Bianca's Adventures in Ecuador - Part Two - Heading To The Amazon

It was indeed bright and early the next morning when we all convened for our quick breakfast and hotel checkout. We had packed separate bags for our four days in the Amazon, and we had to be careful that our bags with Galapagos clothes that were staying behind in Quito did not get confused with our bags of jungle clothes. Fortunately Patricio came to the rescue with different colored pieces of yarn. That took the stress off of some tired minds!

Everyone was dressed in long pants, long sleeves, fleeces and rain jackets. Quito is chilly in the morning with an average low temperature of 52 and an average high temperature of 72 all year long. We also knew we would be traveling to a very high altitude where mist prevails and making a couple of stops in that area before our descent back to sea level and our first tropical temperatures in Coca.

Our first stop, after a long climb up past suburban sprawl and impossibly steep cultivated farm slopes, was the forlorn Capella della Virgine Maria at the 18,750 ft. point on the road. Truckers  have traditionally stopped there for years to give thanks for making the ascent safely and to pray for a safe descent. The wide, beautiful new road we were privileged to take up to that point had only been completed in the last 2 years, and as we made our descent we were able to experience from time to time that old bumpy, muddy track whenever we had to detour past road work in progress. We knew that our total travel time to Coca would be 9 hours, but we also knew that it had taken the Conquistadores 11 months to cover the same distance along the Quechuan and Incan trails that are still visible on the mountainsides. That put it all in perspective!

Capella della Virgine Maria - Mt. Antisana

Snow was falling as I took this picture!

 

By 10 we had made it down into a semi-tropical cloud forest where we took our first long stop at Guango Lodge on the banks of Rio Guango. The lodge is in the midst of a hummingbird refuge, and hummingbirds of all varieties and colors were absolutely everywhere!! The weather was cool, damp and dripping and perfect for hummingbirds and orchids. We wandered about trying to snap photos of those rapidly moving but beautiful little birds. We were treated to cups of delicious hot chocolate there as well.

 

An oasis in the cloud forest!

 

 

My favorite green, shimmery hummingbird is only a little blurry!

 

 

Tree orchids - notice the photo snapping group in the background!

 

After 45 minutes or so in that birders paradise, we hit the road again for Baeza, a small town that serves as a jumping off point for numerous whitewater rafting outfitters. We were scheduled to have lunch there, but as we drew closer, Patricio and Edgar decided to take a brief detour up to see some weird hanging birds nests. Along that road we passed a typical cemetery and met a milkman and his son returning from making some local deliveries.

 

 

 

Milkman, Luis and his son, Cristian.

 

Our lunch at Restaurante Gina in Baeza featured grilled Mountain Trout with Rice and Plantains and Tree Tomato juice. Ah, the Tree Tomato became another delicious Ecuadorian fruit that I would obsess over! After lunch we were treated to shots of local Tequila by the very friendly Gina.

 

 

Back on the road we traveled down, down to the Cascada Hollin (pronounced Hojin) located right on the old Incan road and considered extremely sacred by the Incas. By this time we were technically in the Amazon, and the temperature, humidity and flora reflected that change. The rain jackets came off and sleeves were pushed up.

 

 

 

Randomly we ran into a whole group of Polish tourists at this totally in the middle of nowhere place. We were all dressed in adventure clothing and hiking boots and they were all in short shorts, tank tops and flip flops!

 

On we drove to Coca through the bustling, funky market town of Loreto where none of the buildings had a completed second story, the streets were muddy, a few cows and goats were wandering about but  ALL of the teenagers were texting on smartphones! What ?? We finally pulled into Coca at around 4:30, and after bidding Edgar, and our blue bus,  a fond Adios and Gracias for masterfully driving us so far, we picked up our rubber boots and prepared to board the special motorized canoes for our one hour ride up the Rio Napo to the smaller Rio Maduro where we would find Yarina Lodge, our Amazon home for the next three days.

 

 

Our river canoe is the green one touching the pier.

 

 

Looking up the Rio Napo in the direction we would travel.

 

The bridge was completed in 2013 as part of the government plan to improve transportation within the Amazon. Unfortunately, much of that is designed to improve the movement of oil from the rich fields to be found there. Preserve a vast environmental treasure or make big bucks from a fossil fuel? That is a quandry that may end up haunting future generations to come.