Our flight to the Galapagos will make one stop at Guayaquil for 35 minutes and then we continue on the 600km flight to Baltra in the Galapagos. When we land it is extremely hot and arid. Very different from the lush vegetation of the Amazon. Clearing customs is fairly straightforward. We have to declare any items that may be made from plant material or if we have any camping equipment, hiking boots etc. No search is carried out but there is definitely an effort to control the introduction of any non-endemic species…. and steep fines for non-declaration.
We have to wait about half an hour for a bus to take us on the five minute drive to the port. We are handed lifejackets and board zodiacs (they call them pangas) for the short journey across the harbour to our boat ‘Solaris’.
We have chosen a small boat, which carries a maximum 16 passengers. The view back to shore is lovely with blue water and fluffy clouds. Frigates and pelicans soar in the sky and periodically plunge into the sea to catch a fish.
We are given an orientation and shown to our cabins. Mine is far better than expected. Not a single but a double so pretty good space for a small boat and one person.
We then have lunch which is most acceptable. A huge red snapper, moist and delicious with simple salad, rice and creamy beef. Dessert was fruit salad.
Afterwards we are issued with fins, masks and wetsuits. The team have a great way to put wetsuits on. They put thin plastic bags on your feet and hands, which then slide into the suit effortlessly. It’s taken me twenty years to discover that trick!
We go ashore to snorkel and test out our equipment. My mask is too small and I will change it tomorrow. The water is warm so I may not bother wearing the wetsuit in future. I give Jane a snorkelling lesson. The wetsuit gives her extra buoyancy and she is definitely getting the hang of it. It is all about confidence.
There is a small amount of wildlife on the beach. Three flamingos wade in a salt pond, there are turtle nests, two marine iguanas and lots of sally lightfoot crabs.
Somebody saw a seal in the water but the visibility was terrible and my mask was fogging and leaking. I don’t quite know how anyone could see anything. I wish I’d taken my big camera as there was more wildlife to photograph than I was led to believe. I only took the Olympus Tough for photographs. It not up to the job as you can see above. I shall take the DSLR and phone in future.
There is no Wi-Fi on the boat and so I think posting up the blog may not happen until I get back to the UK, but I’m dictating notes now in the hope that I may have signal and be able to pull something together quickly.
Before dinner we are given our schedule for tomorrow. It’s another horrible early start!
We leave Napo at 4.55. It is pitch dark and the paddle across the jet black water seems unearthly. Bats skim the water, frogs chirrup and there is the occasional bird wake-up call. The trip takes an hour to the village where we change onto the fast motorised canoe for the journey back to Coca.
The weather changes from a mist rising from the jungle to thick fog.
Visibility is appalling. At times it is only a few yards. How the driver can see and continue to drive so fast is beyond me. He slows occasionally to negotiate sandbanks or avoid floating logs but it is a somewhat unsettling experience which lasts for the best part of 3 hours. Despite being on the equator the air is cool and I am glad to be wearing my fleece.
We are served breakfast on the boat. Coffee and a partitioned box with scrambled egg, cold meats, bread and fruit.
Transfer from the dock at Coca is efficient and we are soon in Coca airport awaiting the short flight back to Quito.
For ease we stay at the Wyndham airport hotel. We arrive at mid-day and our room is not ready so we sit on the patio with a drink.
We spend the afternoon in a lazy manner and have early supper in the restaurant where they served an extremely good all you could eat buffet. Tomorrow will be another early start for the 08.04 flight to Baltra in the Galapagos.
Every morning we get up earlier than the day before. It’s a 06.00 start today and a beautiful morning. We are going to visit a salt lick in the hope of seeing parrots and macaws and then visit the village where the Kichwa Anangu people live, to learn about their culture and customs.
We paddle for an hour then walk for five minutes to pick up the motorised canoe to take us 20 minutes downstream to the salt lick. We sit a couple of hundred yards off-shore for an hour watching clouds of parrots circling and landing in surrounding trees. They are very cautious and will not land until they are sure it is safe. This is tantalising and much like waiting for a migration crossing. Parrots land in trees closer and closer to the lick, but then get spooked, and rise from the trees squawking and chattering as they go. There are three species – Mealy, Dusky-headed and Blue-headed. They are all green and nigh impossible to see when they land. To prove my point there are at least 7 on the tree below but I bet you cannot see them all.
Whilst waiting we also notice a troop of red howler monkeys in the trees. Too distant for photos but I do have some acceptable video. Sadly our patience is not rewarded. Just as we think the parrots will land they are spooked and fly away.
Our next port of call is the Kichwa Anangu village. The thirty families own 21,400 hectares within the vast Yasmin National Park. In 1998 they decided to embrace tourism to protect their environment. There is oil under its soil and illegal logging is also a big threat. They raised funding, worked incredibly hard and built the Napo Wildlife Center (where we stayed). It is 100% run by the community, for the community. It is held as a beacon to other villages to demonstrate that there is an alternative to selling out to big business. A nearby village is paid just $400 per month for rights to their land from the oil companies. The Anangu made $55000 profit in their first years of opening – 2003. Since then they have opened a second lodge.
100% of the net profits of the business income, fund Community needs. There is now a school, which benefits children and youth from the Community and nearby settlements and there is a free boarding program, financed with tourism income. There is a health centre, where doctors offer permanent free care. Additionally, solar panels have been installed and a water purification system for the Community.
We see this first hand as there are stacks of solar panels ready to be installed as we enter the village. Our guide Jairo is in the foreground.
The local women run the Community cultural centre to educate tourists and raise fund with a shop, stocked with locally made crafts and demonstrations of their customers. The village has a large football pitch surrounded by the medical centre, cultural centre, shop and school.
We are welcomed with a traditional dance.
They show us their instruments and tell us how they are made.
We then are told about hunting techniques and all try shooting a blowpipe. It is surprisingly effective and none of us missed the model toucan by much and two people had direct hits. We were shown how fabric was made from bark fibre and how a multi-purpose woven net basket could be used.
We end with a cooking demonstration and are ‘lucky’ enough to sample a selection of local delicacies.
All were vegetable based and totally fine apart from the brown cooked item that looked like a sausage. We were assured it tasted like crispy bacon but told it was a grub found inside fruit. Some people actually ate it. I did tentatively taste it with the tip of my tongue and can confirm it tastes like salty bacon. I went to bite it but it was squidgy in the middle and I hastily discarded it.
If you are of a squeamish disposition I suggest you look away now. We were now shown a live grub. It is huge and grotesque.
I have video of our local guide Patricio eating it. Just the most revolting thing I have ever seen and only made worse by an American tourist eating it too. His wife’s face was a picture of abject horror and disgust! It turns out he only did it as he has an Ecuadorean friend who told him to try it. However, it turns out the friend has only ever eaten them cooked!!
On a brighter note the children in the village are happy and well cared for which was lovely to see.
We thanked the women for their hospitality and then set off on a 30 minute walk to a hide by another salt lick. On our route we are joined by a group of woolly monkeys feeding in the trees above us. They are really big and muscular, surprisingly agile and difficult to film. What a treat and I do have some useable video.
We reluctantly leave the monkeys and settle ourselves in the mosquito infested hide. There is no sound of parrots or macaws so we are not optimistic. 10 minutes pass and then a squawk. A beautiful macaw flies in to drink and is shortly joined by two more. The colours are so vibrant but shooting is hard, as we are in a shady hollow, and they are pretty fast moving when they decide to take to the wing .
The macaws do not stay long. We head back to the river and it starts to rain just as we sit to have lunch. It is still raining when we leave so we all don ponchos, which are extremely effective but very unattractive. The rain eventually stops and then creatures start to appear to dry out. A rare sighting is a blue morpho butterfly. You hardly ever see them at rest with wings open.
Then there is a real treat. The six otters are fishing in the channel right in front of us. This is a truly awesome experience and we stay with them for a quite a few minutes until they appear to be getting stressed with shrill cries and snorts. They even follow our canoe downstream as we leave.
We are also lucky to find a tiger heron who for once allows us to approach him. The markings are incredible close-up.
After dinner we are supposed to go on a night walk. Fortunately it starts raining. This means we do not feel to guilty that we all decided against it as tomorrow we leave and must depart at 05.00. This has been as long day. We were out for 9.5 hours, everyone is tired and nobody has packed yet or settled bar tabs. Beauty sleep calls…
It rained in the night and the humidity this morning seems high.
We are joined by a new group of five people today. They are all from the UK and appear to be easy company. This does mean we no longer have the luxury of a canoe to ourselves. No matter, as this morning’s excursion just involves a short paddle across the lake and then a 45 minute walk to the observation tower, which is 120ft high and obviously will involve lots of steps. Something to look forward to in the heat and humidity!
You never know what treats nature has in store for you and yet again we are lucky. Firstly we encounter a tiny opossum foraging on the trail. At first glance it looks like a mouse but its forepaws show that it is no such thing as it has fingers.
We here foliage rustling and are joined by a very large troop of squirrel monkeys. It is hard to know where to look. They are not close, fast moving, highly agile, active and leap from treetop to treetop.
Whilst watching their delightful antics, we hear louder noises above with branches breaking and fruits falling. There to our delight is a troop of woolly monkeys. According to Jairo this is a rare sighting and we are incredibly fortunate. Obtaining any sort of good photo is nigh impossible but persistence (and the amazing new lens) pay off.
On one side of the track we have woolly monkeys and on the other spider monkeys. It is hard to know where to look. Eventually the woolly monkeys end up directly above us and we have to walk away to avoid debris from above landing on us. When we arrive at the tower we still have the spider monkeys in tow and watch them as we climb the never ending staircase to the top. The climb is worth it though, with far reaching views across the canopy.
Patience is the keyword here. We scan the treetops for life and mainly see various species of toucans and parrots. A pair of many-banded aracari grace us with their presence for 10 minutes or so, flying between perches and gradually coming closer to us.
We observe lots but mainly through binoculars and I did see the woolly monkeys again but very far off. I have some good video of them playing in the trees and manage a couple reasonable shots considering the distance.
We take some posing pictures before descending once more into the forest. David Attenborough makes a guest appearance!
On the return trail we concentrate on the forest floor. We spot these caterpillars eating fungus and a toad that looks like a leaf.
Our local guide also tells us about the forest. He shows us a vine that is used to extract curare, how to plait palm leaves for roofing and the stalk of a leaf made to make green dye.
The afternoon is spent in the canoe paddling around the lake and exploring a shallow channel. We see caiman, lots of birds and another master of disguise frog.
I was interested to learn about the heron that has learnt how to fish. It captures a small insect then drops it into the water, waits for a fish to take it and then “Bye-bye fish”. You can see the heron below doing exactly that.
What a beautiful morning greets us as we leave our room for breakfast.
We meet Jairo at 07.00 which I consider to be a very civilised time. We set out in the canoe and paddle along the edge of the lake, watching the birds stirring into life and listening to the wonderful dawn chorus. We are in for a real treat as Jairo spots giant otters on the far side of the lake. The otters stay with us (or rather we stay with them) for 40 minutes or so. We watch them swimming, diving and successfully catching fish. There are six of them and they are the only six in the reserve. They are considered endangered sand only 200 or so remain in Ecuador. Lucky indeed!
We watch all the otters catch and devour fish then reluctantly leave them to go for a jungle walk. We are lucky to see spider monkeys, though they are fast moving and therefore a bit tricky to photograph.
We see three varieties of poison dart frogs. They are all tiny – finger-nail size – and well camouflaged.
Lots of beautiful fungi
A horned toad
…and much more small fauna and flora. What an amazing morning. The otter experience was beyond brilliant.
Incredibly the day just gets better and better. We have lunch, which is three courses and very good but rather more food than required.
I sit on the deck to recover from the food overdose when a guide says “Would you like to see an anaconda?” Yes I would! I follow him and there, 20 feet in front of my room, is a juvenile anaconda hiding under dead leaves. It is about 2 metres long. I take lots of photos and video. It is beautiful, shiny and with amazing markings. I return to my deck and an hour later the anaconda appears in full view.
As we climb aboard the canoe for the afternoon’s wildlife watching, we once again see the otters. They are fishing but then something enormous jumps out of the water and a huge frenzy ensues with loads of splashing and squealing from the otters. Jairo days it was an arapaima – the largest fish in the Amazon weighing up to 440 pounds and that the otters are crazy to tangle with it. They realise their error and swim off for more sensible sized prey. The sun has come out and an otter catches a fish then swims up to the canoe to eat it . Jane and I have recorded some awesome video – David Attenborough eat your heart out! We also have a hoard of fabulous pictures.
Reluctantly we leave the otters and head up a small channel to see what else we can find. We are not disappointed. Capuchin monkeys leap through the trees and we also see (and hear) fairly distant red howler monkeys. There are lots of kingfishers but they are pretty elusive. The tiny pigmy kingfisher below was less than easy to see, never lone photograph!
Herons and ever-present hoatzin are easier.
…and our last new sighting of the day was 14 tiny long-nosed bats roosting on the underside of a leaning tree trunk.
We return to camp and view the last light of day from the tower before settling at the bar for drinks before dinner.
