Monday: Natural Site: A real Jungle!

Wow! We had a great flight in heading to Quito, Ecuador! We finally got settled over the weekend and are roaring ready to go!
Monday we have the Natural Site visit planned. We decided on the Sacha Lodge located on the Napo River, a tropical rain forest jungle of over 3,000 acres! The Lodge management group usually has a strict policy of a 3 day stay minimum, but through careful persuasion, high priced passes, and University student influence, we were able to convince them to a daily pass! Our trip to the lodge started Sunday night because the van trip to the lodge was 4 and a half hours! We were picked up by the Excursion team of Quito Explorer Tours. The roads weren't that good in the smaller cities. On Monday morning, our day began at 5am! We woke up and were picked up by the Lodge crew in the 6 person tractor. Some of the terrain was best for use with a motorized vehicle because it was harder to stay on the smaller path that early in the morning. We learned the history behind the lodge and the jungle area on the ride out to the main land. It is set on 3,000 acres, has hundreds of species of birds, fish, and mammals. The Sacha Lodge has the world's largest and most biologically diverse rain forest located in the lowlands of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Our guide, Andres introduced us to the land area and got us prepped for the jungle walk. We walked past the 135 foot observation tower that shows the entire forest canopy! We climbed up the wood stairs to discover a world of treetop plants like orchids, and the rare Spot-breasted Woodpecker! We could even see the peak of Sumaco Volcano, 100 miles as the sun was rising! Once up in the tower, we started what would be one of the greatest experiences of our life, the Canopy Walk! It's a new addition to the lodge and is a 940 foot long canopy walkway above the tree tops. This sturdy walkway is fixed to the ground by three metal towers for stability, and offers an unbelievable opportunity to spot dozens of animals seldom seen from the ground. Thousands of colorful birds await to be spotted, hidden in the tree branches! Mary Beth was so excited pulling out her camera, she almost dropped it! The views were breath taking as the sun was fully into the sky and many calls of animals could be heard.
After walking the distance of the Canopy Walk, we returned down to the ground to head toward our boat ride.
We rode in a dugout canoe that led us on a lake safari and past local communities of the Quechua Indians and salt licks that were lined with parrots and parakeets. We had two guides on the canoe. One a native guide, Edgar, was raised in the Quito area and had expert knowledge of the rainforest's medicinal and other useful plants. He told us long stories of interesting uses. The second guide, Stephen, accompanied our group as a bilingual translator and naturalist, who had been educated in the biology and ecology of the rainforest.
The canoe ride was most informative and an awesome experience! When we returned back to the main lodge, we had a lunch of Cerviche, which is boiled prawns from the river with chili powder and lemon juice. With this came a small sweet roll and white beans. Mark was really the only one to eat all of the prawns, they are definitely an acquired taste. After lunch, we set out on foot to go on a monkey trek. I know we had a bad experience being chased by monkeys in Costa Rica, but these were majestic monkeys and had so much life and character to them! We left around 6pm to return to the Hostel around 11pm, exhausted, but so much more experienced in the beauty of nature!
The pictures of the Canopy Walk, the Spot breasted woodpecker, a howler monkey, and the canoe tour!

The cost per person including transportation, food, lodge visit, and guide was 300 hundred dollars per person. The lodge visit was $215, van ride $50, food $20, and guide fee contribution $15. Total: $300 x 5 people = $1500
Photos and info from: http://www.sachalodge.com/