This morning we caught an early 30 minute flight to Coca, a town farther inland in Ecuador. From the airport we ferried 2 hours down the Napo River deeper into the Amazon, took a 15 minute walk and a 20 minute hand canoe ride to arrive at the ecolodge we are staying at – Sacha Lodge. On the way we were able to enjoy the sights and sounds of our first visit to the Amazon. We are, by definition, in the middle of nowhere, and we love it! Our private naturalist guide, Lily, assisted us with transportation and will be our guide for the entirety of our stay. We also have a dedicated indigenous guide (Wilson) who grew up in the Amazon and knows the local indigenous language and the natural area like the back of his hand.

When we arrived at the lodge, we immediately noticed the sounds of the Amazon – all kinds of creatures calling out – which are even more pronounced at night. After enjoying lunch at the lodge and meeting some of the managers we explored the land surrounding the lodge and were greeted by a few squirrel monkeys, no bigger than the size of a small dog, but with extremely long tails. For our first excursion Lily and Wilson took us on a canoe ride around the black water lake upon which the lodge is sited. Black water is made exclusively of rain water and it gets the unique color from decaying organic material (the best part of black water is that it prevents mosquitos from laying eggs). During this outing we saw numerous different species of birds along with a troop of around 30 squirrel monkeys. The monkeys moved through the tree canopy above us swinging from branch to branch as we watched on (video in our gallery).

Later in the evening Lily presented a short talk on how plants here in the Amazon are medicinally used by the members of local communities. Local communities simply go into the forest to collect medicinal plants and (very successfully) prepare remedies as there is limited facilities here in the jungle. Around 25% of all remedies in modern medicine derive from medicinal plants here in the Amazon. After dinner we had our final activity of the day – a night walk through the jungle. We came across numerous insects (tarantulas, millipedes, etc.), frogs, salamanders and other jungle creatures. We even saw one of the most dangerous animals that exists here – the poisonous banana spider! Here, the rule of thumb to live by is if its furry or colorful, don’t touch it. After hearing Lily use the phrase “don’t touch that, it can cause severe reactions” many times on our walk when referring to both plants and animals, we have decided it is best to just keep our hands in our pockets entirely! It was wonderful to see so many creatures in the wild that we had only ever previously seen on television.

We had such an enjoyable day and we are looking forward to another early morning as we will head out on our first excursion at 6:30. Excursions are scheduled in the early morning and late afternoon as this is when the animals are more active and the humidity is not as high and, of course, for siesta.