Liana Lodge
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| Children fishing, seen from the deck at Liana Lodge. Photo by Ramona McCabe. |
What we discovered was one of the most comfortable and pleasant jungle stays any of us had experienced or heard tell of. The canoe dropped us off and we were met by a sweet Swiss volunteer who explained the regulations and procedures for staying at the lodge, a welcome cocktail of some local beverage and an extremely comfortable, beautiful, wood cabin to ourselves. Our room had three cozy twin beds with soft sheets and pillows, a private deck with a chair and hammock, several candles for the night time in lieu of electric lights, and, best of all, a hot shower. We didn't need to use mosquito nets because the bugs weren't bad (though I suppose Carmen's ankles might beg to differ), and when we went down to dinner we were treated to the five-star experience. We had our own table on the big wooden deck and we were served delicious garlic soup before a main course of chicken, salad, and potatoes, finished off with a carrot dessert. They also made accommodations for the vegetarian among us. The rest of the meals during the trip were similarly tasty, especially the breakfasts, though there was one lunch when we had to contend with an entire tilapia wrapped in banana leaves and looking very recently cooked.
Tour 1: Rainforest hike
For our morning activity we chose to go on the short rain forest walk to visit some giant trees. Our guide was a young man, maybe about 18 years old, from the local community, who had embraced punk style and had a thorough knowledge of the plants that we encountered. The hike was difficult and involved walking straight uphill for about 20 minutes and then straight down hill for about 15. I had a great time though and it was really interesting to learn how the local people used the plant materials. Our whippersnapper guide also demonstrated climbing up the side of these giant trees using vines as thick as his arm. The German girl in our group attempted to copy him but was utterly unsuccessful. Carmen and I did participate in some vine swinging further down the trail, and the guide clearly regretted letting us try in the face of our total ineptitude. We made him nervous, as Carmen managed to slo-mo slide to the end of the vine and I nearly smashed into a tree. So all in all, good times.
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| Proving that his punk outfit did not mutually exclude super jungle skills. Photo by Ramona McCabe. |
AmaZOOnico
At the end of our hike, we came to the zoo, cutely named AmaZOOnico, where the foundation Selva Vida houses rescue animals and prepares them for release into the wild whenever possible. It turned out to be really lovely. We spent about 45 minutes wandering through the zoo with a new guide who was a volunteer and who we think was from Argentina, though I forgot to ask. He spoke great English and was very friendly and funny. We saw several types of monkeys and tons of different birds including the Scarlet Macaw. Our guide told us that the zoo was not planning on releasing them because poachers and bird smugglers can get up to $5,000 for their feathers, and therefore it would not be safe for them outside of the zoo. Unfortunately, most of the mammals were hiding when we were there, but we still enjoyed learning about them and asking questions about the zoo's operations. Possibly my favorite part involved animals not in captivity. While we were walking, a troop of spider monkeys came swinging through the forest to harass the birds and steal food from the zoo. They also stopped to harass a group of their fellow spider monkeys behind bars who were recovering from injuries. And! There was a baby! It was grasping hold of its mother, just enjoying the ride. This was one of three different types of wild monkeys we saw on this trip.
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| Photo by Ramona McCabe. |
For our afternoon activity, we chose to visit the "plantations," which were really little farms belonging to the local people, and visit a home. We were a little wary because we didn't want to be "those" tourists who use local people like tourist sites, but it sounded cool to see the farms, and we figured, what the heck. Ultimately we didn't feel awkward because it was obvious that our guide had a good relationship with the locals and we didn't seem to be intruding. We think there weren't enough of the usual guides for all of the groups when it was time to go because after waiting for about 10 minutes I asked the receptionist if there was a guide for us, and she said that the owner of the lodge was on his way down in a canoe to take us. This turned out to be both a good thing and a bad thing. Mostly it was cool because we got to ask him about the lodge and how it hires people from the community and hear him speak Kichwa with local children while asking directions. This brings me to the bad part. I think maybe he wasn't used to leading these tours because we got lost three times in dense banana plants or something similar and had to do a fair amount of bushwhacking to get ourselves unlost. I asked my Spanish tutor how to say "bushwhacking" and he said "entrar a machete" which just goes to show you how inextricably linked our language and culture are. The farms were beautiful and overgrown and our guide showed us male and female papaya plants, Conga ants, a praying mantis, a stick insect, and let us suck on cacao beans while we walked (a flavor suprisingly unlike chocolate).
After tromping through farms for 2 hours, we came to a house on stilts in a small clearing. There our guide taught us how to use the traditional blowdarks from the area (I asked and he said they're really only used deep in the jungle by the uncontacted communities nowadays), which we used to shoot at little wooden owl perched on a stick. Then we went up to the open air kitchen on the second floor where an elderly woman gave us "chicha," a local fermented alcohol drink traditionally made by chewing yuca and spitting it into a large pot to be cooked. The chicha we tried used a different method instead of chewing and our guide explained that the chewed chicha lost popularity many years ago when disease started to become more of a problem. The lady seemed sweet and asked for our names, but she didn't speak Spanish, only Kichwa so we couldn't exactly chat with her.
After the visit we returned to the lodge to relax, have dinner, and try fancy cocktails at the bar, including one that used an entire passion fruit.
What are your favorite spots to visit in the Ecuadorian amazon? Reply in the comments.
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