for the Cuyabeno Reserve...East of Ecuador near the Colombian and Peruvian border. We were greeted by a fast speaking spanish dude who didnt give us much confidence we were in the right place, lol. After 30mins of waiting in the blistering heat after no sleep on the crazy bus...we heard a canoe heading our way. It was our guide Rumolo!...who we now see as a complete legend!! A 22 year old Ecuadorian guy, who has lived in the amazon his whole life. He has only a pair of binolculars, some welly boots, 2 posters of che grevera and a telescope as his possesions, needing nothing more in life. He loves all nature and loves his job as a guide.
Rumolo spoke fluent english and gave us a great welcome. He helped us on our way to the Reserve which was a 40min canoe ride through the beautiful surroundings to a peaceful and fairly remote, lush group of huts called Cuyabeno River Lodge. There were 6 huts and a main hut all made out of local palm leaves, no electricity and water from the river to wash with! Jen didnt take any shampoo so her hair was matted by the time we made it back..we actually considered chopping it all off!
We had breakfast and were told of the 3hour trek that morning after we had settled in! No rest for the wicked eh.
Our first trek took us through the lowlands with a Belgium couple who had been there for one day. What an eye opener...it was incredible. We were in the Amazon alrighte. We saw things like monkey brushes, lots of different Amazonian birds, spiders, and heaps of other stuff. The trees towered above us and the heat was like a sauna. It was so green, not many flowers as it was the wrong season.
The afternoon we travelled down the cuyabeno river to a great shaded spot to go Pirana fishing. We were both not sure if this was agaisnt our ethics but we were in the Amazon so why not}1 We picked up the beef and put it on the end of our hooks and spent an hour fishing for piranas..Jen caught one..but threw it back of course due to our veggieness, lol. I, luckily, was not successful (Terry that is). Our first evening was pretty sleepless due to the loudness of the nocturnal animals and the acclimatisation we needed. The sound of the jungle was so loud it just kept us awake, also our huts had no walls or doors so the likelihood of animals getting into our cabin was high. We only had a mosquito net to protect us and this even had holes in it! We also had bats living on the outside of what was a makeshift wall.
Day two in the Amazon was spent with a new couple from the UK, Nadine and Duncan, who were on their honeymoon. In the morning we trekked through the highlands torrain where we were lucky enough to see Squirrel monkeys, yellow hand titty monkeys, black mantel tamarins and golden pendulum birds, crependeula birds, millepedes, jumping spiders, heaps of termite and ant mounds, soldier ants, marching wasps (which make a marching sound as a defence mechanism, we shouted march loudly so they started, was incredible to hear), congo ants (that will kill you with 10 bites!!), fire flies, clicking beetles....heaps more!!
We also noticed by this point that there were beautiful butterlflies everywhere you looked (owl, tiger and blue to name a few). They were huge, at least 20 cms long. The afternoon of day two was a canoe ride up the river to go swimming. A paddle of 30mins deserved a lush swim in the Amazon River and then a nice easy flow back to the camp afterwards following the butterflies as we went. Terry jumped off the massive falling tree that was in the river at this point, so brave as it was pretty high and chance of piranas and caiman below. I just sat back and took the pictures..lol.
That evening we took the canoe down the river to see some Caymen in the dark!! You could see them by their red eyes when a flashlight hit them. We managed to see 9 that night...it was pretty scary as they reach up to 6metres!! We also slept much better that night, the sounds of the jungle relaxed us as we got more used to our surroundings.
Day three was spent much like day one, quite relaxed, four hour trek, very similar flora and fauna to our first day. We were gearing up for day four which proved to be the best day by far!
The morning began at 8am where a lush breakfast was followed by a 3 hour canoe trip where we saw around 350 monkeys including the white fronted capijin, black mantel tamarin (baby leche in spanish for their white moustaches), black caracara, vultures in the sky, river side hawk, snake bird (that dives in the river when scared and raises its head like a snake), humming birds, water spiders, stinky turkeys (for their size and smell) macaus (blue and yellow), toads and parrots! Awesome eh. What a day, we were blasted by animals and birds and insects. We couldnt have asked for anything more.
The main plan of the day was to hit the lagoon...which we got to after the three hour beautiful boat ride. This was no ordinary lagoon though...it was massive! Here we were lucky to see pink river dolphins and grey dolphins at which point we jumped in for a well deserved swim as it was around 90 degrees by this point! What a special place this lagoon was. The water was so still everything reflected. Seeing the dolphins jump through the river was spectacular. We then went for a further hour deeper into the jungle to see an indigenous community.
When we arrived to the community there was only around 10 small buildings or huts you could say. All of their buildings were on stilts in case of flood. We trekked into the plantation to find yuca (an awesome potato like root vegetable) where we then watched a lady from the community make yuca bread by squeezing out the milk of the vegetable and then grating it followed by a fire session, spreading the yuca like a pizza. It tasted great with some chilli sauce they made from local plants and some lemon!
A long boat ride back to the river lodge where we spotted a 5mtr Caymen on the way and more river dolphins took us into the evening where we discovered a huge tarantula in the camp!! Not cool, lol.
That evening we unexpectedly ended up drinking 2 bottles of Ecuadorian rum with our guides and few other tourists getting pretty tipsy. Tipsy enough to get in a canoe at 1am with very drunk guides to go Caymen hunting again!! A catfish even JUMPED INTO our canoe in front of Jen, lol. It was quite a crazy experience. She nearly pooed her pants!
Day five was quite hungover but we still managed a 3 hour trek through the Amazonian swamps where Jen fell in bum first, lol. The swamp came up to the top of our wellys and was so hard to walk in, it took everything out of us to pick our legs up to take another step! At one point Terry was walking around with a baby Taratula on his back, we all made him wait so we could take pictures before we told him what he had there! The heat was quite unbearable in the swampy area but was a great time all round. Another swim in the river when we got back, trying not to touch the river floor as we were warned about the snakes and stingray on the river bed that could kill you, lol. What an amazing day.
An afternoon chillaxing in the hammocks meant one thing only...it was the end of our trip in the Amazon. We took the canoe back to the bus area and waited for three hours for the bus to finally turn up. It was definitely not the same bus, a local one of much lower standard. I (Terry)basically nearly spewed due to the bumping around and madness...but luckily didnt!!
A 5am arrival back in Quito, we took a taxi back to our hostel where we had left our bags. Luckily there was a room for us and our bags were still there. Check out some of the`piccies, we have thousands but cant upload them all. Hope everyone is well.
6 comments:
Hola to you both!!
Phew... thankfully I am relieved to read your new blog after wondering if you managed to get out of the Amazon in one piece. Just arrived back from USA this morning so well jet lagged at the moment but can sleep well knowing all is ok and what an adventure you are having once again.
Look forward to a call again when you reach civilisation!!!
Can't wait to see the piccys too!!
Love you lots,take care on the next leg of your journey
Mum
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hola to you two! Glad to hear you arrioved back safely in Quito and that teh backbacks were also stil safe!
I see we got a mention in your blog, woohoo! Had such a good time in Cuyabeno and even better thanks to your company!
We tried to fnd you on facebook without much luck, perhaps you can find us a bit esier under Duncan or Nadine Coleshill.
See you around, perhaps in the UK, perhaps in Canada, who know....
Nadine x
Woop woop
boo and terrence!
fabulous blog sounds amazing it is on mine and brad "to do" list hopefully before were not too old to do it! not sure about getting in the river though, mind you though i dont get in the ocean im a wimp!!cant wait to see the pics, they must be amazing!!
love you both - sarah and bella
ps she said she dosent want the spider on terrys back! lol xxxxxx
sounds awesome guys, the Amazon sounds like a spectacular and beautiful place, nothing like most people will ever experience in their lives!!
But one thing though, who flamin scary is that place, taratulas, stingrays, snakes, something called a Caymen (isnt that a car) and various other beasties!!!
Thanks god for the titty monkeys!!
peace out x
Wow! sounds like you are having an amazing time! can't wait to see the photos :)
xx Shan
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