Sacha Lodge (the Rio Napo in the Amazon), Ecuador

Sacha Lodge!

I could never get used to the sound of red howler monkeys at dawn. But I´m getting ahead of myself …

As our law school graduation gift, my parents splurged and arranged a 4-day, 3-night stay at Sacha Lodge, the closest thing to an all-inclusive resort in the jungle. The Lodge is located about 60 miles up the Rio Napo, a huge tributary to the Amazon River, from the nearest town. It is an incredible jungle paradise.

Just getting to the Lodge was an experience in itself. We flew from Quito to Copa, a booming oil town in the jungle, and then hopped a boat down the Rio Napo for about two hours, followed by a short walk and then a canoe ride across the lake on which the lodge is located. From the start, I felt like royalty compared to our prior jungle experience – they even had cushions on the boat seats! That’s high-class around here…

The lodge is an extensive network of beautiful wood buildings raised up over the lake and marshy swamp, including a very nice lounge and a mariposario (a butterfly house). Each private cabana has its own porch and hammock, mosquito-netting-covered windows, and the most comfortable king-sized bed we’ve had on this trip. All of the water, even in the shower, was filtered and drinkable. Each meal had about four home-made courses with a fish, chicken and beef option and fresh, hand-squeezed juice from jungle fruits. The staff (all but two are from the indigenous communities nearby) act as if they were trained at the finest French restaurant in Paris. When Michael asked for a fork, it was brought out to him on a clean, white platter...

Just another buffet in the Amazon (at Sacha Lodge)!

Our group consisted of: the four of us; Deborah and Lance, a good-humored and quirky couple from Australia; Efrain (“Efie”), our brilliant naturalist guide who could perfectly imitate more bird and frog sounds than I knew existed; and Pablo, our quiet and endearing native guide who did not speak very often but added to the group by spotting animals and explaining traditional practices, such as stopping on a trail to make a hat from gigantic palm leaves. We were lucky to have such a good group.

Sharon (and Michael in the back), trying to hide from the rain

Each morning we awoke at the unfriendly hour of 5:30am to have breakfast and get into the jungle when the animals were the most active. And each morning the red howler monkeys awoke with us. I’ve never heard such a frightening and evil noise - they sound like a horrible swamp monster of childhood nightmares.

That first morning, we hiked through the jungle to the base of a set of three towers connected to each other by long, hanging bridges. We spent the next 2.5 hours in the midst of the canopy, hundreds of feet high. Efie had a powerful spotting scope and, between him and Pablo, could find and identify tons of birds that we wouldn’t have known were there otherwise.

After relaxing and eating lunch, we went fishing for pirannahs off the lodge’s deck. We used raw beef for bait and it was difficult to keep it on the hook for more than a minute under water. The pirannahs were quick, aggressive, and so numerous that you could just watch the meat being torn to shreds at the water’s surface. These pirannahs share the lake with many caymans (alligator-like creatures). The experience kept me from swimming in that water for the rest of the trip (Michael and my Dad jumped right in though!).

Taylor with an aboriginal umbrella, courtesy of Pablo (and check out the machete!)

Over the next few days, we took many walks and canoe rides in search for various animals and plant-life, including anacondas (for better or for worse, we did not encounter any), monkeys, and caymans.

Our second early-morning trip was to the famous parrot clay lick near an indigenous community. The clay lick is on a steep edge of the river with exposed clay where many species of parrots regularly arrive by the hundreds to – you guessed it - lick the clay. When we were there, one green species dominated and it was impossible to count their numbers.

After watching the masses of parrots licking clay for over an hour (it’s going to take me a few decades before I have the enthusiasm of a true bird-watcher... if ever), we entered the indigenous community next door. Efie explained that the once-cohesive community recently divided into two extremes: one group wanted nothing to do with the outside world and retreated into the depths of the Amazon with the threat (which they have carried out since) of killing anyone who tries to make contact with them. That community continues to live in traditional ways completely unconnected to the modern world. The other group stayed put, quit hunting and fishing, and is now the pioneer model of an indigenous community seeking to sustain itself on tourism, attracting the attention of all the surrounding countries, including the president of Paraguay, who visited just a few weeks ago.

The women of the community put together a tour of traditional dances, houses and hunting traps that included an energy-cleansing ceremony with a shaman. Next to the gift shop is a huge satellite dish, the first step toward the community’s goal of providing internet for all school children. This community is rocketing into the modern world.

The last truly notable excursion was on our last night when we visited the fourth tower, which we nicknamed "Home Tree" after the movie Avatar and which was a highlight for everyone in the group. The tower is essentially a gigantic tree house with a stair case winding its way around the massive trunk (about 8-10 feet in diameter) all the way to the top of the tree in the canopy. The child within each of us could remember dreaming of such a place. It was so cool. The jungle canopy stretched as far as the eye could see, and dozens of cappuccino monkeys played on a nearby tree.

We finished our time at Sacha Lodge with a tasty outdoor BBQ on the deck and an incredible night-time canoe ride under a clear sky full of bright stars. It was hard to leave that place.

Sharon and Mike at the lounge at Sacha, cocktails in hand

The following day we left the Lodge for Quito and made it all the way to Otavalo. It was notable day for the variety of transportation modes we employed, which included traveling by foot, canoe, motor boat, taxi, shuttle, van and plane. It was interesting, but probably sounds a lot cooler than it actually was.