Off to the Amazon

The trip to Sacha lodge involved a half hour flight, a short trip in a very archaic bus, and almost three hours first in a motorised canoe on the Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon (up to three kilometres wide at some spots), a walk through the jungle and then a dugout canoe. This is the only means of access although now they have a helicopter. When we arrived, we settled in to our rooms, then met our naturalist guide for the stay, Diego, were issued with our gumboots and waterproof ponchos and, after dinner, set out on our first exploratory hike with Diego and Edison, our native guide.


Most of the employees at the lodge are local people who speak their own language and Spanish. The lodge aims to raise awareness of the local bio ecology and provides a lot of economic support to the local communities. The facilities are comfortable without being luxurious: we had a cabin with its own bathroom (no toilet paper to be thrown into the loo!) and the central meeting place of the lodge was a two story building where we ate and socialised. Jungle surrounded us.

Our first trek into the jungle set the tone for those to come. Clad in boots, long pants and a shirt and covered in high power insect repellent, we marched single file behind Edison and Diego who had the torch. They scanned the bushes for any signs of wildlife and upon finding any, Diego would point them out with uncontrolled glee. We were slightly overwhelmed by his enthusiasm. “Look” he would whisper triumphantly, “a horn-billed, red throated, woodpecker. Beautiful. I haven’t seen one of those for months! Wonderful! One of the most intelligent birds in the forest. Yes!” (I take licence with the terminology as the actual varieties we saw have all blended into one.} And he would flash his big happy smile at us. But that first night we saw no birds, only a selection of insects which barely rivalled the ones at home: snails, frogs, crickets, grasshoppers and millipedes

However I must admit my etymological sensibilities were heightened in one way. While we were standing watching a bug of some sort, I became aware of a strange uncomfortable feeling on my upper legs. As this developed, I started to complain and then found a colony of ants had found their way up my legs (I had not tucked my pants into my socks or boots). They climbed right up to my chest and arms, lodging in whatever folds they could find and biting the whole time. Diego suggested taking off my trousers and boots and shaking them off, but as this would have meant standing barefoot in the mud, naked from the waist down, I declined, opting rather for a combination of sticking my hand into my shirt and pulling the offending insects out and slapping vigorously on the less accessible regions. I must have pulled out at least 20 and annihilated by slapping another 40. Not a comfortable experience and one which diminished somewhat my appreciation of the millipedes, bugs, fungi and so forth that we encountered.



On the following days, we rose early each day at about 5 in order to maximise the chances of seeing wildlife and embarked on another trek either at 4 pm or, after dinner, at 8.30. We went on a magical early morning canoe ride down Orchid Creek to the huge tower constructed around an ancient Kapok tree, from where we spent a very long time looking at birds through the telescope that out guides carried for us. Diego’s enthusiasm continued unabated. Another canoe trip, equally lovely down Anaconda Creek almost gave us the chance to see an anaconda in the flesh. Jack was sitting at the front of our canoe, testing Diego on his knowledge of classification of the species, while at the back poor Edison managed to spy an Anaconda below the surface. He was hissing, “Diego, anaconda” and desperately trying to paddle the boat back wards while Diego, distracted by Jack was blithely paddling forward. Ultimately both guides saw the very long snake and we saw the bubbles. But hey, nothing is predictable in the jungle. Our failure with the anaconda was compensated for a little by our visit to a gigantic nest of leaf cutter ants that climb high up a tree to cut off bits of leaf and bring them back to the enormous nest. Quite an amazing sight.

Another trek involved a canopy walk very high above the trees on a swinging narrow bridge (not for those with a fear of heights) and on our last day we went to see a parrot lick. This a clay wall to which parrots come everyday from up to 20 miles away to lick the special clay which purifies their systems of the toxins that build up from the plants they eat. We had to sit in a hide for quite some time before they came down but it was very interesting to see them mass on the clay to perform this task. And on the return journey, we went to a small lodge where the local Sharman, exorcised the evil from Chris who was deemed the most in need cleansing.

On our last night we went out on the lake in front of the lodge in a dugout canoe and were able to see close-up (almost within touching distance) the huge caiman which is one of many alligators living in the lake. I was a bit relieved I had not availed myself of the chance to swim there although I gather they don’t attack at day time and mostly eat fish.

I think Diego despaired of us after a while. He took our non-stop ribbing very well and after a day or so managed to join in. We didn’t always approach the jungle and its inhabitants with the deference he hoped for but he stayed in good spirits and even encouraged the singing (in theme of course) as we returned from each excursion. We managed to think of songs related to birds, to the river, to monkeys, to walking, and we belted them out cheerfully on every excursion. In short we had a bloody good time.