Day 3: Quito to Sacha Lodge

An easy morning - Wake up call at 8am, breakfast at 8:30, and departure for the airport at 9:30am on the dot! Half of our bags were stored at the Hotel, and the other half - the rainforest half - was loaded under the bus.

It was cloudy in Quito this morning, and so we missed an opportunity to see two of the four snow covered volcanoes in Ecuador.  Our flight out from Quito to Coca takes us between Antisana volcano to the south and Cayambe volcano to the north. We eventually dropped below the clouds in our descent from over 9000 feet to about 500 feet above sea level were we saw both the expanse of rather pristine Amazonian rainforest and the devastation of local plantations of palm.

View over the outskirts of Quito.

We were greeted at the small airport in Coca after our short 45 minute flight by Lucy, the local administrator of Sacha Lodge. We were whisked away to the Sacha House in Coca where we had our lunches and prepared for the 2.5 hour motorized canoe ride down the Napo river to the Lodge.

We could not have had a more perfect day... hot, but not painfully so, clear skies, and the river was at a high level which makes the trip much faster. 

Stunning. (thanks to Dr. Richter for this photo (and pretty much all of the photos so far...))

The lodge is on the edge of a blackwater lake known as Pilchi Cocha.  Our first order of business was to get settled in our rooms and prepare for our first swim in the piranha, electric eel, and caiman infested waters (no exaggeration, no joke).

Swimming in Pilchi Cocha.

Of course, we didn't tell them that the waters were full of all of those, and many other creatures.  But the water is perfectly safe, if not wonderfully pleasant... during the day.  Swimming at night - now that is another story entirely. 

The amount of wildlife at Sacha Lodge is stunning.  It is hard to miss seeing absolutely amazing animals. The lodge is exciting because the flora and fauna are in a constant state of flux.  Case in point - a colony of Casiques have set up light housekeeping above the dock.

A lovely dinner.  Some night hikes.  And off to bed early for almost everyone.

- Eric Fortune