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We drove back to the local hospital and managed to get Kirsten's stitches removed a day after her birthday. She has obvious scars but hopefully, after time, they'll fade.
Leaving Tena our GPS took us the wrong way (again!!) and wanted us to drive over a pedestrian bridge! Then it took us past our correct turn off to take us to a dirt road. After several U turns we finally got onto the correct road and went to Grand Selva Lodge. We had contacted them a week earlier to ask if they were open - not always a given after 2 years of pandemic! Karin, originally from Austria, has owned this lodge with her Ecuadorian husband Roberto for nearly 30 years, sent us a welcoming reply with lots of information about the lodge and tours etc.
Grand Selva Lodge - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
The road to the lodge was tarmac but the last 1.2 km was gravel and quite bumpy. We arrived just before 2pm and were welcomed by Junior who would be our guide for most of the tours. We could park under a corrugated roof which was extremely good because we're in the jungle and it rains a lot. We also plugged into a socket near the hotel's swimming pool!
Karin and Roberto are really nice hosts and we were just being given a short tour of the facilities when the heavens opened and we had to dash back to our motorhome. Thank goodness we're under a roof so we can open our doors because it's 32°C and the rain was torrential for almost 3 hours!! Once the rain stopped we dodged the puddles to walk back to the lodge to discuss tours with Karin (all in German). We decided which tours we wanted to do and booked a night tour for that evening.
We went for a short walk further along the gravel road, had something to eat, and were called by Junior at 8-40pm to go on the night tour with two French guys. We got wellies provided and the tour was a 1 hour walk around the lodge and through the river - quite spooky in the dark. We saw two tarantulas, two poisonous snakes, a chameleon, a scorpion spider and some shrimp. There were lots of spiders to see and Junior put a baby pinktoe tarantula on his arm!! Its legs are red at the end as if it is wearing red shoes. A fantastic tour that normally costs $19 but because we went with two others it only cost $15 per person. A super start to our stay here.
It rained all night and all day the following day! At 7-30am we watched our football team lose because the other team were given two penalties that shouldn't have been given! Of course, we're not biased in any way!! At least we could open our doors and skylight and we had plenty to do - writing reports for our website and setting up our water filter. They use bought drinking water at the lodge so we filtered the water we had in our 40 litre tanks. We'd got it from Finca Sommerwind in Ibarra but it is chlorinated so it's no good for drinks.
The rain finally stopped so we went for a short walk again. Later that evening we went over to the lodge to discuss our next tour. We were going on a 5.5 hour jungle hike with the same French guys and would be wading through the river which will be thigh deep!!! It was already 9-30pm when we got back which meant we'd have less than 8 hours sleep but we needed to get things ready - ponchos, waterproof bag for the river crossing, baseball caps, rucksacks etc so it was 11-30pm by the time we got to bed!!
Less than 6 hours later the alarm woke us up. We had a quick cup of tea and got over to the lodge at 6-05am to get our wellies. We thought we were getting breakfast en route and had packed a few snacks but the plan had changed because we were given breakfast at the lodge - scrambled eggs, a slice of ham and cheese, bread rolls, butter, jam and guayaba juice. At 6-45am we set off along the gravel road and then steeply uphill along a mud path into the jungle and to some miradors (viewpoints). We got back 6 hours later, exhausted! But we really enjoyed it.
There weren't many birds to see but we did see Tamarin monkeys jumping from branch to branch. There were lots of different spiders and we saw bats in the trunk of a 6,000 year old Matapalo tree - the oldest tree in Ecuador. Wow! It's actually a strangler fig tree and its base was 12 metres in diameter. I saw electric blue ants on the ground. I thought it was a sweet wrapper that someone had dropped and bent down to pick it up! It scurried off but I told Kirsten so we kept our eyes open for more. Fortunately we found one so we could take photos.
Junior pointed out lots of different trees used for medicinal purposes - e.g. the Ayahuasca tree which is hallucinogenic, and bark from another tree which is good for sinusitis and asthma. We also stopped at a Dragon's Blood tree. We already knew this one from our stay at the Mirador Natural Grand Cañon del Huataraco where the owner of the campground - Lionel - had already introduced us to this famous sap.
The Croton Lechleri trees growing in vast parts of South America are well known for its red sap, which is strikingly called Dragon's Blood by the local native people. Dragon's Blood sap is a rich, complex source of phytochemicals including alkaloids and procyanidins (condensed tannins). Internally, it is an important remedy for gastro-intestinal issues. Traditional use of Dragon's Blood led to the development and subsequent FDA approval of an anti-secretory, anti-diarrheal drug based on an isolate from Dragon's Blood sap. This is the first botanical drug approved by FDA for oral use. Externally, Dragon's Blood is renowned for its use on skin and is commonly referred to as a liquid bandage. Drops are applied as needed to cover the affected area and allowed to dry with or without a physical bandage. It's also popularly applied to insect bites and stings. Found primarily in the rainforest of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, the Dragon Blood tree has for many centuries been both as common as it is important for South American folk medicine. Many amazonian tribal people use Dragon's Blood to cure a long list of symptoms and diseases, like diarrhoea, hemorrhages, eczema, skin infections, stomach ulcers, stings and bites, respiratory conditions, herpes, and even cancer.
Junior put some on Kirsten's scars and after our hike gave her a bottle of it to use for the next days and weeks to heal her scars!
Right at the end we waded through the river which was knee high rather than up to our thighs but our wellies still got waterlogged! The sun came out just as we got back. For some the walk would not have been spectacular enough but we really enjoyed the views and the insects and monkeys that we saw even though it was hard work. Once back at the lodge we tipped out all the water from our wellies, washed our socks and went for a dip in the swimming pool. We had fun with the rubber tubes but I actually burned the underside of my arms because the rubber was so hot from the sun!! The pool has cold showers which we are allowed to use. We rinsed out our swimming stuff and hung everything out on a washing line that we set up next to our motorhome. Unfortunately we had torrential rain again a couple of hours later so we had to dash out and bring everything inside to finish off drying. At least we'd had some sunshine to enjoy!
The following day we went on a canoe tour at 2pm. Roberto and Junior drove us and two French Canadians from Quebec, Margaux and Matt, who were going tubing. The car pulled a trailer loaded up with two huge tubes, a canoe and a kayak but we had to stop three times because the load wasn't attached properly. On the fourth stop, Junior got onto the trailer and held everything on! We turned off the main road onto a really bad gravel road and Junior had to hold on tight for 20 minutes!
Once we stopped, we unloaded the trailer and everything had to be carried 600 metres. We grabbed the canoe not realising how heavy it was. Everyone else seemed to race off ahead but Junior came back to carry the canoe the last 200 metres! It was a very steep, slippery slope down to the river so we had to take our sandals off and go barefoot - apparently Margaux had already gone down on her bum!!
We got into the canoe and were told to sit on the floor because it was easier to steer. Kirsten sat in the front and I was in the back. We both wore thick bulky life jackets and leaned against the wooden benches in the canoe normally used as seats. Junior was in the kayak guiding Margaux and Matt in the tubes who floated down the river. We were told to have a practice using the paddles but they soon realised we'd be fine so off we went!
We were on the water for 3 hours and 15 minutes. It was a bit uncomfortable because the benches hurt our backs and my life jacket kept pushing up under my chin! I did all the paddling so Kirsten could take video and photos. But there wasn't anything to see! I saw a lesser spotted blue plastic bag and Kirsten spotted the rare red T shirt!!! Oh well, we still had a lot of fun watching the others and I had to keep turning us around to go back upriver every so often, otherwise we would have been too far ahead of Junior and the tubers. We didn't know where we were going and no one bothered telling us where we needed to stop but that didn't bother us.
Kirsten was the spotter in the front but she forgot to warn me about a tree branch sticking up in the water. So we rode straight over it!! That rocked the boat a bit!! If we'd expected a lot of wildlife we would've been sorely disappointed but we really enjoyed the gentle float down the river. Thank goodness we weren't tubing - over 3 hours in the cool water would've given us two old biddies hypothermia and bladder infections!! Finally we saw Junior pushing Margaux to the river bank so we aimed and parked at the side. Roberto was waiting for us and he and Junior loaded everything back up onto the trailer and we drove back to the lodge.
We chatted to Karin, booked an evening meal for tomorrow evening at the restaurant and said we might do the chocolate tour the following day. We got back to our motorhome to get our wet clothes off. Kirsten went for a shower whilst I boiled hot water to wash clothes. But then I heard Kirsten shouting ... she'd just soaped up her hair when the water went off!!! I'd just taken off my dirty clothes so I had to put them back on again to go to her. Definitely no water. I went into the lodge and found Karin - Roberto was working on the water system and had switched off all the water. It would take another hour!! Oh boy! Karin gave me a half full 20 litre container of drinking water for Kirsten but I ended up fetching our own water supply so Kirsten could finish her shower!! I just had a bowl wash. Quite an eventful day!
The following morning we got woken up by the torrential rain and it was so loud we couldn't sleep!! It stopped around 11am so we could go out and get water in case they switched off the pipes again! I hung out our washing from yesterday once the sun came out and then we watched our team who had managed to get into the quarter finals of the German cup!! It was 2-2 after full time and no more goals were scored in extra time. So it went to penalties ... nail biting!! Our goalkeeper saved three!!! So we're into the semifinals!! Wow!!
We took advantage of the sun and dived into the swimming pool again and then went for our meal in the restaurant. We sat with Margaux and Matt and had chicken schnitzel with yummy fried potatoes, salad and rice. A very enjoyable evening.
The next morning at 9-30am we got a WhatsApp from Karin saying there would be a chocolate tour in 30 minutes with a mother and her daughter if we wanted to join it. We replied "Yes" and went over for the tour. Junior was our guide again and we participated in the chocolate making process. First we roasted the chocolate beans and then shelled them. We used a grinder to grind them twice. We added milk, condensed milk and sugar, blended the ingredients and added it to hot milk for a truly wonderful cup of hot chocolate. Wow, was that good! We were also given apple slices and Maria biscuits to eat with the chocolate. Good job we'd skipped breakfast!!
The mother and daughter are from Quito and were staying at the lodge for two nights - her husband is an electrical engineer and was working in the Amazon for the day. After our yummy but sweet breakfast Junior mixed the chocolate with aloe vera and we smeared it onto our faces as a face mask! We let it dry for 20 minutes and then washed it off - it was very oily but our skin felt soft.
We only had enough time to pack a bag and went off on the waterfall tour with Margaux and Matt at 2pm. Roberto drove us to the river ferry - he drove so fast that Kirsten felt sick afterwards!! We got on a short ferry across the river which gave Kirsten's stomach time to settle down and then got a taxi to the start of the trail. The 20 minute walk turned out to be 45 minutes and we were glad we had the wellies on again as part of the path was very muddy and extremely slippery. Good job we'd brought hiking sticks too!
We got up to the waterfall, stripped to our bathing gear and went swimming. The waterfall was so powerful we could hardly swim over to it and could only get to the side. We weren't there for long and then got dressed again and walked down to a water chute that lead into a pool. The water in the chute was far stronger than we realised. Matt, Margaux and I all went down the chute. All of us ended up with badly scraped bums, ripped shorts and all got dunked in the water!! Great fun but a bit painful!!! We dried off, got back into our walking clothes and wellies, walked back down the rest of the trail and caught a local bus back to the ferry. We didn't sit down on the bus because our clothes were a bit too wet and we got very cold because the air conditioning was on!
Margaux and Matt went out for a meal in the town so we got the ferry back across the river without them. Roberto's daughter was in the car waiting for us on the other side but we had to wait for Roberto who was picking up a large cake - it was his birthday! So we sang Happy Birthday to him! He might have been a bit embarrassed but we sang in harmony and Karin brought us two slices of the yummy chocolate cake later that evening!!
I had a lot of hand washing to do because everything had got filthy and I hung it out under the roof - good job because it started raining at 9pm. Margaux and Matt were supposed to get a taxi back that evening but because the ferry had stopped for the evening, there weren't any taxis that would bring them the long way round to the lodge. So they had to phone Roberto who went to fetch them on his birthday night!!
After 7 fun packed days and nights at the lodge it was time to move on. We said goodbye to Margaux and Matt at 9-30am and started packing up. We paid for our 5 tours, evening meal, and 7 nights which cost us $251. Well worth it and good value for money. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here and were quite exhausted when we left!
On our way back to the main road we took a detour to see the Swiss Lodge, thinking it might be the place we stayed at 20 years ago when we did a jungle trip from Tena. But the road went down to the river and there is no longer a ferry crossing for vehicles here, only for foot passengers. So guests for the Swiss lodge leave their vehicles in a secure car park on the one side of the river and are transported down the river to the lodge. Maybe that wasn't the place we stayed at all those years ago after all.
We knew how to get back to the main road despite our GPS trying to tell us otherwise and headed south to Puyo. It was a nice drive and we found a spot next to the river in town where we could park for the night. The river had suffered flood damage and the spot marked on iOverlander was no longer there. But we spoke to a local family who let us park in front of their property for the night. Puyo is at almost 1,000 metres so it was a lot cooler, for which we were grateful after the heat and humidity of the Amazon. We were so exhausted from our wonderful stay at the lodge that we had no problems sleeping!
