02/27/10 Into The Amazon at Napo Wildlife Center

Boarding our plane in Quito for our half hour flight to Coca

Two mountain peaks above the clouds on flight to Coca

Our motorized boat on the River Napo

Ready to transfer to paddling canoes

Capachuan Monkey

Parrots at the first clay lick

Parakeets at the second clay lick

Shooting a blow dart gun

Boa Constrictor on night paddle

Female tarantula on overhead log on night paddle

We've been back in the "modern" world for a couple of days and it's time to talk about our three days in the Amazon. I'd have to say that I approached this portion of our trip with the most anxiety. I don't know if it's because the idea if the Amazon is so exotic or we had to have lots of shots to prepeare for this segment or it was just pretty much into the unkown. Once we are able to reflect on our time there it was all much easier and much more organized than I could have imagined. From the time we checked in at a private entrance to the Quito airport with VIP Airlines EVERYTHING was handled for us. A representative from Napo Wildlife Center was waiting for us at the airport. We checked in with her and she took our checked bagage and made sure it was checked on to the plane for us. We had a 30 minute flight downhill from Quito to an oil town named Coca on the Napo River. Since Quito is in a plateau of the Andes we never had to cross the Andes at all. It truly was downhill from the time we started. When we landed in Coca we were greeted by 3 more representatives from NWC who collected our bags and escorted us to a open air bus for our transfer to the Napo. We just had to make sure we saw our bags as they were loaded onto a motorized canoe. This canoe had leather seats on it that seemed to be like desk chairs mounted in the canoe. Very comfortable. This vessel was around 35 feet long (more or less). We took a criss cross route down the Napo for about 2 1/2 hours. The pilot of the boat had to avoid low water and logs that were submerged in the river. Once we arrived at our destination we left our boat at the Information Center. There we were divided our group of 14 was divided into 2 groups - one of 8 (ours) and one of 6. Each group had a naturalist guide a member of the local Kichwa tribe who knew all about the area and a paddler. Robbie was our naturalist guide and spoke really good English. Mariano was our Kichwa guide and Pato was our paddler. We then got into smaller canoes and were paddled 2 more hours up a much smaller river (actually more like a creek) thru the jungle to the lodge which was located on a lagoon.

The Anangu Kichwa community live in their ancestral terriory between the banks of the rivers Napo and Tiputini. Since the 70's they have been working to preserve 21,400 hectares of land that is within what is now Yasuni National Park. in 2001 the government of Ecuador recognized this land as the Anangu Kichwa's rightful home.

In 1998 the community members of Kichwa Anangu identified tourism as a way to generate income for their community while conserving their rainforest home. They are now 100% owners of the NWC. They have successfully implemented environmentally friendly practices recognized as the best example of community tourism in Ecuador and have also won important international awards for service and quality for visitors.

More as I can find the time and have access.

03/02/10 Amazon to the Andes

Pato is bringing our canoe to the dock this morning at dawn

Paddling up the creek back to the Napo River

Tamarind monkeys

Napo Wildlife Center

"Our" canoe group with Pato (Paddler), Robbie (naturalist guide) & Mariano our Kichwa guide

At the Equator


Hacienda Zuleta study

Hello all. We've gone from the jungle to the mountains - all in one day. Woke up this morning in a thatch roofed cabana in the Amazon and am about to turn in in a spectacular hacienda way up in the Andes Mountains. What a world we live in! So, breakfast at 5:30 and in a canoe at 6:00. An hour and a half up the small river and then transfer to a motarized boat for a 2.5 hour trip back up the Napo River to the town of Coca. Finally a 1/2 hour flight back to Quito. Met up with our bus driver who had collected all our bags we left behing at the Hilton and headed North. We went to La Mitad del Mundo (The Center of the Earth) where you can stand with one foot in the Southern Hemisphere and one foot in the Northern Hemisphere. We've heard that the French (who said this was the absolute Equator) actually messed it up. When they did GPS readings the place described as the Equator was actually slightly off. It was too late to change the place where the had set up the fancy monument so we went where it was and took the obligatory pictures.
Anyway, the Hacienda Zuleta is a 16th century mansion that has so many antiques and old wood carved furniture that you almost can't believe it. We just had a fantastic dinner and after dinner coffee/tea in front of a crackling fire place. We'll have 3 nights here and then 2 more nights before we head back home.
We heard about the earthquake in Chile and it's a tragedy but absolutely no effect on us.
The Napo Wildlife Center had internet but wanted $50 for the 3 days we were there so I waited and it's free here at the Hacienda. So, I'm sending this off and I'll try to upload some images. I've updated some of what we did today. Over the next few days I'll try to update with exactly we were doing at Napo. Off to bed so adios, amigos y amigas!

02/26/2010 Quito in the afternoon

On the road to Quito

Carol and Connie in the park

We got to Quito around 2:00 and checked into the Hilton. Some of us went into old Quito for a little shopping while other (myself included) decided to hang around the hotel. A little later in the afternoon Connie and I went for a walk in the big park across the street with Dave & Carol Tivoli. Then back to the room to wait for our dinner. We went to The Red Crab Restaurant - we also ate at the same restaurant (in Guayaquil) last year for a spectacular seafood meal. I can;t explain how good this seafood is! This is Luis and Chio's favorite restaurant and we had some of their delicious sangria to wash it down. Back to the Hilton to write this up and prepare for tomorrow's trip to the Amazon for 3 days. This wil be the highlight of the trip in my mind. I seriously doubt I will have internet access until we return so I'll report on the Amazon trip when I can.

Adios, amigao y amigas!

02/26 Tinlandia Eco Lodge

The group meets with Sergio for our nature walk

High up on the Tinlandia Eco Lodge

Papayrus plants and some nice lily pads on the grounds

Here is a trio of toucans that came to eat papaya set out for them just ouside where we ate our breakfast. Tinlandia Lodge has been in existance since 1935 - started by the current owner's father. Purported to be the first eco lodge in South America, the relatively small privately owned preserve has more species of birds than are in the United States.

We arrived in the dark last night and took a single bag from our bus and had it transported .7 of a mile up to where our cabins were. We then walked up the steep slippery road with our lights to get to where we slept. Sergio, the owner had a nice dinner for us before we headed up to sleep. He arranged to meet us at 6:30 to go on a nature hike - to see birds. The birds were in pretty short supply but we saw quite a few interesting trees and types of plants. The cabanas we stayed in were pretty rustic - not up to the standards we had established previous to this stop. We decided to pack it in early and they prepared a box lunch of chicken sandwiches and vegetables for our bus trip to Quito. We hit the road for a 3 hour trip up up and up and then doen into Quito in the early afternoon.

02/25/2010 Kashama Lodge and Tschilla tribe

Luis is going to buy bananas - Note the girl on the left washing hair from rain gutter.

"We sell salt" - with ducks in the back! This is in Valle Hermosa next to Kashama Lodge

Kashama Lodge - Our rooms are all going up the hill

During the red hair dying ceremony

Harvey and a Tschilla tribesman - after he applied the red dye to his hair

A leisurely day at Kashama Lodge mostly spent lounging around their pool. I got up in the morning to have a short walk into the town of Valle Hermoso for a quick look around. Got to see small town life as their day was beginning. I found an internet café but didn’t think to bring any $ with me so no go there. I also saw what I didn’t think existed in rural Ecuador. A garbage truck. There seems to be quite a bit of trash everywhere you look in these small towns, and it’s a bit sad to see it strewn everywhere. In this town an effort was being made to dump trash and all the store owners on the main street were out with their bags for the truck.
The school kids were out on the corner with their mom’s waiting for a bus to take them off to school. A few were rough housing in the park, just like kids back home. All the people were nice saying good morning or honking their horns as they passed in cars or motor bikes. Nice to have a peaceful walk and see what goes on in a town early in the morning.
We swam and tubed in the pool actually taking an inner tubes under the waterfall. Pretty cool, but slightly scary at the same time. It was real hard to get the tube up to and through (actually around) the waterfall. Once around it there was about a 6 foot cave behind the falls were the current was perfectly smooth and calm. Then it was time to try to paddle through the falls. Not pretty! The cascade was extremely strong and I couldn’t force my way through it. Eventually I was pushed out of the tube and was way under water and still being pounded by the falls. I got back to the surface and swam out without the tube. I got away from the falls and David Morse pushed my tube back to me and all was well. He actually left his tube in the eddy behind the falls and swam back. After lunch we went back to the room and packed and I didn’t have time to get back to the town for the internet. Tomorrow night I’ll have it for sure in Quito so I’ll update then.
At 4:00 we went left for our visit to an indigenous tribe about an hour away. We got off the highway and bounced our way down some pot holed dirt roads to where the Tschilla tribe has a village. We met the shaman of the village and he told us about his community and their attempts to preserve their way of life. The shaman greeted us in their native tongue, literally “Welcome it’s a rainy day” He explained that unlike Spanish where you say Buenas Dias or Buenas Tardes depending on the time of day they always comment on the day itself. Makes sense to me. This community consists of 88 families with a total of about 880 people. One of the tribe members showed us how they use the dye from seeds to dye their hair bright red. This is really a religious ceremony as 300 years ago they used this seed in a crushed form to treat smallpox and actually save their tribe from extinction. They wear their hair in the red color to honor the cure. All male members of the tribe wear black and red wraps and the women colorful “skirts” that mirror the rainbow. Several others played us some traditional music and some cute little kids danced for a while. After that we purchased some items that they had made and were selling and made a donation to the tribe. I should also mention that we also met and talked with a Peace Corp member names Ryan who has lived with this Tschilla community for the past 2 years. He is attempting to develop a more sophisticated way for eco tourism for the tribe and teach them about diet and farming. He will be leaving the tribe in April and says he’ll miss them.
Back in the bus for a short trip (by Ecuadorian standards) to Tinlandia Eco Resort which is along the way to Quito. We met the owner and heard his story about how his father emigrated from Russia 1n 1935 and started the 1st eco preserve in South America. We took a bag from the bus and hiked up the hill for about 700 meters to our cabins. He’s going to lead those who are interested on a bird watching trip at 6:30 tomorrow. So, it’s off to bed and like I said internet tomorrow for sure. Adios, amigos y amigas….

02/24/2010 White water rafting and Kashama Lodge

Here's the waterfall at Kashama Lodge in the morning

Here's the waterfall after the downpour. The water's real brown

Here we are rafting - duh

Here's the "wheelie, just moments before we went over!

Everyone slept in last night after our travels from Puerto Lopez. At 10:00 the guides for our rafting trip showed up at Kashama. We took our bus as it had more room and the guides led the way to the Baba were we commenced our rafting trip. It took us about an hour to get to the place where our rafts would be placed into the river. Along the way I struck up a conversation with Gregory, one of the guides for the trip. It turns out that he took the bus yesterday from The Amazon (12 hours) just to be there today for us. Not only that, he was leaving right after our excursion for a bus ride BACK to The Amazon for another trip there tomorrow. Think about that commute to a job – it sort of makes me think that our trip (long as it was yesterday) wasn’t really that bad. Gregory was born in The Amazon, is 24 years old and studied to be a certified nature guide in Ecuador. He is a world class rafter – he competed in South Korea for the title of Best White Water Rafter. I didn’t ask him how he did but obviously he knew what he was doing. We went through all of the usual rafting checks about commands and then WE pumped up the raft before we put it in the water. They made it seem that it would a good warm up exercise before we started up. Pretty Tom Sawyerish to me – I think they were just hot from pumping up the first raft.

Gregory was quite entertaining and he made us feel at ease in the water (literally). At one point he said “Alright, everybody in the water”. And we did it! The other raft apparently wasn’t as agreeable as they didn’t go in the drink on command. They did go in a couple of times by falling out of the raft though. I don’t know too much about the categories of white water rapids but these were purported to be 2-3. They seemed pretty robust to me! At another point he asked if we wanted to do a “trick”. Everybody got at the back end of the raft and Gregory attached a rope to the front and stood at the very end of the raft. He had us all lean forward and then back as much as we could. The end result was the raft doing a “wheelie” with the front end of the raft straight up in the air. Eventually we wound up past 90 degrees as we went completely over and wound up under the raft. It was no problem, we just relaxed and one by one we were pulled back into the raft after he righted it. Pretty cool and I must say I never did that one before.

Somewhere about 2 hours into the float a storm came up and it POURED! We were already pretty wet but it actually got a little uncomfortable after a while. We had agreed to extend our trip a little longer down the river after we had stopped for a break. Each time we thought we were through (a bridge would appear) marking a logical end point we were told it was just 30 more minutes. And of course this was Ecuadorian time so 30 minutes became much more. We finished after 4 hours and they told us we went 14 miles on the river. This was BY FAR the coolest rafting trip I’ve ever been on and how often do you get to raft in a river where the water’s not freezing and the rain wasn’t really a problem. The only thing from my view point was that the trip was a little too long.

Back to the Kashama Lodge where we just finished our dinner with the rain still crashing down. There’s little doubt that the waterfall that flows into the Kashama Lodge is a real one! When we got home the waterfall was flowing twice as much as it had in the morning. Plus the water is completely brown from all the mud and silt that is coming along with all the water. I have images from the morning and then later after the storm had started. Pretty amazing!

Ok, tomorrow is supposed to be a day at leisure until we check out at 4:00. I’ll believe that when I see it! After we check out we’re supposed to visit a indigenous tribe’s village (The Tschilla) known as the red haired people for the dye they apply to their hair. We thought we could do that after we checked out as it’s on the way to Tinlandia Resort, our next stop. By the way, sun burn is still pretty bad – it hurts to touch it and I feel pretty stupid. As usual, I’ll report more later - whenever that is. I hope to have internet access tomorrow – if not we will certainly have it in Quito the next night. Until then, Adios amigos y amigas!

02/23/2010 Frailes Beach and the LONG road to Santo Domingo

Signboard at Hosteria Mandala showing direction and distance to cities around the world

Whale carving on front gate of Hosteria Mandala in Puerto Lopez

Our little corner of Frailes Beach - About 20 people there

Luis is shopping for juice mangos - something I had never heard of - delicious!

Here's a family in a little town we passed through with a hammock under the house

We started off the day with our only beach day the whole trip. We used our Ecuador National Park pass purchased on the Isla de la Plata trip for admission to the beach area. Frailes means The Friars (after the missionary priests) although it’s not clear to me why! The day was a bit of a fooler as there was quite overcast in the morning through noon. Most of us enjoyed refreshing swims and Luis and I walked to the top of a hill at the right side of Frailes Beach to see the beach from an observatory tower. The other side of that hill was another long beach, this one with black sand. We walked from the tower and went a little way on the black sand beach before returning to the others.

Everyone enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches fruit and snacks that we purchased yesterday evening in town. By the time lunch was over the sun was out with a vengeance. Connie and I suffered quite a sun burn as both of us tried a spray suntan lotion. You could see where we sprayed properly and the areas we missed got toasted. I guess some practice is needed or just stick with the lotions. By the scheduled 2:00 departure time I was ready to hit the road. Overdid the sun a bit I reckon.

About an hour into our scheduled 6 hour transfer to Santo Domingo our bus seemed to be suffering some sort of transmission troubles. We were only able to crawl upwards on the inclines. Luckily, we were pretty close to the highest point to that time and did much better on the down slopes. We were able to get the bus into a little town called Jipi Japi (pronounced “hippy happy”) nice name! We were guided to a local mechanic who eventually replaced a hose and a clamp to get us on our way an hour later. We were pretty luck for this to happen close to a town. I shudder to think what might have happened later on in the trip.

So, we were back on the road and eventually to the “area” around our next stop – Kashama Lodge. I say the area because the directions to the place were not very exact (to say the least). This place is kind of in the jungle and the address given didn’t help much. Eventually after several phone calls and double tracking we eventually arrived (gratefully) at around 10:00. So, the 6 hour trip became 8 (although the mechanical difficulties couldn’t have been expected). My premise that Ecuadorian time differers from ours held true. Everything seems to take s little longer that expected. The place looks pretty spectacular in the dark and the staff was waiting to prepare us our dinner at the late hour. Tomorrow is rafting in the morning and an afternoon to relax around their magnificent pools. I asked and they told me (unfortunately) no internet access in the jungle. So, I’ll write up the journals each day and post when I get the time. Adios, until later……..