The last leg of our trip started and finished in style, courtesy of Christina’s mother, Cynthia, who lives in Quito and took care of us while we were there.

We touched-down in one of the cleanest, smartest airports you’ll ever see and were immediately whisked off to Osaka, the new Japanese fusion restaurant in town, for a delicious lunch. Cynthia did not let us pay and then leant us her driver for the afternoon, who took us to the travel agency we’d booked our forthcoming 5-day, 4-night trip to the Amazon.

Our trip would begin early the following morning, so we spent the rest of the afternoon being chauffeured around town and Cynthia also took us to an apartment at the top of the Swiss hotel, which she and Cristina were generously going to lend us for when we returned to Quito.

Later that evening, we met up with Carolina – an old friend of Lolo, whose place we would be staying at that night – and Elmer, who’d flown in from Galapagos. We joined Carolina’s sister, Maria Paula and her husband for dinner at a restaurant called Ciré, in Cumbaya. Quito must be a small place, since the people at our table knew every single person that walked through the door. In fact, by the end of the evening, we’d been invited to someone’s birthday party on the roof and Lolo had a great time getting to know a number of friends and ex-boyfriends of her Ecuadorian girlfriends.

The next morning we caught a 2-hour flight to Lago Agrio, then hopped on a bus for a sweaty 2-hour stint and finally we boarded a long boat which whisked us down the Amazon for a couple of hours to our final destination, Guacamayo Lodge, which would be our home for the next 4 nights.

Despite the 6-hour journey, the longboat experience was fabulous. We sat 5 rows of two, with the driver at the back and the guide at the front, spotting animals. En route, we had our first taste of Amazon life, slowing-up briefly here and there to observe several different species of monkey, noisy toucans, a host of colourful birds and our favourite, the sloth!

The lodge was effectively a small clearing in the trees consisting of several huts on stilts of various shapes and sizes, providing private en-suite accommodation, dining and one relaxation hut containing 12 hammocks and a selection of well-worn animal books.

There was also a tall observation tower, which we were invited to the top of at 5am each morning to observe the jungle “waking up”. Our attendance at the top of the tower each morning was pretty good but this was mainly down to the fact that the Howler Monkeys were in full voice by then and any attempt to sleep through the din was futile!

Ed was mostly petrified and fear surrounded just about everything he did. Fear that the snake or the tarantula that sat on the beams above where we ate each meal would decide to attack; fear that some frightening reptile or long-toothed mammal was crouching below the unlit walkway that we used to scuttle across to get to the dining hut; fear that some enormous, hairy spider had crawled into our bed or inside his rubber boot and lay there waiting for him. This particular fear made going to bed quite fun as Ed would make Lolo do a proper inspection with the flashlight of her mobile phone each night.

Luckily, we were not woken up by bats like the room next door did! It was hot and humid in the jungle, but we both know that most of Ed’s sweat was clearly induced by fear! As you may have guessed by now, Lolo is in charge of all insect and spider removal.

Ed wasn’t alone – the French couple that slept in the next-door hut was the object of most of the gossip over the first couple of days. “He” had either booked the holiday without first consulting his wife or lied about where they were going and what they’d be doing. She, poor thing, looked petrified whenever we saw her. One night, to everyone’s amazement, a 3-meter python crossed our camp while we were waiting for dinner. She packed-up and left the next morning – boarding the boat was the first and only time we saw her smile! He stayed behind.

Our days would generally consist of some early entertainment up the observation tower, breakfast and a morning excursion. We’d then head back to the lodge for lunch and some well-earned hammock-time, followed by an afternoon and early evening excursion and dinner.

The observation tower was always fun and we were lucky enough to have a guide on hand to decipher the early morning sights and sounds. The tower was tall enough to eclipse most of the trees, so we could see for miles across an endless green stage, and we’d stand there, binoculars at the ready, waiting patiently for the performance to begin.

We saw Blue and Red Macaws, Orange Winged Parrots, Greater Anis, Poutoos, Kingfishers, Toucans, Kimbers, Cormorants, Tiger and Coco Herons, Snowy Egrets, Black and Yellow Headed Vultures and Red Caped Cardinals (to name but a few!).

Most mornings we’d board the long boats and speed down the amazon in search of entertainment. Cool breeze in your hair and out of harms way, this is when we felt most relaxed and everyone would scan the jungle looking for signs of activity.

Unsurprisingly, the guides were usually the first to spot something interesting, however, occasionally, someone’s hand would shoot up with a faint cry, suggesting that perhaps we’d seen something. Most of the time it was false alarm but just occasionally we’d get it right.

 

We saw some amazing things, from sloths that actually moved a couple of feet, fresh water dolphins (or pink river dolphins as they are known because of the colour of the adults’ skin) to barrels of monkeys (including Capuchin, Squirrel, Red Howler, Yellow-Handed and Woolley) who would slowly make their way through the jungle and sometimes even attempt to cross the river, males first, followed by female and their young. We found ourselves sat for hours observing these all these creatures.

One afternoon, we visited a village of the Siona people and helped one of the women with her weekly yucca bread making. The process took a couple of hours and started with us trekking into their extensive vegetable patch to cut and gather yucca. She then invited us to do grate the yucca (the most labour-intensive part) before she encased the lot in a large woven sieve. She took one end of the sieve and attached it to the ceiling, before taking the other and twisting it, until all of the water had been extracted. What remained was soft flour, which she then scattered, a handful at a time, on a hot pan and spread it out in the shape of a pancake to cook. This turned out to be our lunch!

Another afternoon, we were taken to visit the Siona tribe’s Shaman, who is said to represent a link between the physical world and the spirit world through his lifelong training, and his use of extremely powerful hallucinogenic drugs. To this day, he maintains the senior most person in the community, and is respected by his people as being their physical and spiritual doctor. He does not live in the village, but has his own house further up the river.

Our group was taken into a large wooden hut and invited to sit around the edges on wooden tree stumps. The Shaman talked about his life and ancestry as a practitioner of shamanism and then offered to demonstrate a cleansing ritual on one (unlucky) volunteer. The young girl in question probably thought she’d hit the jackpot when the Shaman started by massaging her back. However, not long afterwards he took a bunch of nettles and started thrashing her. She did very well not to cry!

 

The afternoon ended with the Shaman reaching for his blowpipe and we all took turns to try and hit a target. The pipe was incredibly heavy but surprisingly powerful and I’d like to say accurate but none of us managed to hit the target!

Most evenings we took the boat to the middle of a lake, where our guide would encourage us to swim. Diving into a pool which is full of creatures – some of which would happily kill or eat you – is a real test of character and we needed some convincing. Apparently we were pretty safe in the middle of the lake and it took us a few days to take the plunge but we are glad we did it! Last but not least, the sunsets were just wonderful out there.

Once it got dark, the activities entered another stratosphere of fear. A couple of nights we’d remain on the boat and use our torches to scan the banks of the amazon, searching for that silver glint of something’s eyes, which would typically signal that either a caiman or a snake was lurking. The night simply facilitated being able to locate these fearsome creatures, which was completely counterintuitive.

We came across a number of different snakes, including the Amazon Tree Boa, Rainbow Boa and the Anaconda. But perhaps the most frightening experience was the sight of a ten-foot black caiman silently floating towards our boat. All we could remember was that scene from Crocodile Dundee, where the crocodile suddenly leaps from the water to attack. Fortunately, for us, this caiman did not leap (as Hollywood might have you believe) but just lay, silently gliding towards us, staring us down with its terrifying black eyes.

The most memorable experience we took with us from the Amazon were the two night walks through the jungle. Each walk lasted two hours and we probably walked no further than a couple of kilometers but the number of species we saw in that time would put even Noah to shame!

We travelled in single-file but being the tallest Ed was constantly walking through fresh spiders’ webs. He would brush off the thick, knotted web and immediately turn to Lolo and demand a full body inspection, to reassure him that the occupants of the web had not found a new home on his shoulder. It is fair to say he was in constant panic mode and come the end of the walk, he would be completely drenched in sweat!

Terrifying paranoia aside, the experience was amazing and we saw some remarkable creatures, including several fist-sized tarantulas, a bull frog the size of a melon, three-second ants, so called because if you touch them, it only takes 3 seconds for them to have occupied every square-inch of your body (another Hollywood favourite!), and we even tasted some lemon ants, which various chefs have been introducing as a citric ingredient in their dishes!

 

This was a safari like no other and we’d highly recommend it, especially for children, the majority of whom couldn’t seem to get enough of the non-stop feast of animals on parade. Also, this wasn’t just another short-term tourist money-trap – the guides were all very knowledgeable and there was a genuine focus on sustainability and preservation.

It was only when we returned to the airport that we found out that Lago Agrio had been put on the ‘high security risk’ list, following the recent attacks by Colombian Guerilleros. Fortunately we didn’t have any problems and returned to Quito with very fond memories of our jungle adventure.

Back in Quito, we spent time exploring the city with Carolina and Elmer, eating at several excellent restaurants, including delicious ceviche at Zfood, some wonderful cocktails “with a view” at El Ventanal or eating “empanadas de viento” (or wind empanadas) in La Ronda.

As if not completely satisfied with the feast of excursions to date, Lolo suggested we make one final day-trip. So, on the penultimate day of our journey, we boarded an early morning bus to Quilotoa Lagoon.

On the way, we had an incredibly healthy breakfast of as much fruit as a dollar could buy in Saquisilí market (FYI you get 22 bananas for 1 USD). We then travelled to a remote house, where we were shown around the single-room house. We were amazed to see that the room was populated with hundreds of guinea pigs – not to eat, but to provide central heating in the winter!

Our final stop on the tour took us to the lagoon, where we marched down a near vertical decent some 280m to the lake below. Lolo sensibly decided to hail a donkey to take her back to the top again, whereas Ed stubbornly decided to walk, shedding several layers along the way. It was utterly exhausting but he slept it off on the way back to Quito, while Lolo listened to the guide relay the fascinating and often scandalous political history of Ecuador.

So, after 100 days of travelling, 8 countries, 17 plane journeys, 14 boat trips, 70 bus rides, 8 trains, 17 cable cars, 1 motorcycle, a horse, a donkey and approximately 10,000kms covered, our trip finally came to an end and the reality of working again started to set-in.

We are so grateful for this amazing experience that we would highly recommend to anyone and for all the wonderful people we met along the way.

Next stop, London and back to work

Highlights:

• The generous hospitality of Cynthia, Carolina and Elmer
• Our Amazon adventure in Guacamayo Lodge (but maybe check the high-risk list before travelling!)
• Guinea pig central heating

Gastro Highlights:

• Lemon ants – we can understand why Noma uses them
• Ceviche at Zfood
• Osaka Restaurant: Best Japanese place ever!