Into the Heart of Darkness.... well sort of...

Reflections from my week long excursion into the Amazon jungle at the Cuyabeno River Lodge in the Cuyabeno nature reserve....

We flew out of Quito last Monday, and were very impressed with our airline. Our flight was early in the morning, and we were surprised to find the waiting lounge supplied with coffee, juice and snacks, all free. Our flight was delayed half an hour, and after finally taking off, we circled around Lago Agrio and could not land due to the fog, so we headed right back to Quito. Good thing it was only a 30 min flight. We waited around in the lounge again, with more snacks, and after another two hour delay we successfully made it to Lago Agrio. We had met some other travellers on the flight, and were able to get a ride on their private bus to the Cuyabeno reserve from the airport. It was a long and rather bumpy journey, the first half being paved and the last on gravel roads. I got quite motion sick near the end. It was a relief to reach the river and set out in our motorized canoe for our lodge.

I have to admit, when we reached the lodge I was rather shell-shocked. I think the whole concept of being in the jungle hadn´t sunk in, and I am not sure I was properly prepared for the whole thing. I had nothing in my previous life experience to compare the place to, and I was nervous. To be truthful, I was pretty terrified for the entirety of the first day.

We arrived at the lodge late and didn´t have much time to settle in before we undertook our first foray into the jungle. We set out in canoes to explore the river. It was beautiful, green and lush. We paddled under a nest of marching wasps, and were able to listen to their noisy defence mechanism; they sounded like marching soldiers, it was very cool. We paddled further up the river to a swimming spot, but I was not yet ready to plunge into the murky river. Neither were many of the other girls who were there. In fact, four British girls who arrived there the same morning we did, failed to last long in the jungle at all, and left after spending only one night.

Over the next few days I warmed up to the jungle. We went for a rainy jungle walk and saw some interesting insects, plants, and even a monkey. We took the motorized canoe to stay at a camp near the larger laguna for a night, and explored the area. It was full of tour groups, but despite that we still managed to see a decent number of jungle animals. We saw monkeys, macaws, lots of insects, and many other birds. There were quite a few fish as well, we went piraña fishing, and caught some pirañas and a catfish. We inadvertently caught a fish when it jumped into our boat. Unfortunately I became ill, nauseous and over heated, and couldn´t participate in the caimen hunting on the night of our laguna trip.

Overall, I ended up having a good time in the jungle, and I eventually found it to be more beautiful than scarily unknown. The one hitch in our jungle adventure came in the form of our overly friendly guide, who thought it was more his job to try to get into the pants of female travellers rather than show us the animals properly. Oh well, I suppose no trip comes without its problems. We flew back into Quito, and strangely enough it felt almost like coming home.

Photos of the jungle to come...