What? No rain in the Rainforest??

We hit really low waters coming out of the lagoon the last day on both rivers. At one point daddy and all the guys in the boat got out and push the boat around to find deep enough water to get the boat through. This also happened on the main Rio Napo. We were weaving all over the place. It took 8 hours to make the journey back to Coca.

First Stop Panacocha
Our plan was just to get to Panacocha and see what happens. We opted to pass on the5 day $350 per person jungle lodge experience since nature watching with a 2 year old is unrealistic and a buzz kill for other tourists in the group. We set out on our own.

Panacocha is about 5-6 hours down river. We took a cargo boat down the Rio Napo river and got out at this tiny small village. We found one place to stay which was quite rustic. We had a tree full of black vultures, a pig, lots of chickens, and some cool spiders as our neighbors. We shared two small beds with mosquito nets. The bugs were bad. Not so much the mosquitos, but the tiny noseeums were awful. We just kind of hung out. The kids played as they always do. One made nests and pretended she was a bird. The other was really into the dirt. Mom just passed the time laying around and trying not to get to aggrevated by the heat and bugs. We took short walks into the jungle and saw amazing things. But it´s not a tame environment and one little T got 3 stings in her foot and our jungle walks were cut short. Daddy also got some stings in the rainforest.

After two nights in Panacocha we hooked up with a group of Ecuadorean Tourism advisors and caught a ride with them to a nearby lagoon. It was about an hour and a half ride up a tributary. The real jungle cruise! We were weaving around all kinds of downed trees. It was fabulous. They happened to get out at the Amazon Dolphin Lodge to check it out. We hopped out too and worked out a deal with the lodge people to stay for two nights. It turned out to be the same tour we had opted out of earlier. But we worked out a deal to stay on with them the rest of the week and catch a ride back to Coca.

I think we had the best of both worlds. The small quaint local experience was more teamT style...make it up as you go. But the ecolodge provided some comforts and a fabulous guide to enrich our experience in the thick of it.

AMAZON DOLPHIN LODGE

We took a jungle boat ride up a tributary to the Piguali lagoon. We joined up with a group at the Amazon Dolphin Lodge for 2 nights. This boat ride was the real jungle cruise, with real piranah, real snakes, and real aligators (caiman). We went on some nature walks and fishing excursions while staying at the ecolodge. Our guide was amazing. He was very knowledgable about the medicinal purposes of the flora and fauna. Two days before we joined the group, he was pulling out large anacondas out of the river. We saw the pictures. We saw some of the wildest plant and animal life while staying at the lagoon. Our guide made us bracelets and necklaces with local plant fibers and seeds. He also gave us temporary jungle tatoos with a local plant.

OUR NEIGHBORS

This giant tarantula was a nightly visitor on one of the huts at our lodge. He was a little bigger than an adult male hand.

I love insects that mimic other objects! Here is a leaf insect that hung out at the lodge with us.

PIRANAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Piranah fishing is what a trip to the Amazon basin is all about. This is one of two fish he caught.

Little Nootch was the first to catch a fish that day.
Mom and Little Man T stayed back lounging in the hammocks at the Amazon Dolphin Lodge. This was some serious fishing time for dad. no messing around. It´s not everyday that he can piranah fish.

Can you see the teeth?

This was our favorite part of the fishing adventure. The chef cleaned and fried these babies up for us to eat. They were beautiful and very delicious.