"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
This journey began at 11:30pm Monday night with a 6.5 hour bus ride through the Andes Mountains to Lago Agrio, our next pickup point that would take us to the Amazon. The ride was rough and left me with little ability to sleep. My ears popped in and out as we traveled up and over the mountains. Around 6am, the van pulled off the side of the road in this little town. The driver instructed me and another girl to get off, because this was where our eco-lodge would pick us up. However, it was dawn and no one was around. She and I got off the bus with driver and then the store owner came out to let us in. About 20 minutes later, a taxi dropped off a few more people. We then slept off and on for about a two hours when breakfast was served.
Following breakfast, our tour bus picked us up and we headed two hours to the bridge that we would drop in the river. We made a pit stop along the river to see a rustic ferry crossing. The rest of the drive was relatively calm and allowed for a nap. At the bridge, we were able to stock up on snacks before beginning our two hour motorized canoe ride in the Cayabueno River National Park to the Caiman Eco-Lodge.
During that boating adventure, we encountered capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, whooley monkeys, a few small anacondas, a sloth, pink dolphins, a baby caiman (alligator) and various species of birds and butterflies. You know me, I love boat rides and throw that boat ride in the Amazon full of interesting animals and I'm in love.
Before dinner, we set out on a night hike in the Amazon. We (our guides) were on the lookout for creepy crawlers, and boy, did we find some. The highlights were a tarantula about the size of my hand and a scorpion spider that I allowed them to put on my head!! It was a trip. At one point, we turned our lights off and it was pitch black in front of us. However, up above the tree line you could see the faint glow of the moon.
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| Ferry crossing |
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| Anaconda |
Caiman
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