A-holes and Anacondas, Ecuadorian Amazon
Actually, we only saw one anaconda, but first, let us backtrack a little. The Amazon has been one of those places that lived deep within the darkest confines of our psyche. A place that was shrouded in mystery and one that guaranteed imminent death to any who were brave enough to venture into its recesses. Nature shows, documentaries, crappy movies...all depicting an inhospitable landscape full of cannibals and undocumented excruciating diseases. The jungle of all jungles, home to the uncivilized and undiscovered. One of the last true frontiers remaining on earth, or maybe we once watched way too much television.
Arriving during the peak of dry season was supposed to be the worst of times, that proved not to be so. It did take longer to navigate the waterways and we had a good 200 meter slog from the river's edge to our lodge, but the diversity in wildlife was phenomenal. We have experienced the jungles of Central America, while different in several ways, the Amazon has many similarities to its cousins to the north. It was hot, rainy, buggy, swampy, lush, and full of wondrous creatures...pretty much what we expected.
What we didn't expect was the vast differences between travelers. Be it backpacker, multi-week vacationer, or overlander, we naively assumed everyone taking the time to visit the Amazon would have conservation ingrained within their hearts. Unfortunately, that is not so. When our boat captain, a native Amazonian, located an anaconda for us our group of eight diverged drastically. Within minutes we were all marveling at the size of the snake, half submerged in a creek, with a swollen belly from a recent meal. Suddenly a group member blurted out "poke it with a stick" as if the wild animal's sole purpose was for our entertainment. Our guides initial response was that we should not disturb the anaconda as it may become distressed which could cause it to regurgitate its meal.
Another group member kept inching closer and closer to the animal, eventually asking if they could touch it. The conflicted atmosphere was definitely apparent. Ultimately, the insistent group member did touch the snake, repeatedly, causing it to release its grip and move further downstream. That didn't dissuade the persistent member, they repositioned themselves to further molest the wild anaconda. While the oldest and youngest members of our group were the instigators, the four of us closely aged in the middle were the ones appalled and equally at fault. Our failure was remaining silent, dumbfounded from the lack of respect and regard. We were all assholes, for that, we are sorry.
What We Did
San Miguel: Colombia to Ecuador Border Crossing
We had heard about the long delays at the Ipiales border, busloads of Venezuelans migrating to Ecuador, so we looked at our itinerary and decided we would be better served by crossing closer to the Amazon. There wasn't much information regarding the San Miguel border but a recent post by a fellow Pan-Amer made it sound super easy. It was, less than 50 minutes in total. Every office we needed was in one building and there were no lines. The longest part was getting the van's temporary import permit, we had to help the nice agent complete it properly. Hopefully all the borders in South America will be like San Miguel.
Bamboo Ecolodge, Cuyabeno Reserve
After emailing several lodges in the Cuyabeno Reserve, we chose the Bamboo Ecolodge since our friends Joe & Josee had a great experience with them and they gave us a small discount for booking last minute, $260 per person for a 4 day/3 night tour with a private room. The tour started and ended in the town of Lago Agrio so we spent a night before and one after in a hotel, Lago Imperial. It was nothing fancy but the A/C was cold and they let us store our van in their secure lot during our trip into the Amazon.
Getting to and from the lodge is a half-day event, at least during the dry season. We started with a two hour shuttle to the bridge, had lunch, then took an almost three hour boat ride to the lodge. While we weren't super deep into the Amazon jungle, we were fairly far from civilization, 5 days by canoe from the bridge...how the tribal people previously traversed before motorized boats became available. Our accommodations were primitive, bug netting over the beds was essential, it was very reminiscent of how the Amazon has been cinematically portrayed.
The dry season is the off season and it was apparently so. While we thoroughly enjoyed each individual and experience, as a whole our tour was very disjointed and disorganized. We did come away overwhelmingly positive, jungles tend to always make us happy. Many things were put off or neglected, probably due to the absence of management. We don't expect the Cuyabeno Reserve to be our only foray into the wonders of the Amazon and we believe during busier times it is much more organized, as experienced by friends of ours. While the tour was a great experience, it is the Amazon itself that touched us so. Wild, rich, and home to fantastic people that know the true meaning of harmony.
One of our scheduled excursions was to the village of Siona where we witnessed and participated in the making of yuca bread (casave) for $10 per person. The bread is closer to a cracker, not to be confused with the Caribbean cassava bread we love dearly, and is made from a single ingredient. The end result is reasonably tasty, especially with pico de gallo, and the process is pretty straight forward:
- rip plant from ground and harvest tubers
- stick a 12 inch piece of branch into the ground to regrow plant
- score tubers and peel off bark
- rinse and grate tuber flesh
- ring out yuca water (save for soup)
- sift to remove any tough fibers
- spread and cook on a griddle
- eat and be merry
Our other excursion was to meet a real shaman, Shaman Olmedo. We were told about the importance of the traditional healing performed by the tribal shaman and about their role in the community. Luckily our group was joined by another, their guide was obviously more versed with the beliefs of the tribe and he conveyed a much deeper appreciation for their ways. We were offered the opportunity to receive a blessing and a cleansing, which I accepted. Both were very powerful, the second involved a prickly plant which left my back full of welts but is supposed to be as beneficial as ayahuasca. Later that evening, at dinner, I was asked why I volunteered. My answer was simple, maybe Shaman Olmedo could see and heal something I could not. Interestingly, those of the group that were not open minded were the same that later instigated the incident with the anaconda.
It would be hard to venture into any jungle and not experience a diversity in wildlife. We spent a great deal of time cruising the waterways, visiting Laguna Grande, took a hike through a swampy forest, and a short night hike in the woods surrounding the lodge. While we failed to capture images of everything, many things we wondered at without the distraction of the camera, here is a list containing some of the species we can remember: macaws, parrots, night hawk, toucans, boa constrictor, anaconda, saki monkey, squirrel monkey, woolly monkey, tamarind (milk face-black mantled), opossum, red back tarantula, wolf spider, fishing spider, egrets, cormorants, herons, anhinga, waxing bird (stinky turkey), kingfisher, cacique, oropendula, three toed sloth, bats, pink dolphin, turtles, bird eating tarantula, caiman (spectacled and black), tree frog, pileated woodpecker, assorted insects and butterflies, lizards, and too many other birds to remember. We also came across some fresh tapir tracks and ate termites and lemon ants, both were quite tasty.
Where are we now
Look Rock, TN
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