The Treasures of the Amazon (Ecuador)

We drove 12 hours by bus from Quito deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon. Our destination was the Cuyabeno Nature Reserve on the border with Colombia. The journey was overnight, so we were able to sleep a bit. At 11 o'clock in the morning, we reached El Puente Cuyabeno, the last remnants of civilization before the great jungle. This was our starting point for the tour, and there we met our guide, Rojo. He is a member of the Siona tribe, a small indigenous people in this part of the Amazon. Together with Rojo, we continued by boat for 3 hours to our accommodation, the Tucan Lodge.

Our guide Rojo grew up in the jungle, he knew most of the animals just by their call. His eyes were also extremely well trained to immediately recognize the perfectly camouflaged animals.

It was a real adventure to ride a small boat through the vast Amazon rainforest. You never knew what the next bend of the river would bring. We were overjoyed to be back here.

In total, we spent 4 days at the Tucan Lodge. The days were filled with all kinds of activities. Exploring the jungle and discovering its inhabitants (animals & plants) was always the focus. Every day, we took boat trips along the rivers and hiked through the jungle. We spent most sunsets on the large Cuyabeno lagoon. As soon as it got dark, we embarked on night walks in the jungle with our headlamps. Once it gets dark in the Amazon, it teems with life - the time of the caimans, snakes, spiders, and other creepy crawlies begins.

We encountered incredibly many animals and plants during this tour. Besides the mighty anaconda, we also saw black and white caimans, a boa constrictor, giant spiders, including the highly poisonous banana spider, and all sorts of other creepy crawlies. Of course, the monkeys in the jungle cannot be missed. We were followed everywhere by groups of capuchin monkeys and many other species. One very impressive inhabitant of the Amazon is the pink river dolphin, and here too, we were lucky to be able to observe them from the boat. The lodge's namesake bird, the toucan, and several species of parrots also crossed our path. And many more...

Swimming at sunset generally sounds like a good idea. However, when you are aware of what swims around in the murky waters, you don't necessarily want to jump in. The caimans and snakes are among the more relaxed contemporaries. But that was part of the activities: jumping into the lagoon at sunset, drifting in the warm water, and not thinking about what else is in the water. According to Rojo, it was absolutely safe ;)

We also visited a village of the Siona tribe. There we could see how people live in the jungle. They showed us how to make bread from the yuca root, and we also visited the shaman of the village.

This is how the wonderful tour of the Ecuadorian Amazon ended.