5:30am and I get the bang on the door again, breakfast by 6:30am and we board one of the canoes for our trip to the Napo River, through the lagoon, down the tributary and to the dock, where we get off and walk through the jungle till we get to the next dock on the banks of the Napo. Donning life jackets and with ponchos on hand we climb aboard the the motorised canoe to go across the Napo and up another canal till we got to a landing where a pseudo village had been created to show us how the Providencia people live.
The local village have teamed with Sacha Lodge to provide an experience for the guests. Each week two of the women from the community come and speak to the visitors, explaining about some of their customs, who males and females play out their roles, how they build their homes and how the cook. Today we had the lovely Marigot and Erika and their children explain it all to us. Like many indigenous peoples (or even peoples in less developed areas) men and women have defined roles. The men are the hunter gatherers, build homes, make baskets etc and the women, cook, clean, raise kids, tend to the fields etc. Erika showed us how they gather food from the fields and transport it back to their homes in big baskets hung from their foreheads.
They showed us how they prepared a tea type drink with dried leaves and then we had a try. Just like green tea and known for its antioxidant properties.
Next we saw how they make chicha, a foul tasting white liquid that they use for sustenance and as part of their basic diet. Its made with steamed yucca (manioc, or cassava) which is then pounded and grated sweet potatoes added to begin a fermentation process. I do t think anyone liked it. Ugh.
We also had another fermented drink which was a little like cider and certainly drinkable.
While we were learning all this the women were preparing us some snacks on the fire (the central point of their lounge/bedroom/dining room) and laid plantain, yucca and parcels of palm heart over some bamboo poles above the fires. Then out came a skewer with live bugs on it (like large huhu bugs) still wriggling their hearts out. I was close to the fire and felt sick as I watched the wriggling get less and less.
Eventually our snack was ready and Erika chopped a huge leaf from the forest, laid it on the ground and our food was arranged on the leaf. We were invited to help ourselves, which we did. The plantain, yucca and heart of palm were yum but the bug was a different story. It was quite soft until my teeth crunched on the head and then I’m sure it moved it my mouth. Eventually I had to spit it out. Gross, but I tried.
One of the children, a little girl was gorgeous came and cuddled up to me, I just wanted to take her home and wished I’d had a treat to give her. She was so beautiful.
Soon it was time to leave and we made our way back across the Napo to the dock and then walked to the next dock. Wilson took us down a wee path to see a couple of owls he had found. Real cute:
It was nearly lunch time but not before I snapped a pic of a Caiman resting in the water under the lodge, its eyes piercing as if to say ‘sod off or I’ll get you lady with the camera’. A little further along were two babies hanging out and a third nearby.
While we were having lunch a group of monkeys were playing in the trees nearby and so I left to go get my camera and grab a pic. Murphy’s law that by the time I got back they had gone.
I tried so hard to get a pic of the most stunning butterfly, with iridescent blue wings but they wouldn’t stay still long enough. They are so beautiful though that the image will stay in my mind as one of the most gorgeous things I have seen here.
Our afternoon adventure started with a canoe ride across the lagoon and then up one of the tributaries taking in the flora and fauna on the way. It is so peaceful and serene you never want it to stop but we git to the end of the stream, parked up and walked a short way to the base of a huge kapok tree. Up to the canopy of the tree was a climbing frame with about 150 steps upwards and a viewing platform at the top. I made it up easily. Thanks MoE for giving me the chance to practice stair climbing, it has come in handy.
The platform swayed and seemed much higher than the canopy walk simply because the kapok tree was so much taller than the rest of the trees so we had more to look down on. I was getting over birds and feeling a bit woozy so made it down and waited for the others at the bottom, practicing what I would do if a snake came along while I was there alone. Fortunately I didn’t have to put my plan into action.
Coming back we encountered a pile of monkeys, some Capuchin and also some squirrel monkeys. There were about 60of them darting all over the place and jumping from one branch to the next, sometimes missing their target -at one stage we heard a splash so presumably one of them missed by a country mile. They were so quick and hard to get clear pics of but here are a couple:
Coming back in to the lagoon was surreal, the sun was setting and the moon was rising and both were reflecting in the still still waters. As the sun was setting we could see the trees of the forest silhouetted against the pink sky. Stunning and what a vision to have as one of our last from Sacha Lodge.
BBQ for dinner and tomorrow we make our way back to Quito. It has been amazing and I am so pleased to have had the experience but for now I am over being soaked to the skin and am looking forward to a slightly cooler temperature and dry clothes. I guess life will seem very boring after this experience.
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