Postcards from the Ecuadorian Amazon

Over the course of my journey to the Ecuadorian Amazon, I be capable of shed the layers of civilization with each transitional type of transportation: first the hectic Quito taxi ride, then this flight that traversed the eco-zone extremes, in the snow-capped Andes to the sultry lowland rainforest in the mere half an hour. Next, 2 hours over a brain-jarring gravel road, exactly the same road that accommodates the infamous oil industry's pipeline.

Reaching the river dock, I bid adieu for the last remnants of civilization, because the local Ecuadorians as of this Amazonian outpost gather across the muddy river bank to view us depart. Our motorized canoe boat was set with people, belongings and supplies. As we lathered ourselves in mosquito repellent, a distinct citrus aroma arose, intermixing using the humid tropical air that engulfed the spot.

Once underway, I could sense that throughout the first bend inside the river, through a kaleidoscope of green and brown colored shades, one's heart with the Amazon awaited.

Our serpentine portage through the murky jungle river went deeper and deeper in to the rainforest. Soon your journey would become extremely interesting....

Surprising us from higher ground somewhere inside the thick tree foliage, Amazon women, easily fifty feet in height, let loose with an arsenal of spears in your immediate direction. Their spears whizzing past our heads, we was able to outmaneuver their unprovoked attacks.

Around the following bend, the river narrowed. Enormous tree vines hung down to the river's edge. Clinging on the vines was a large number of slithering anaconda, dangling precariously all-around our heads once we passed. The Dutch children fully briefed were nearly whisked away from the largest from the anaconda, merely six meters long. Our swift response with this supplied machetes prevented the children's abduction.

Further down river heaven filled with the sounds of the hundred bees possibly even we initially thought. The buzzing noises were in reality poisonous darts aimed at us by unfriendly natives hidden within the forest. Fortunately their cursed darts missed their intended marks.

A brief reduced dangerous situation was abruptly interrupted with a boiling frenzy of activity inside waters ahead. The source of the frenzy would be a thousand piranha hungrily looking for an afternoon snack. We pulled our hands and toes out from the water, steering through their frenzied madness. They continued to chase us down river, as did an armada of fast-moving hungry caimans.

Our mantle adversarial tested, we been able to prevail, and after couple of hours for these Amazon encounters, we finally reached our destination, Cuyabeno Lodge, which rested down the Laguna Grande. Now our adventure would really begin....

That's one version of the comes about when you travel inside the Ecuadorian Amazon. Now, here's another...

The boat journey was really a very calming, peaceful experience. There were certainly creatures within the tall trees we encountered. There were four different varieties of monkeys in addition to a blue and yellow macaw, as well as a toucan flirting regarding the tree tops. The pervasive jungle fisherman, the kingfisher, guided us down river. Only one small caiman came into view on the sunny river bank and he gave us little notice.

To our surprise, the blacken waters of Laguna Grande were safe for swimming, and now we swam every day. The piranha meanwhile swam inside the shallow, brackish estuaries downstream. Magical experiences happen in that lake also. A gloriously dramatic sunset cast pink, gold, aquamarine and sienna colors over developing storm thunderclouds along with the placid surface water.

The rare water pink dolphins were also present to the show. Quietly we watched a mama dolphin and her two babies surface and resurface in the still river waters. After sunset, a gaggle of us residing at the lodge ventured into the now darkened rainforest; nighttime is the place the Amazon's inhabitants really stand out, large and small.

We were equipped only with your senses and a flashlight. The stillness was incredible. Point the flashlight...tarantula with a tree...point it again, a tiny light green frog within leaf. What were those big eyes that glittered off my beam!?

The short return boat ride across the lake have also been dramatic because earlier developing thundercloud let loose featuring its stinging patter of raindrops, the rain and lake vegetation illuminated by our boat's searchlight and the distant flashes of lightning.

The next night Laguna Grande offered a spiritual portal to the immense twinkling universe above. So clear was the sun and thus totally free of civilization's lights that each star in the universe shined that night. So close were they that when you stood around the boat's bow, you could just touch them.

Earlier that afternoon, we fished for piranha with fresh chunks of meat as bait inside river's murky waters.

The Amazon's jungle silences and sounds are spellbinding. The humidity, especially when you walk deeper inland away in the cooling effect in the open waters might be stifling yet no worse than my days surviving in Florida.

Further down river we visited a tiny Amazon indigenous Siona community. The days of loin cloths and nose pierced bones were gone here. If you venture deeper to the Ecuadorian Amazon it is possible to members of the Huaorani tribe in more traditional appearance.

The jaguar along with the anaconda are incredibly inside jungle, just more elusive than our perceptions from the jungle would lead us to imagine.

The oil industry in this area has certainly inflicted ecological damage upon the otherwise pristine Amazon jungle. In the '90s, the Ecuador government applied a tourniquet for the environmental damage hemorrhaging by creating the national park Cuyabeno Reserve, which encompasses Laguna Grande, impeding the oil industry's encroachment. Ownership in the land was initially given for the indigenous tribes in the spot, with the assumption the tribe elders would deem priority protection for your land. However, even indigenous man can behave with avaricious intent for a lot of inside community decided to resell the land towards the oil industry, slightly defeating the legislation's original benevolent purpose. So, a political adjustment is made, declaring the land a national park, using the tribes given free lease, not ownership, on the protected land.

At my open-air thatched roof hut my only nighttime visitors were three curious cockroaches even though the neighboring monkeys and caimans kept their distance. My bed was built with mosquito netting which fortunately has not been too tested. I was little bothered by mosquitoes inside my stay since the neighboring lake produced an algae which deterred mosquitoes from laying eggs.

The five days I spent inside Amazon just flowed peacefully, naturally, much like the waters as well as the inhabitants themselves.

Hi! I’m Carmina, also known as Nana. I love Diy projects, parties, crocheting, and traveling. In this blog I share patterns, recipes, Diy projects, pet tips, party ideas, and travel tips.