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  Cuyabeno, Ecuador
Sunday, October 26, 2008

we had set up a five day tour to the Cuyabeno wildlife reserve which included all travel expenses... we left sunday night at 11:30 on a bus to Lago Agrio - a predominate oil town.    The bus zigged and zagged -- sped up and slowed down going over mountains -- most of the road was paved.   At about 4 in the morning Kali started throwing up... no bathroom?  no.  In her nalgene.   We arrived at about 6 in the morning.  Kali left her water bottle on the bus.  

Lago Agrio was a pretty sketchy town and iīm glad we were only there for a few hours.  I think it looked worse than it was -- they had decided, it seemed, to replace all the sidewalks and roads at the same time -- piles of rubble and rock lined the streets.   We took a cab with a guy from Japan 3 blocks to our meeting place -- a hotel.  It was closed and they wanted to charge us 3 dollars to sit inside.   We sat on the street.   We had breakfast with some people from our bus.. got on another bus (two hours) to the Cuyabeno bridge.   Kali was still pretty sick, but everyone was very supportive.   We had lunch and got into motorized canoes (two more hours) down river into the jungle and our lodge.  

It was a beautiful place... a hut village on stilts along the river.   We ate great meals..... went on night and day hikes looking for wildlife... we saw tarantulas, macaws, and other birds of various sizes and colors.... caimon (south america alligators), pigmy monkeys (only a few inches tall) dolphins.. both grey and the pink river variety.  I caught some piranah and got to gut and eat one.... i never catch anything fishing so it was great.   I also got a snake from someones bathroom.... the think it was a brown tree snake -- not poisonous.... i carried it around and then let it go after everyone had seen it.  We went swimming in a lake a few times and watched the beautiful sunsets.  Oh, and we visited a shaman and watched a ritual as well as an indiginous village..... i liked the wildlife... both Kali and I had an amazing time, though i donīt think she liked the food all that well -- we ate so much.  The guide kept us very busy... he was a great guide. 

Once we were back in Lago Agrio, we were on the tour bus with our guide and he pretended to drive the bus... he drove it about half a block stalling several times before the bus driver kicked him out.   I think he said that he only drives boats....    The tour was definetly an amazing experience.

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