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Well!! What can I say!! It was an absolutely superb trip! Expensive because we paid $120 each for a one night trip but it was packed full of everything we wanted to see.
We walked down to the boat ramp at 6am and 15 minutes later our boat arrived. Ronald was our excellent guide for the whole time and Gabriel drove the boat. It was a super 1 hour 35 minute boat ride along the Río Cuyobeno where we saw a Saki monkey (a really hairy monkey), stinky turkeys (the nickname for Hoatzin birds), and lots and lots of birds.
We arrived at the Tucán Lodge at 8am and quickly put our bags in our hut that was quite rustic but was ensuite with 4 beds, and went for breakfast - scrambled eggs, homemade bread, jam and juice. There were 5 others at a different table with their guide. One German, two Austrian, one Spanish and one Costa Rican.
The others were all going on a community tour to a village to see a Shaman. We were given the option of joining them but we did that 20 years ago near Tena so we chose the other option - a 3 hour forest walk with our guide. Again - superb! We were given wellies which we definitely needed and saw otters, small frogs, dragonflies, bullet ants and lots of butterflies, including the beautiful Morpho Azul. Ronald spotted things we couldn't even see until we were right on top of them!!
The second half of the walk was through a lot of mud and I was having difficulty because my boots kept getting stuck! Of course, the inevitable happened, my left boot got stuck, I couldn't get it out and took a nose dive into the mud!! I tried to get back up, over did it, and fell backwards into the mud!! Kirsten managed to grab my rucksack to save it from getting covered and she had difficulty getting me upright!!! Oh how I love mud!! Of course it all went into my wellies so I squelched for over an hour for the rest of the walk in wet, muddy trousers! Still enjoyed it even though I was exhausted after 2 nights without sleep and the hard work of pulling wellies out of mud with every step!
After a much needed shower and change of clothes we showed Ronald the video he'd taken of my mud bath using Kirsten's camera and killed ourselves laughing! Lunch was a yukka ball with a spicy carrot dip, baked aubergine with cheese (surprisingly good seeing as neither of us like aubergine!), and pork in a sauce with rice and a potato. Yummy!
We hung out all our clothes that I had washed onto nets outside our room and went on a boat trip in the afternoon to see pink dolphins. We got off the boat to walk and see part of the tail of a huge anaconda that was under a sunken tree branch in the river. We could only see a bit of its scaly skin!! Thank God it didn't move!! Then out to the laguna where lots of other boats were. Unbelievable that, only 5 days earlier, there had been hardly any water in the lagune! After sunset we drove to a tree, sticking up in the laguna, which Gabriel climbed because it's the only place to get an internet connection! How did they find it in the first place??!!
Gabriel then drove us back in the dark. How on earth could he see without lights!! We stopped to see an owl and lots of caimans and Gabriel grabbed one for us for photos!!
We got back at 7-30pm but only had 15 minutes before putting our wellies back on and going for a 30 minute night tour on foot around the lodge. We saw lots of insects and tarantulas! Superb! Afterwards we took our wellies off and there was a wooly tarantula just above where we were standing, on the wall of the shed!! We were just taking a video of it when it moved really quickly to catch a moth!! Oh boy, that was fast!!
Then we went straight to the dining room for our evening meal - plantain in a savoury sauce with rice and a milk cake. We chatted to the others but we were exhausted so we left and fell into bed!
The next morning our alarm went off at 5-25am. We got up, packed a few things and got into a smaller canoe with Ronald paddling. He took us on a superb, peaceful canoe ride. We could here all the bird song, saw a toucan and lots of stinky turkeys. We got back at 7-45am for breakfast - 2 boiled eggs, homemade bread and jam, and melon.
We had to quickly pack up our stuff and left at 9-15am to return by boat along with two others, Sofia and Kilian, from Austria. They'd done a 3 night tour and had also really enjoyed it. But our superb trip hadn't ended yet because on the way back in the boat we saw lots of Cappucin and spider monkeys crossing the river by swinging across on tree branches. There were also two mothers carrying their babies on their backs!
We got back to the boat ramp at the ranger station at 10-55am. Sofia and Kilian got on a coach for a 12 hour ride back to Quito and we thanked Ronald and Gabriel and gave them a well earned tip. Ronald also gave us a book about all the animals with great photos! It was a truly superb trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We managed to pack in a huge amount in just 30 hours and didn't need anything else.
We spent the rest of the day unpacking, sorting out, and trying to get the computer to start!!! No go - hard drive obviously given up the goat. Brilliant! Thousands of photos and videos (only a slight exaggeration!) and no computer to download them onto! Sh**!
After coffees, it was so hot we decided to go for a short drive further along the road. It meant we could get a breeze running through and it cooled us down and we also saw lots of toucans along the road!
