This trip with Nancy, her daughter Arden and Arden’s boyfriend Sam was instigated as a reward to Arden on her being accepted into medical school - a final vacation before what is going to be many years of hard work for her.
Of course we traveled to Quito separately, Arden and Nancy left the day before me and traveled through Mexico City, I left the next day through Houston, and Sam joined us a week later via Miami.
Our first night in Quito we spent in the Hotel Casa San Marcos, in the older historical district of the city. A nice old home that had been converted to a hotel. I didn’t get much chance to explore Quito as I arrived late Sunday night and we left early the next morning for the airport and our flight. out to the jungle.
We flew from Quito to Coca, one of the main towns in the Oriente or Amazon region of Ecuador. Coca owes much of its growth to the oil industry; Ecuador being number three in South America for oil production (after Brazil and Venezuela). I expected a small prop plane for the 30-45 minute flight but it was a jet - a 737 - apparently a lot of people go there.
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| On the boat to Sacha Lodge |
In Coca we were met by someone from our jungle lodge and escorted to a boat for the 2 hour trip down the Napo River to the Sacha Lodge where we would be staying for 3 nights. The boat was typical transport for the region - a long thin boat with outboard motors at the rear. The Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon, is quite impressive, it flows fast and wide, though sometimes quite shallow. It is some 2,000 miles from the estuary of the Amazon on the coast of Brazil.
Arriving at the take out point for the Sacha Lodge we then had a 20 minute walk down a boardwalk through the jungle to a lake where we had a short canoe ride to the lodge itself. The lodge was comfortable enough considering the climate and location. We had a nice cabin but alas no air conditioning just a fan and yes it was quite hot and humid.
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| The Lake at Sacha Lodge |
In that first afternoon we took a canoe out and paddled around the lake. I got my first glimpse of what turned out to be one of my favorite birds - the Hoitzin. A weird creature that is not only one of a kind in its genus but also in its own family. It is also known as the stinkbird because it smells like manure. I didn’t get close enough to notice its smell. Nancy and Arden went for a brief swim in the lake unaware of what creatures the water contained (piranhas and caymens). I sensibly declined.
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| The Hoitzin |
We were assigned two guides just to cater to the needs of the three of us - Dario an Ecuadorian, and Paulo a native from one of the villages in the region. After dinner they took us on a night walk through the jungle. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very revealing. There were all sorts of sounds and noises in the forest but little to be seen - a few spiders, one frog and one snake. There were remnants of a butterfly farm on the property - now in disuse.
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| On the Tower Walkway |
The next day we were off birdwatching from the tower walkway above the tops of the trees. It is quite a structure - 3 towers some 100 ft tall with a walkway strung between them. I was struck by the richness of plant life but the relative rarity of bird and animal life. Yes we saw some birds but one or two of each species and yes there were some monkeys but again very few. Poor Arden, who does not have a head for heights was a little uncomfortable until she got her feet back on the ground again. Myself, I loved it. We saw a toucan, a potoo, cuckoos, oropendulas, and the most beautiful little bird you could imagine - the purple honeycreeper.
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| Crested Owls |
On the way back to camp we spotted a pair of Crested Owls sitting quietly and motionless in a tree. We watched and photographed them for a long time - quite remarkable.
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| The Ceiba Tree Tower |
In the afternoon we went to the predecessor of the tower walkway - a wooden tower built around a tree (a ceiba tree I think). To be up in the upper branches of one of these mighty trees was very interesting. The life that is contained in the tops of these trees that never has any contact with the ground is quite remarkable. We saw a Toucan or more specifically a Many-banded Aracari on one of the adjacent trees - a most impressive bird.
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| Toucan |
We heard and then later saw some howler monkeys - they make a lot of noise, something like a jet plane flying overhead. Apparently they are only beaten in the noise making stakes by the a blue whale. More noise per pound than any other animal on the planet.
In the evening we went out in a canoe in search of caymans. We had already seen one in the daytime hanging out below the lodge’s restaurant but this was an attempt to see them out on the fringes of the lake by catching their eye reflections in our flashlight beams. We did find quite a large one which the guides didn’t want to get too close to. Then later on a young one just floating motionless in the middle of the lake.
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| A Caymen |
The next morning we were off out to the Napo river and a boat ride downstream to look at parrots feeding on a mineralized clay cliff. The birds need some mineral that is found in the clay and there were literally hundreds of them flying around the cliff face and eating the clay. One of the guides with better eyes than me spotted a python in a tree patiently waiting for an unsuspecting parrot to swing by. I couldn’t make it out - but I found it later by zooming in on one of the photos I took.
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| Parrots at the Clay Cliff |
On the way back to camp we paid a visit to a local community to see a little bit what life is like for them (and for them to see how weird we tourists are - particularly the American who carried a garden gnome with her all the time and who introduced it to the children - on every trip you can find a weird one). We visited a school, the local community garden and then were fed some of the local food - plantains, fish, and the ever so delightful barbecued grubs (big fat grubs about 1 inch long).
The Napo river is quite wide and runs quite fast but in parts it is quite shallow. Every now and then the boat would stick in one of the shallows and we would back out of it. We had fun on one occasion when we really did get stuck and there was no backing out. The guides had to jump overboard into the knee high water and we passengers had to rock from side to side to get us moving again. It took quite a while.
After lunch we had a go at fishing for piranhas. Our equipment was pretty basic - a stick with a line and a hook baited with some meat. There was so much piranha life in the water that the meat was stripped off the hook after a few seconds. A couple of piranhas were landed but I didn’t catch one. This and the earlier cayman sighting all took place from the deck just a few yards from where Nancy and Arden had been swimming the previous day.
In the afternoon, it was another canoe ride down something called Anaconda Creek. Of course we didn’t see any anacondas, but we were told they do exist there.
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| The Sacha Lodge from the Lake |
This was the end of our short stay in the Amazon basin and the next morning we went back to the Napo river and headed upstream (in the rain) to Coca and our flight to Quito. All in all a nice little excursion. The jungle is so abundant in plant life but the rest of its life (birds, mammals, etc) are less populous and they tend to keep themselves well hidden.
Back in Quito we met Sam at the airport and then headed back to our hotel, the same one, the Casa San Marcos. We wandered around the “Centro Historico” - a relatively compact area with lots of old colonial era buildings, churches, narrow streets and squares. We visited the more recent post-colonial Basilica del Voto Nacional and climbed up the tower to witness great views of the city below. Another test of Arden’s will to overcome her fear of heights.
From the Basilica we moved into the more modern district - Mariscal Sucre. It wasn’t so impressive but we did get to indulge in an ice cream from McDonald’s of all places - and it was very good.
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| Semana Santa Procession |
In the evening we happened across a religious procession making its way from church to church through the old part of town - it was Easter, Semana Santa, and the day before Good Friday. While it was an interesting spectacle to observe and we did watch for a long time and we took many photographs, it was just a little strange - people dressed in purple hats and robes (like Ku Klux Klan costumes), lots of children, lots of stern looking women.
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| Semana Santa Procession |
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| Semana Santa Procession |
We finished up the evening in the Church of the Company (La Compania). This is one of the most decorated and ornate churches in Quito. Simply the most spectacular interior you could imagine with gold ornamentation everywhere. You can’t fail to be impressed, and a little concerned, when you see such over the top creations in a poor country like Ecuador.
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| Interior of La Compania |
The next morning, Friday, we headed off to visit the Equator or la Mitad del Mundo (Center of the Earth) as they call it. On the way there we went to view the nearby volcanic crater of the now extinct Pululahua volcano. This crater is inhabited by several small farms so one can only hope that the volcano is extinct.
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| Pululahua Crater |
There are two sites commemorating the equator. The official one positioned a long time ago before accurate GPS measurements and an unofficial more commercial one on the true location.
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| At the Equator - the accurate one |
We visited the more accurate one first. There was the usual opportunity to take photos on a line marking the spot but more impressive was the demonstration of the Coriolis force and how water spins down a plug hole in different directions on either side of the equator while pouring straight down when on the equator. Just a few feet on either side of the line made all the difference. The also allowed you to try and balance an egg on top of a nail head - which while difficult on the equator is apparently impossible anywhere else. I did it and I have the certificate to prove it!
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| At the Equator - the official one |
The official site is much more impressive - a tower, a conference center, a museum, a planetarium and lots of souvenir shops. Its location was apparently measured in 1736 so you can forgive them a bit of error in placing it. In reality I enjoyed the unofficial site more.
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| Good Friday Procession |
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| Good Friday Procession |
Back in Quito for the afternoon, there was another procession through town to mark Good Friday. This was much larger than the prior evenings parade and there were literally hundreds of the purple gowned penitents. Many people were carrying crosses - large crosses, heavy crosses that were obviously quite difficult and exhausting to carry. A few crowns of thorns and barbed wire belts around chests - all very strange to a non-believer like myself but obviously a huge thing here in the Catholic world.
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| View from Hotel |
That evening we were upgraded to the hotel owner’s townhouse at the top of the hotel (as a result of a misunderstanding between myself and the hotel staff in which I thought I was being overcharged - it actually wasn’t the case). The townhouse was wonderful with great views of the city from every window. The following morning we had an early wake up call (3:45 am) for our trip to the airport and the flight out to the Galapagos Islands.
Photos of this section of the tour are here and the next post will deal with the Galapagos part of the trip.
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