Amazon

Checking out of the Hotel at Quito, we were off to the airport for our 9am flight to Coca.  The flight only takes about 40 minutes, much of the hanging about was down to the need to check in 2 hours before the flight was due to take off.  At Coca there is only a small airport, so they only had a singly luggage belt - it made finding one’s suitcase much easier.

The heat and humidity hit one immediately at the arrival in Coca.  The temperature was somewhere in the low 30s but the humidity was very high.  But then, this is the top of the Amazon basin.

From Coca we took a boat down the Neepo River to Sacha, first covering ourselves in sun block and insect repellent. Unloading at the other end there was a 30 minute walk through the jungle before we transferred into canoes to be paddled to the lodge.  

The lodge sits on a small lake, full of black silty water from the Andes, which is definitely not for swimming in.  In addition to the pirhanas and caimans, we passed a large green anaconda on the bank.

After lunch we were introduced to our guide Oscar, who took 3 of us out in a small canoe looking for birds.  When we sat down later that evening we had counted 36 different species.

I’ve given you the White Winged Swallow with catch, the Greater Ani and the Black Crowned Night Heron all 3 in flight along with the what I think is the Great Kiskadee.  The species check list for birds alone runs to 16 closely typed pages, so there is a lot of studying to be done.

Fortunately the cabins are air conditioned, so after dinner I was able to retire to a fairly constant 22C to get a good night’s sleep.  Oscar wants us to start at 5:30am tomorrow …