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Let's move on to the story of the trip to the Amazon. An erudite person, of course, will refute me - what is the Amazon in Ecuador? Well, okay, not to the Amazon, so to the Amazonian selva - the pool is shared! To be precise, the Napo River flows through Ecuador - one of the major Amazonian tributaries. So the flora and fauna there is the same as on the banks of the “big Amazon”, but, unfortunately, pink dolphins are not found.
We chose the lodge according to two criteria: deeper into the jungle, but with comfort. Sacha Lodge meets both requirements. First, you need to fly from Quito to Coca (the capital of the department of Francisco de Orellano, through which the Napo River flows). The plane is normal, not too small, filled exclusively with tourists (from which we can conclude that the route is in demand by them). Flights are daily also because no one stays in the Amazonian lodges for a long time - the standard stay is 3-5 days. When booking a tour in Moscow, you will receive tickets from the guide at the airport just before the flight to Coca. From Koka, two hours of a fast ride on a motor boat along a wide river - more than 100 km from the city, then 40 minutes on foot through the jungle, however, along the boardwalk, to the so-called lagoon, I would call it a forest lake, and, finally, along the lake by canoe to the lodge. The lodge is not exactly on the shore, but, as it were, above the swamp on stilts. Everything is raised above the water: the houses, the paths between them, the restaurant and the reception. The swamp is inhabited by caimans and piranhas. But they are not in the lake (so we were told), a ladder leads into the water and you can swim. We also bathed. The water looks clean. The lodge is all wooden and looks very simple, in Indian style. There is no glass in the windows, no air conditioning, by the way. But in the evening a light breeze comes from the lake, so you can live. The windows from mosquitoes are taken away with the smallest mesh, the houses are treated with special means, so you should not be afraid with closed doors. But you can only go outside with a generous smear of repellent. Since we did not vaccinate, I strictly followed this rule. She smeared her arms, legs and face, sprayed her clothes. In addition to the repellant, a high-protection sunscreen should be present on the skin from 9 am to 5 pm. Combining these two means, of course, is tiring, but somehow managed.
More about the level of comfort: the rooms have a shower with hot and cold water, a normal toilet. There is no TV and refrigerator, only lighting, but there is an outlet in the room. The laptop turns on without problems, the equipment is recharged. You are unlikely to get through on your mobile home, but this is the case throughout Ecuador. There is a terrace with a hammock. With the onset of darkness, from the balcony you can see only the windows of the restaurant and dimly lit paths, around the Amazonian swamp, overgrown with dense forest. If you turn away from the territory of the lodge and look towards the jungle, you will see impenetrable darkness. But out of the darkness comes a real concert! The cries of liars, night birds, monkeys, I don't know who else. Sometimes a growl. Do you feel like a member of an expedition of zoologists looking for someone? “King Kong, maybe.
In any case, that's how I felt. But sensations are the lot of impressionable people, sane people rely solely on facts, and they are as follows: it is not so easy to meet any living creature in the Amazonian forests, except for ants. Birds, however, are often caught, for example, huacins, we called them Amazonian chickens. They are large and look exotic. Monkeys are more difficult. On the very first trip along the lake channels, we saw a family of howler monkeys on the shore. They feasted on fruit on the trees and were so far from us that even a good device gave a very small picture. The attempt to approach failed. After that, the guide took us for two hours along the canals in search of those same howler monkeys or some other monkeys, but to no avail. Screams, however, were heard all the time. The guide asked to be silent so as not to frighten the forest dwellers. I willingly kept silent and enjoyed the sounds of the sounds of the forest. The nature around is amazing. The expression “enchanted place” immediately came to mind. Many channels depart from the lake, connecting and intertwining with each other. The roots of tall trees and creepers descend into the water, grow out of the water, unfamiliar plants are all around. You feel like you are in another world.
Canoeing along the canals is one of the types of excursions at Sacha Lodge. In the same way we went to catch piranhas. Fishing for me, like my husband, is absolutely on the drum, but, you know, it’s hard to refuse the opportunity to casually mention in a friendly circle: “When I caught piranhas . . ” or “and piranhas taste like ordinary river fish. ” In general, it's up to you. If you want to - go fishing, if you don't want to - do something else. There is nothing special in this process. There are a lot of piranhas in the channels. They catch them for pieces of meat (or maybe the guides are just too lazy to dig worms? ). They did without fishing rods - just a fishing line with a hook. It is worth casting the hook, after a minute the line will twitch, but most likely, when you hastily drag it into the boat, the hook will be empty. The piranha has eaten the meat with gusto and is waiting for more. We caught surprisingly little. Maybe this is the unspoken rule of the local guides - to give tourists obviously unusable hooks so that they do not catch all the fish, leaving nothing to the Indians? Joking aside, the hooks were so big that they simply couldn't fit in the mouths of local piranhas. They would fit a bigger fish, but we didn't come across one. So, if you want to fish at Sacha Lodge, bring your own hooks from home. Caught fish will certainly be cooked for you for dinner.
Returning to the lodge after visiting the observation bridge, we met two nocturnal birds sleeping in the daytime in the forest. These, of course, were owls, but of a very peculiar kind. I immediately referred to them as "Amazon owls". They slept on low trees, a little taller than a man, and were hidden by bushes. The Indian, with his keen tracker's eye, noticed them and told the guide. The guide cut a conspiratorial face and beckoned us away from the path. Parting the undergrowth, we saw two sleeping beauties. In fact, they were miraculously good. The guide said that if you accidentally wake them up, they will no longer want to sleep in this place. So we tried to be silent and managed to take a picture of a couple of meters from three. The husband then stated that the guide and assistant simply know that these birds sleep here and show them to all tourists as an unexpected success.
The second observation point for observing the jungle is equipped around the kapok tree. Climbing it, you can not only watch the animals, but also find yourself in their usual environment, in the crown of a giant tree. The kapok tree is a whole world, honestly! Not only flowers grow on its branches, but also shrubs, you can not climb on them, but walk. You are not just on a tree, but among a huge number of plants. And all around, as far as the eye can see, the green sea of the jungle sways, over which the same gigantic trees tower here and there. They also say that if you snuggle up to such a tree, you can recharge with positive energy.
As we climbed the stairs to the platform, squirrel-like monkeys frolicked in the neighboring trees below - finally! We admired them admirably, without any binoculars. Naturally, a spyglass was hoisted on the platform, through which we could observe the toucans. They flew to the tree opposite, but without binoculars they looked very tiny.
The platform is located near the canal, so we returned to the lodge by canoe. The tour ended at dusk. Our last evening on the Amazon began. And then I finally had the opportunity to say the immortal phrase about "many, many wild monkeys. " The aforementioned were full and full both to the right and to the left of the boat. After all, the channel is narrow, the branches stretch over the water, and squirrel-like monkeys, capuchins, marmosets swayed on these branches... I don’t remember all of them. I list them in such detail, because at first they were pretty decently visible, some were literally two meters away, the guide listed the varieties for us. All around was noisy from the rustle of branches, the sounds of jumping and monkey cries. I could not resist taking pictures, although I understood that there was not much point in this - the evening came into its own. Since all objects were, as you know, moving, it was impossible to shoot with a flash. Some of the photos came out surprisingly clear, albeit almost black and white - shadow theater. I kept them, of course. Watching the monkeys with delight, I, at the same time, mentally repeated the question: why did we see all this only now? Although, in fact, I know the answer: nature does not pronounce the principle “beginners are lucky” and are extremely reluctant to let themselves be captured. I made this conclusion based on the experience of our now quite a few travels. So, I met a shark when the lens of an underwater camera fogged up and he refused to take pictures, the whales were so amazing that no one even remembered shooting, and we see the most beautiful landscapes from the car window, not being able to stop. The more precious for the author each one way or another the resulting frame.
During our stay at Sacha Lodge, in addition to walking on land and on water, we were also taken to a parrot show. This trip was proudly called a visit to the reserve, although we entered the land just like that, we only watched from the boat. It was really something to look at. By canoe we got to the edge of the lagoon, went through the jungle to a large river, transferred to a motor boat and sailed along the Napo River. It was not an individual, but a group trip, i. e. it was attended by almost all the guests of the lodge. We stopped at a high clay cliff, on which, on a small natural terrace, many parrots had gathered. They were all very busy pecking clay. The guide explained that the clay is an adsorbent that helps the parrots get rid of toxins accumulated in their bodies due to eating poisonous fruits. How cleverly everything is arranged in nature! And as soon as the parrots realized that they needed this clay, it's tasteless! An amazing sight. The parrots were bright, mostly green, large and small, they flew in and out, swayed on the branches of trees, and communicated with each other. The uproar was unimaginable. We swam so close that it was possible to take not only good pictures, but also video. We wouldn't be able to see it from land.
On this, I can consider my report on the trip to Sacha Lodge completed. Yes, the flyers promised a visit to an Indian village. We were not there, which I do not regret at all. This is not some uncivilized tribe in the wilds of the Amazon, but simply very poor people in a poor village, whom Sacha Lodge provides with work. I think that’s why I didn’t see more than one Indian woman in the lodge - first of all, men need a job, you won’t be fed up with hunting alone. And women and at home there is something to do. There were literally only one or two female guides, but the guides are the highest caste among the staff, they all have a special education and speak English. By the way, among the guides were not only Ecuadorians, but also Europeans. Our guide Paul was from Quito, his wife and little son lived there, he worked on a rotational basis - two weeks after two. He told us that although he misses his family, his work pays very well, he can afford a decent apartment and a non-working wife. “When I arrive home, ” he said, “we walk a lot and go wherever we want. ” Paul was very inquisitive, he asked me about Russia, in particular, whether there was a war in Chechnya now. It's dangerous there, because there are Muslims, he added cautiously (most Ecuadorians are Catholics, like all Latin Americans). I told him that there was no war at present, everything was being restored there, but the Russians did not go there unless absolutely necessary. I also said that there are a lot of Muslims in Russia, as it happened historically, and by no means all of them are militant. For example, the Tatars, who have been living in the same state with the Russians for several centuries. Paul was obviously very interested, he heard the word “Tatars” for the first time and thoughtfully repeated, remembering. With such mutually interesting conversations, the guide and I entertained each other at dinner. By the way, during one of the walks, he told us that there was once a man from Moscow, he flew in with two assistants and girls, they didn’t go on any excursions, only go fishing with alcohol, and spent the rest of the time in the bar. With a very restrained description, I imagined this picture to myself quite vividly. Of course, it was unpleasant for me that my compatriots left a not the best opinion about themselves, especially since Russians are rarely seen here. I hope my husband and I managed to improve this opinion. This is me, in fact, to the fact, gentlemen, that if the word “leisure” is synonymous with booze for you, maybe you shouldn’t climb so far for this? But this, of course, is my personal position.
We chose the lodge according to two criteria: deeper into the jungle, but with comfort. Sacha Lodge meets both requirements. First, you need to fly from Quito to Coca (the capital of the department of Francisco de Orellano, through which the Napo River flows). The plane is normal, not too small, filled exclusively with tourists (from which we can conclude that the route is in demand by them). Flights are daily also because no one stays in the Amazonian lodges for a long time - the standard stay is 3-5 days. When booking a tour in Moscow, you will receive tickets from the guide at the airport just before the flight to Coca. From Koka, two hours of a fast ride on a motor boat along a wide river - more than 100 km from the city, then 40 minutes on foot through the jungle, however, along the boardwalk, to the so-called lagoon, I would call it a forest lake, and, finally, along the lake by canoe to the lodge. The lodge is not exactly on the shore, but, as it were, above the swamp on stilts. Everything is raised above the water: the houses, the paths between them, the restaurant and the reception. The swamp is inhabited by caimans and piranhas. But they are not in the lake (so we were told), a ladder leads into the water and you can swim. We also bathed. The water looks clean. The lodge is all wooden and looks very simple, in Indian style. There is no glass in the windows, no air conditioning, by the way. But in the evening a light breeze comes from the lake, so you can live. The windows from mosquitoes are taken away with the smallest mesh, the houses are treated with special means, so you should not be afraid with closed doors. But you can only go outside with a generous smear of repellent. Since we did not vaccinate, I strictly followed this rule. She smeared her arms, legs and face, sprayed her clothes. In addition to the repellant, a high-protection sunscreen should be present on the skin from 9 am to 5 pm. Combining these two means, of course, is tiring, but somehow managed.
More about the level of comfort: the rooms have a shower with hot and cold water, a normal toilet. There is no TV and refrigerator, only lighting, but there is an outlet in the room. The laptop turns on without problems, the equipment is recharged. You are unlikely to get through on your mobile home, but this is the case throughout Ecuador. There is a terrace with a hammock. With the onset of darkness, from the balcony you can see only the windows of the restaurant and dimly lit paths, around the Amazonian swamp, overgrown with dense forest. If you turn away from the territory of the lodge and look towards the jungle, you will see impenetrable darkness. But out of the darkness comes a real concert! The cries of liars, night birds, monkeys, I don't know who else. Sometimes a growl. Do you feel like a member of an expedition of zoologists looking for someone? “King Kong, maybe.
In any case, that's how I felt. But sensations are the lot of impressionable people, sane people rely solely on facts, and they are as follows: it is not so easy to meet any living creature in the Amazonian forests, except for ants. Birds, however, are often caught, for example, huacins, we called them Amazonian chickens. They are large and look exotic. Monkeys are more difficult. On the very first trip along the lake channels, we saw a family of howler monkeys on the shore. They feasted on fruit on the trees and were so far from us that even a good device gave a very small picture. The attempt to approach failed. After that, the guide took us for two hours along the canals in search of those same howler monkeys or some other monkeys, but to no avail. Screams, however, were heard all the time. The guide asked to be silent so as not to frighten the forest dwellers. I willingly kept silent and enjoyed the sounds of the sounds of the forest. The nature around is amazing. The expression “enchanted place” immediately came to mind. Many channels depart from the lake, connecting and intertwining with each other. The roots of tall trees and creepers descend into the water, grow out of the water, unfamiliar plants are all around. You feel like you are in another world.
Canoeing along the canals is one of the types of excursions at Sacha Lodge. In the same way we went to catch piranhas. Fishing for me, like my husband, is absolutely on the drum, but, you know, it’s hard to refuse the opportunity to casually mention in a friendly circle: “When I caught piranhas . . ” or “and piranhas taste like ordinary river fish. ” In general, it's up to you. If you want to - go fishing, if you don't want to - do something else. There is nothing special in this process. There are a lot of piranhas in the channels. They catch them for pieces of meat (or maybe the guides are just too lazy to dig worms? ). They did without fishing rods - just a fishing line with a hook. It is worth casting the hook, after a minute the line will twitch, but most likely, when you hastily drag it into the boat, the hook will be empty. The piranha has eaten the meat with gusto and is waiting for more. We caught surprisingly little. Maybe this is the unspoken rule of the local guides - to give tourists obviously unusable hooks so that they do not catch all the fish, leaving nothing to the Indians? Joking aside, the hooks were so big that they simply couldn't fit in the mouths of local piranhas. They would fit a bigger fish, but we didn't come across one. So, if you want to fish at Sacha Lodge, bring your own hooks from home. Caught fish will certainly be cooked for you for dinner.
Returning to the lodge after visiting the observation bridge, we met two nocturnal birds sleeping in the daytime in the forest. These, of course, were owls, but of a very peculiar kind. I immediately referred to them as "Amazon owls". They slept on low trees, a little taller than a man, and were hidden by bushes. The Indian, with his keen tracker's eye, noticed them and told the guide. The guide cut a conspiratorial face and beckoned us away from the path. Parting the undergrowth, we saw two sleeping beauties. In fact, they were miraculously good. The guide said that if you accidentally wake them up, they will no longer want to sleep in this place. So we tried to be silent and managed to take a picture of a couple of meters from three. The husband then stated that the guide and assistant simply know that these birds sleep here and show them to all tourists as an unexpected success.
The second observation point for observing the jungle is equipped around the kapok tree. Climbing it, you can not only watch the animals, but also find yourself in their usual environment, in the crown of a giant tree. The kapok tree is a whole world, honestly! Not only flowers grow on its branches, but also shrubs, you can not climb on them, but walk. You are not just on a tree, but among a huge number of plants. And all around, as far as the eye can see, the green sea of the jungle sways, over which the same gigantic trees tower here and there. They also say that if you snuggle up to such a tree, you can recharge with positive energy.
As we climbed the stairs to the platform, squirrel-like monkeys frolicked in the neighboring trees below - finally! We admired them admirably, without any binoculars. Naturally, a spyglass was hoisted on the platform, through which we could observe the toucans. They flew to the tree opposite, but without binoculars they looked very tiny.
The platform is located near the canal, so we returned to the lodge by canoe. The tour ended at dusk. Our last evening on the Amazon began. And then I finally had the opportunity to say the immortal phrase about "many, many wild monkeys. " The aforementioned were full and full both to the right and to the left of the boat. After all, the channel is narrow, the branches stretch over the water, and squirrel-like monkeys, capuchins, marmosets swayed on these branches... I don’t remember all of them. I list them in such detail, because at first they were pretty decently visible, some were literally two meters away, the guide listed the varieties for us. All around was noisy from the rustle of branches, the sounds of jumping and monkey cries. I could not resist taking pictures, although I understood that there was not much point in this - the evening came into its own. Since all objects were, as you know, moving, it was impossible to shoot with a flash. Some of the photos came out surprisingly clear, albeit almost black and white - shadow theater. I kept them, of course. Watching the monkeys with delight, I, at the same time, mentally repeated the question: why did we see all this only now? Although, in fact, I know the answer: nature does not pronounce the principle “beginners are lucky” and are extremely reluctant to let themselves be captured. I made this conclusion based on the experience of our now quite a few travels. So, I met a shark when the lens of an underwater camera fogged up and he refused to take pictures, the whales were so amazing that no one even remembered shooting, and we see the most beautiful landscapes from the car window, not being able to stop. The more precious for the author each one way or another the resulting frame.
During our stay at Sacha Lodge, in addition to walking on land and on water, we were also taken to a parrot show. This trip was proudly called a visit to the reserve, although we entered the land just like that, we only watched from the boat. It was really something to look at. By canoe we got to the edge of the lagoon, went through the jungle to a large river, transferred to a motor boat and sailed along the Napo River. It was not an individual, but a group trip, i. e. it was attended by almost all the guests of the lodge. We stopped at a high clay cliff, on which, on a small natural terrace, many parrots had gathered. They were all very busy pecking clay. The guide explained that the clay is an adsorbent that helps the parrots get rid of toxins accumulated in their bodies due to eating poisonous fruits. How cleverly everything is arranged in nature! And as soon as the parrots realized that they needed this clay, it's tasteless! An amazing sight. The parrots were bright, mostly green, large and small, they flew in and out, swayed on the branches of trees, and communicated with each other. The uproar was unimaginable. We swam so close that it was possible to take not only good pictures, but also video. We wouldn't be able to see it from land.
On this, I can consider my report on the trip to Sacha Lodge completed. Yes, the flyers promised a visit to an Indian village. We were not there, which I do not regret at all. This is not some uncivilized tribe in the wilds of the Amazon, but simply very poor people in a poor village, whom Sacha Lodge provides with work. I think that’s why I didn’t see more than one Indian woman in the lodge - first of all, men need a job, you won’t be fed up with hunting alone. And women and at home there is something to do. There were literally only one or two female guides, but the guides are the highest caste among the staff, they all have a special education and speak English. By the way, among the guides were not only Ecuadorians, but also Europeans. Our guide Paul was from Quito, his wife and little son lived there, he worked on a rotational basis - two weeks after two. He told us that although he misses his family, his work pays very well, he can afford a decent apartment and a non-working wife. “When I arrive home, ” he said, “we walk a lot and go wherever we want. ” Paul was very inquisitive, he asked me about Russia, in particular, whether there was a war in Chechnya now. It's dangerous there, because there are Muslims, he added cautiously (most Ecuadorians are Catholics, like all Latin Americans). I told him that there was no war at present, everything was being restored there, but the Russians did not go there unless absolutely necessary. I also said that there are a lot of Muslims in Russia, as it happened historically, and by no means all of them are militant. For example, the Tatars, who have been living in the same state with the Russians for several centuries. Paul was obviously very interested, he heard the word “Tatars” for the first time and thoughtfully repeated, remembering. With such mutually interesting conversations, the guide and I entertained each other at dinner. By the way, during one of the walks, he told us that there was once a man from Moscow, he flew in with two assistants and girls, they didn’t go on any excursions, only go fishing with alcohol, and spent the rest of the time in the bar. With a very restrained description, I imagined this picture to myself quite vividly. Of course, it was unpleasant for me that my compatriots left a not the best opinion about themselves, especially since Russians are rarely seen here. I hope my husband and I managed to improve this opinion. This is me, in fact, to the fact, gentlemen, that if the word “leisure” is synonymous with booze for you, maybe you shouldn’t climb so far for this? But this, of course, is my personal position.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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