Day 1:

We got an overnight bus from Quito to Lago Agrio which left at 10:30pm and arrived at about 4:30am. It was a quick ride, but as always with overnight buses sleep was more of a struggle. We then waited until it was a little lighter (and later) and went to the meeting point, Maytolandia, which was conveniently a restaurant as we were both starving, so we could at least have some breakfast while we waited for our 9am pickup. In the end, it was 10 by the time we set off from the restaurant in a minibus. It was another 2 hours driving, and another 2 hours in a motor canoe before we reached our destinaton of Caiman Lodge in the Cuyabeno National Park. On the way we saw a variety of birds, and an anaconda casually sunbathing on a branch.

After lunch (all meals were provided for us and they were all really good,) we set out again in the motor canoe to see some more animals with our guide Jorge of the Jungle. We were fortunate enough to see an anteater which is quite rare – the last time our guide had seen one was 2 years ago. We then went swimming in the lagoon (which was apparently quite safe although we had just seen some caiman swimming fairly close by so ‘safe’ is questionable) and watched the sunset. As soon as the sun went down it was time to do a night walk, which took us on an hour long trip through the jungle to see a lot of insects – mainly a lot of different spiders.

Day 2:

At breakfast we met the resident bird of the lodge called Carolina, who liked to eat our breakfas and mimic everyone’s laugh (which was kind of creepy rather than cute.)Afterwards, we set off on a 3 hour walk through the jungle to spot some different animals. We also learnt a bit more about plants that were used for médicine or for other purposes by indigenous communities in the amazon. The majority of animals we spotted tended to be more insects, but we also saw a chameleon very well camoflaged.

Late afternoon we again went out on the motor canoe, this time in search of river dolphins (which we didn’t find) but we still managed to spot two different types of monkey, before again swimming in the death pool or ‘lagoon.’ That evening we searched for caiman and snakes in the dark, which was great fun.

Day 3:

In the morning we woke early and at 5:30am took two canoes to do some bird watching. We used paddles this time as the motor canoes tended to scare some of the animals due to the loud noise (this was no easy task though as the oars felt like they weighed as much as a small elephant.) However, after we had got the hang of steering and paddling it turned out to be well worth it as we saw some more monkeys, this time even more close up than before.

After our breakfast half our group left and the other half of us went to visit the Siona Community for the day (which cost us $8 each and was the only thing not included in our trip.) On the way we saw a sloth, finally some river dolphins, and also some more monkeys. We also went to see a ceiba tree, which was absolutely huge, the width of the trunk was maybe 2m.

When we reached the community, we were able to watch one of the women make cassava bread, a type of bread made with only cassava or tapioca as it is more commonly known (a little like a potato.) Thomas loved this bread so much he vowed to make it as soon as we returned to Europe. The shaman of the tribe then came and performed a cleansing ritual and answered some of our questions before we headed back to the lodge. The visit to the community was more interesting than I thought, but still felt a little too touristy and was definitely not my favourite part of the trip.

After visiting the death pool to watch another beautiful sunset, that evening we again went out in search of caiman and snakes and this time saw a big black caiman (it must have been about 4m long.) On the way back we also saw another sloth having its supper (very slowly.)

Day 4:

For our final morning at the lodge we went piranha fishing and after multiple tries I caught one with evil looking orange eyes. After breakfast it was time to leave (just as the rain began) and we spotted a few more monkeys on our return journey. This time we got a private bus for $20 each which took us straight back to Quito in only about 6 hours and also dropped us right at our hostel. This ended up being almost the same price as the public bus would have been as it costs $10 just to get from the historical centre of Quito the bus station.

Our amazon trip was amazing and the highlight of our trip to South America so far. Caiman Lodge was amazing, the staff were all very friendly and our guide was an expert at finding all the different animals (seriously I don’t know how he manages to spot half the animals.) For $290 per person for a 4 day/3 night trip it’s definitely not the cheapest activity but for me it was worth every penny. I would pay double that price to do the trip all over again.