I was hopig to book a jungle trip from Tena but the town was dead so I decided to call places. I tracked down the numbers to some operators who own lodges in Cuyabeno reserve and booked a 4 night trip with Samona Lodge for $230. All the trips leave from Lago Agrio which is a major pain to get to. From Tena I caught a Quito bound bus and took it to Baeza ($3, 2.5hrs). A little outside Baeza I got off at an intersection where I was told there would be a bus coming through bound for Lago Agrio (4hrs, $5). 45min later the bus showed up. The ride from Baeza to Lago is extremely rough and the road is very windy and the drivers are maniacs. Take Dramamine. In Lago the bus dropped us off at some random spot outside of town and I caught a taxi in for $1.50. Stayed at Casa Blanca where they have clean single rooms with direcTV and private bathroom for $8. I got sick in Lago from something I ate and couldn't leave the next morning. Had to rebook my trip since Samona didn't have another one going for a few days. I called around and Rainforestur set me up with a trip for $40/day. Rainforestur is just an agent and I got booked at Guacamayo Lodge which is run by Ara Expeditions (araexpeditions.com)
The trip: they picked me up at my hotel at 9am and there was some confusion because the lodge normally charges $50/day and they also could only take me for 3 days and the girl didn't speak English. I was a little hesitant to go since I had no idea what I was getting into but went with it. From Lago it's about a 2hr drive to a bridge where you get into a long boat down the river for another couple hours to the Lodge.
It was just me and two 30 year old Swiss guys at the lodge which was great because our guide would do whatever we wanted. The first afternoon we saw pink river dolphins on our way to go piranha fishing and everyone caught one and I caught two which was great because it is the wet season and apparently difficult to catch piranhas because there is so much water and food around. But we found a good spot. After fishing we went on a 3hr night hike through the jungle. It was pretty intense with some stream crossings and wading through waste deep water in the dark looking for anacondas. Didn't see any anacondas but we saw tons of insects and our guide knew everything. Took the boat back to the lodge and had dinner which was fish, rice and lentils.
The lodge is classically built with wood and grass roofs. They have a couple solar panels so you can charge electronics but other than that its candle light. They have rooms with 2 beds, bug nets and private bathroom. The shower is just river water. The lodge is right on the river and they were almost done with a 3 story bird watching tower. Its right next to Samona Lodge but i never heard them, It's a really cool spot.
The second day after breakfast we went out at 9am on a canoe excursion paddling. Once again, because we asked for adventure, it was pretty intense. We were paddling through flooded jungle through narrow channels hacking through brush with a machete until one of the Swiss guys dropped the machete in the water and it sank. We had lunch out in the jungle and saw some really fresh Tapir tracks. A tapir is a kind of small jungle cow, yes, jungle cow. After lunch we paddled back to the main river and met the motorized long boat and went to the village to meet the shaman. The village has some modernish style wood building on stilts. There was a 1yr old monkey living there named Nacho who was fun to play with. The villagers ate his mother a while ago and then adopted the baby. Unfortunately the shaman had malaria symptoms so we couldn't meet him, I guess he's like 100 yes old. On the way back from the village we saw a big anaconda which was sweet. It was in a bush just above the water and was about 2-3 meters long. We also saw more pink river dolphins.
The third day we went out at 6am for bird watching and saw some cool birds including toucans and parrots and eagles among others. At 10am we took the boat back to civilization.
The Swiss guys flew back to Quito for abbot $70. I took the bus for $8. I almost got screwed though because almost all the buses were full. It was a Friday and election weekend so I think that's why. Luckily one of the companies had a secret unscheduled bus at Quito using a bus from the "Petrolera" company. The bus was a heap but it had new seats and showed movies. They played a Jason Stathom marathon showing Transporter 1,2, and 3, the Italian job, another movie I hadn't seen with Wesley Snipes in it, ands Crank, all in Spanish of course. The ride took 8hrs and I got into Quito around 11pm. The bus entered Quito from the north and so It drove by the Mariscol Sucre area where I was going to stay so I jumped out and caught a taxi to my hostel which saves me about an hour had I gone all the way to the terminal.
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