Day 1: Traveling to the Amazon

I write this post now at 10:38 on Valentine’s Day with a mosquito net hanging over my head in my room at the Sacha Jungle Lodge. This is SO nothing like home! Let’s back up a little bit so I can catch you up—though of course, this post will not be live on my blog until 2 days from now at best!

A Coca Cola ad in the airport. Look at how crowded it is!

We arrived in the Quito airport at 10:25 p.m. on Wednesday. It was an exhausting day of travel, and the customs lines moved VERY slowly! We did not get to sleep until nearly 2 a.m. Thursday; this all made for a 21-hour day! So we were not thrilled to have to spend much of our first day in Ecuador traveling!

Valentine's Day gift bag from Jen of EF Tours

We did have a lovely breakfast at Hotel Reina Isabel after a great night’s sleep. We spent the morning on a tour bus heading toward Tena, the largest “city” near the Amazonian region where we are currently staying. Jen Watts, our tour director from EF, treated us with little Valentine’s Day gifts—small baggies filled with candy and travel goodies. We saw many animals (dogs, cows, horses, sheep, pigs, roosters) out the bus windows and experienced some incredible (if scary) views of the highlands and cloud forest. We also ate the first of what I’m sure will be many soups on our stop for lunch.

Ms. Ekwall, Ms. Richards, and Ms. Meyer,
all of Hopkinton Public Schools,
ready to depart on the motorized canoe

Shortly after lunch, we made it to the motorized canoes that would take us first to an Amazonia animal rescue center and later to the jungle lodge where we will spend two nights. I got unlucky enough to be on the canoe that had not one, not two, but THREE scary moments! First, we were unable to pass by some rocks, so we had to move from our seats to redistribute the weight on the canoe. The boat was taking on water and we were starting to worry about our things being ruined, including some expensive electronics! Ultimately, we made it back to our seats thanks to an intrepid group member and one of our guides, Adonis. I give no thanks at all to the boat driver, who gently crashed our canoe into some rocks due to another misjudgment shortly after the first. The icing on the cake would have to be when the right side of the boat tipped into the water and soaked a couple of members of our group, including my roommate. We were so mad!!! But fortunately, everyone was okay.

View of the river from the canoe

The Amazon animal rescue did not disappoint. All of the caged animals were unable to survive in the wild for one reason or another; some had been pets, and they had an anaconda that had been found on the road in Tena! We saw birds, caiman, turtles (including several who walked right in our path), and many monkeys. For those who know me, you will already know this is my dream come true. The monkeys were so cute, and several of them were showing off for us tourists; it was great fun.

Baby spider monkey atop mama monkey's back

One of several turtles we nearly stepped on!

The trumpet bird that follows rescue center
visitors around as if he were a dog! 

After this, we rode in the motorized canoes for an hour (no incidents this time, thank goodness!) until we arrived at the jungle lodge. We watched a gorgeous sunset over the river and it was a very peaceful ride. The nighttime jungle walk we did before dinner—the part I was most scared about!—was okay. I did not love it, but I did see some neat bugs and I can say forever that I’ve walked in the jungle at night.

The lodge only has electricity on from 6:30p.m. to 10:00p.m. each day. It is very dark without the lights. I’m glad we’re only here for 2 nights but this too is an interesting experience. I’m looking forward to our school visit tomorrow…stay tuned!