Days 3,4,5: Sacha Lodge

We may have spent the past 3 days in a so-called "rainforest" - but it wasn't until we returned to Quito that we experienced any. We had one of those rare trips where we had no rain whatsoever while in Coca and at Sacha Lodge. Rather, we seemingly got all of the rain in torrents after our arrival back in home base.

I think all of the students were impressed not only with the wildlife and forest that we saw, but also with Sacha Lodge - the people there are lovely, they care about their work, and everyone from the trail cleaners, to the cooks, to the guides do a superior job.  The food, especially the dessert, was fabulous!

Dinner with Luis Garcia (bottom left), King of the Jungle.

Each day usually includes 2 day hikes (each of which might also include a canoe ride) and a night hike plus some other activities like fishing for pirañas or taking a power nap!  During the hikes the guides explain what you are (or perhaps are not) seeing along the train.  One of my favorites is the Pootoo,  a bird that mimics a dead branch.

I think that the group may have gone through a terabyte of disk space with all of the photos of fabulous plants and animals.

Dr. Ricther shoots!

But the event that got the whole lodge chattering was a rare sighting (honest) of a jaguar track at Sacha Lodge.  Jaguars are much more common on the southern side of the Napo, and are scarce on the northern side which inclues Sacha Lodge.  What impressed our students most was that they guides actually hauled out their own personal cameras and started taking pictures.

All I see is mud.

Thankfully we got to see far more than tracks of the many species of monkeys that roam around Sacha Lodge. We got plenty of up-close and personal moments with the squirrel monkeys, capuchins, and black-mantled Tamarins.

We were very sad to leave Sacha Lodge, but other adventures await.

Back in Quito we ate 15 different types of local pizza, including pizza with Choclo on it (a type of corn with large white kernels) and pineapple. Very tasty indeed!  Now stuffed with food and dead tired from our adventures and from our long journey out of the forest, we trudged over to the Museum of the Banco Central, only 4 blocks away.  Don't let the name fool you - this is an internationally recognized collection of pre-incan artifacts and gold that is absolutely stunning.

Our evening culminated with a traditional Chiva ride.  The Chiva is an open air bus with a band on the roof that plays traditional Ecuadorian folkloric tunes while you drive around Quito.  Of course, there are stops for everyone to disembark and dance in the streets.  And you get plastic whistles to make absurd amounts of noise.

Tomorrow off to Otavalo...

- Eric Fortune