After a night of freezing our butts off we awoke bright and early...yet again. I had the air conditioner set to 18 degrees celcius because it is sooo muggy and sticky outside in Iquitos. But regardless of how cold it was, we still woke up feeling gross in the room. We packed our bags with only our essentials and locked up our big suitcases so we could leave them at the explorama offices.
We went downstairs for breakfast and were greeted by our guide. His name is Segundo and he has worked for Explorama for 39 years (keep in mind the company has only been around 44, talk about seniority). We ate some breakfast and then boarded the bus. We were off!
Our adventure began with an hour and a half boat ride up the Amazon river. We floated up the river on a three story boat, the Amazon Queen. We sat on the top deck and took in the passing landscape. We passed small villages with huts, kids playing in the river and women washing landry on its banks. As we passed the place where the Ninay river and the Amazon river meet we spotted several dolphins jumping around and playing. It seemed to be a good omen for the trip.
We continued our adventure when we arrived at Cieba Tops. Cieba Tops is the luxury lodge of the Explorama chain. It features actual rooms with air conditioning and even a pool with a water slide. We disembarked here to find that we were the only passengers continuing on deeper into the jungle. From there we took a small, motorized boat back down river for about 10 minutes and pulled up to a little village. In the village we caught a motortaxi that cut across the island to meet up with the Napo river. We boarded a speedboat with Segundo and several other Explorama workers and took off for our lodge. 45 minutes later, up the Sucsayri tributary we got our first glipse of our lodge.
Our lodge, the ExplorNapo
The ExplorNapo
ExplorNapo lodge is located 100 miles into the Amazon. It is the 2nd farthest of all the Explorama lodges. The bathrooms are pit toilets, latrine style, there is no running water, no electricity...no windows even. The rooms are smalls rooms with an open window (no screen), thatched roofing and mosquito nets to sleep under. It was rustic to say the least. They provide kerosene lamps and fresh drinking water to use.
Welcome to Fantasy Island...
Room 31, home sweet home
We walked up the steps and into the dining hall where Segundo gave us the lay of the land. We would be staying in room 31 at the explornapo lodge. After dropping our bags off in our room we explored a bit. We headed to the front where we saw the trumpet birds that live at the lodge. Here we met Charlie, the pet capybarra of the lodge. The capybarra is the world´s largest rodent and he makes a sound that sounds like some sort of laser gun. For being a rodent, he´s pretty cute. We made our way to the hammock room where we waited for lunch to be served.
Charlie.....
Outside of our room....I´m cowering in the corner.
Lunch was a spread, with fish, rice, beans and fruit. It was some of the best food we had eaten the entire trip. After letting our food digest, we headed out to the nearby botanical gardens. Here we saw different demonstrations of plants that are grown in the garden and the way that the native people use them to cure their illnesses. The shaman, Guillermo even let us try some dragon´s blood, which is supposed to cure insect bites. After the garden, we headed out on a hike through the rainforest. Segundo took off at a breakneck pace and we followed behind, taking in the sights and sounds of the Amazon rainforest. We visited the pet macaws for the ACTS research center nearby. A trail of leaf cutter ants crossed our path and we watched their work for a while, taking pictures. We made our way to the nearby canopy walkway. The canopy walkway is made up of netted walkways suspended between 14 trees. The highest point is 118 ft above the rainforest floor. Essentially it consists of aluminum ladders with wooden placnks wired on, all suspended in a netted walkway between two trees. It was terrifying but beautiful at the same time. We were up around sunset and the view was breathtaking; we were up above all of the trees of the forest.
Macaw at ACTS.
Leaf Cutter Ants crossing the path
The Canopy Walkway
Between trees 5 & 6...fearing for my life.
22 years old...and thats Dragon´s blood on my arm...not some crazy Amazonian disease.
Does this look stable/safe to you??
We made our way back to the Explornapo lodge only to find that the trail we were supposed to take was completely submerged in water. We backtracked a bit and made our way onto a new trail. We made it back to the lodge in time to take a quick shower before dinner. The showers were cold but incredibly refreshing. No matter what you do, you cannot recover from the heat and humidity of the rainforest. You are constantly sticky and sweaty. There is no relief. We grabbed a quick beer (purchased from Dennis at the bar) and headed out to swing in the hammocks. There also happened to be a large group of teenagers staying at the lodge so the hammock room was jumpin and swaying! We made our way back to the dining hall to have dinner with Segundo. Dinner was beef with a wine sauce, lentils, rice and vegetables. After dinner, Segundo told us to grab our flashlights because we would be headed out on a night cruise to look for animals.
After lathering up with bug repellant and grabbing our flashlights, we headed out to a small canoe...just us, Segundo and 2 assistants to help steer the canoe. We headed out in the pitch black night under a blanket of stars. There were more stars then I had ever seen in my life, and we were even lucky enough to spot the southern cross. We made our way through the pitch black, totally in awe of the way the driver was able to navigate without any light, when we turned up a small channel off the river. Segundo told us to turn on our flashlights and just start looking around. We crept deeper and deeper into the channel, passing through vines and listening to the amazing sounds of the jungle around us. Segundo spotted a couple of sleeping hummingbirds, frogs, spiders and even an owl butterfly. He had eyes like a hawk and seemed to spot animals without any sort of trouble.
An Owl Butterfly...side 1.
Whoa! Owl butterfly Side 2. Its´ defense mechanism...
We made our way back to the lodge where we stayed up, talking to Segundo. Segundo was born and raised in the jungle and is the most knowledgable guide at Explorama. He told us that he had taught himself English by listening to the tourists and guides he drove around. His first job at Explorama was filling the boats with gas and eventually moving up to be a guide. After drinking our fill of Iquiteña beer, we headed for bed.
We changed quickly and jumped under the safety of our mosquito nets. Amongst the sounds of the rainforest, we fell asleep. Dad forgot to go to the bathroom before bed and stayed up debating what we the best thing to do. His flashlight had burned out in the night and the 6 beers were catching up with him. He eventually resigned to walking all the way to the latrines, borrowed my flashlight and took off. I´m glad to say he made it back without a problem.
It was a great way to spend my birthday and a great start to our Amazon adventure! We tried to get a good night sleep before our big morning of Pirhana fishing!!!
Adios!
