Heart of Darkness

Finally we have come to one of the wildest, unpassable places on earth. The mighty Amazon.

The part we visited is in a protected park called the Cuyabeno Reserve. This vast reserve sits on the borders of Peru, Columbia and Brazil and is one of the most bio-diverse areas in the world. The park is one of the most remote places in Ecuador. To get there we had to take a 4x4 for 3h to get to the park entrance. From there it was another 3h by motorized canoe to base camp. We spent four days exploring this amazing region with our extremely charming and knowledgeable guide Lenny, Glenn and Tam (Australia) and Claudia (Germany).

(from the left) Claudia, Lenny, Lloyd, Glenn, Tam, me

Day 1:

Our trip with the canoe was extremely cool. It is currently almost the end of the rainy season, but the rivers are still swollen and creates easy pathways between the trees to navigate. We saw quite a few animals on the way to the camp, including some rare river dolphins, monkeys, toucans and hoatzins (a weird almost prehistoric bird).

two white-hand monkeys

the mysterious hoatzin or as locals refer to them, stinky turkeys

The lodge was basically a couple of thatched roof buildings with the sleeping area consisting of matresses covered by mosquito nets. Very basic, but very authentic and more than enough!

the dining room

After sunset we went for a short night walk to see what types of creepy crawleys we could find. Within a few metres, we have stumbled upon several big, scary spiders and all sorts of bugs. After the walk he took us to see the BIG spiders. Two gigantic (as big as my hand) tarantulas right above our heads in the dining area! Luckily they are not aggresive and we sat and watched how they caught their prey. Really cool!

nice little tarantula

After that it was a noisy night in the jungle. The jungle feels to me like a massive single entity, and it does not like to be infiltrated by mere men. It is quite intimidating being so far away from civilization in this dark and mysterious place. I did not sleep to well that first night...

Day 2:

We got up as the sun rose at 6h and after breakfast it was into the surrounding forest for a 3h walk. Lenny told us about the different animals we could see and the plants and their medicinal properties. We tried out quite a few. We even ate some ants called lemon ants. They taste like lemons! Although the walk was interesting, the heat and humidty was extreme and the mosquitos attacked us with relish undeterred by our repellent. I racked up more than 50 bites...

Lloyd of the Jungle

frog on leaf

We arrived back at base at about 12h and immediately went for a swim in the river. So refreshing I almost felt clean!

The afternoon we were joined by three French people and a short, but severe tropical rainstorm and went downstream by canoe to a nearby Siona village. The Sionas are the natives who still live in the forest. There we met Aurora, one of the local woman and she showed us the secret of making manioc "pancake". Manioc is a root we´ve eaten quite a few times on our travels. We went out into the forest to go and dig some out and then went through the process of skinning, grating, drying and sifting it into a fine meal. The drying was particulary interesting. They weave palmleaves into a piece they call the anaconda. The grated manioc is wrapped in the anaconda and then they wring out all the water. After we made the meal it is placed on a hot plate and baked to form a type of cake. It was really good, although it could use some salt or tomato sauce!

Aurora operating the anaconda

the finished product

After that it was back to camp for dinner and rest. We were tired and had no trouble falling asleep!

Day 3:

We got up early for some bird watching by canoe. Very nice and relaxing. We saw quite a few interesting birds and monkeys before we returned to camp for breakfast.

a snake bird

After that it was off to a big lagoon about 1h30´s canoe trip away. It is very impressive and you can see how high the water is because the top of some bushes stick out a few inches above the water! It a very unique experience driving through trees with the canoe. We stopped on an island and went for another 3h hike.

the forest in the lake

Aurora joined us again and showed us many of secrets of jungle existence. She showed us which plants were for healing and which plants for pain. We saw the plants used for curare (famous Amazon poison) and some halluciogenic vines. We tried a root that is used for anaesthetic purposes and it left our tongues and lips numb and tingly! Another cool plant was paperleaf. Paperleaf stains after pressure is applied on it. You scratch your message on the leaf and in a few seconds they start appearing in dark brown.

origin of the species

Aurora weaving a backpack

Getting back to the canoe we had some lunch and rest. During that time a caiman (crocodile family) appeared close to the canoe and we lured him closer with some fish. Quite impressive!

looking for lunch

After this fun it was off to the middle of the lake for some swimming. The water was wonderfully warm and some river dolphins swam close by for an unforgettable experience.

swimming

Next was the art of piranha fishing. We drove into the roots of the trees and sat there waiting for the bites. They are difficult to catch as they take tiny bites and don´t swallow the hook. I was the only one to catch one but ended up accidentally flicking him into the boat next to Glenn! Luckily Lenny quickly caught the little bastard and showed off his teeth!

fishing for piranha

my catch! look at those teeth...

We rode out into the middle of the lake again for the sunset and then headed back in the dark watching the fisher bats dipping and diving around us.

ANOTHER sunset photo

We were exhausted, but we had a great day!

Day 4:

The last day we had breakfast and then it was the long way back to the reserve gate. We were lucky on the way back and saw lots of animals including the elusive red howler monkey and a two-toed sloth!

Neil