Prologue
...........Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off forever from everything you had known once. ........words from the .......
Heart of Darkness by Joesph Conrad
NB- remember to double-click on the images for better viewing
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Jungle Life at the Napo Cultural Center
The Napo River begins life high in the Ecuadorian Andes. By the time we set out from the frontier oil boomtown of Coca (see map above....slightly east of Quito) by a 'motorized canoe' for the 2 hour or so journey downstream, the Napo's waters are a thick latte-brown.
Coloured by the heavy monsoon rains that sweep down the Eastern flank of the Andes, pulling the rich, dark earth and the lush vegetation that is thick along the riverbanks and into the surging Napo.
The Napo snakes on ....a steaming, boiling current ever widening and descending on its 1000+km long journey through mystical lands.......where...........hidden peoples live in harmony with the waters and lands that bordered the gift that came from the gods in the high mountains.
Animals roamed the jungle foliage fueled by the rains and life sustaining Napo... plants provided foods, medicines and herbal remedies......
It is here we travel ....not into a Heart of Darkness but towards a shining jewel. Our destination for the next 3 nights/4 days is the Napo Cultural Center.
Our guide Sergio points out the oil drills along the shore line and the tugs pushing barges filled with all the equipment needed for industry out here...
The balancing act to sustain a voracious world economy dependent on oil... government revenue for the country and the peoples' of the Napo River is evident from our motorized canoe-like boats.
Our driver swings the high powered craft around hidden logs....avoids the shallows and shifting sandbars. The safe channels alter course....sometimes daily...
We speed onward and deeper into the protected biosphere, which houses many jungle lodges and is home to the most diverse number of species on earth. Yes...on earth.
The Napo River forms an uneasy and eroding barrier between the oil companies to its north and the indigenous communities to the south. Although protected, the Ecuadorian government has allowed oil exploration in the vast biosphere.
(......Texaco dumped 16 billion gallons of highly poisonous wastewater in a swathe of the northeast Amazon from 1971 to 1992. In 2011 the US oil giant (now part of the Chevron Corporation) was fined over $8 billion by the Ecuadorian court for polluting the Amazon...sadly......little has been paid.....)
From Insight Guides Ecuador & Galapagos
The Napo River eventually joins with the Amazon....its pulse pushes the water across the upper reaches of South America and far into the Atlantic.
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The Napo Cultural Center is our home for the next 4 days. We are guests of the Kichwa People and their functioning, vibrant community located on the shores of the Napo River. During our stay, the leaders, guides and educators share their knowledge, wisdom, stories and humor with us.
The 15-20 guests are organized into small groups and placed with a local guide for our entire stay.
Sergio is our guide and our group, as well as from Canada hails from Australia, and the US of A. We all get along.
Shayne, Yvonne, Sergio, Sarah, Katie & Chris...
.................................Napo Cultural Center
Our jungle home is set in the Yasuni National Park, a giant preserve encompassing nearly 10 000 km² of the Amazon Basin that are the traditional lands of and home to a number of indigenous communities and the most diverse biosphere on earth. The region is also host to numerous eco-lodges.
While other lodges sit in splendid isolation, ours is centered in the Añangu Community. Añangu means ant. This name was chosen because the ant works as a community for the whole, as they are now trying to do.
Our room on the left
Our own private deck too!
Our meals were fabulous...
Especially the grubs for dessert. You bet we tried these chewy barbecued morsels!!!
There is a school for community kids, (with grades K to 12) as well, students come from isolated homes up and down the river....
...they arrive and return by the river school boat.
A women's co- op exists and practices oral history, dance, crafts, along with child support and education.
This group performs a welcoming dance and history lesson for each arriving group
Most of the proceeds from their small craft shop is being used to complete this new building. Cost $20,000 US.
We use our Spanish and learn a few indigenous phrases in return. It's a magical place in the 6 am morning light as we head off on an excursion in our rubber boots.
...and return as the sun sets behind brewing rainclouds in the west.
Our days are active....., sweaty.....hot and dirty. We are up early and close our eyes to the night time insect symphony or the occasional Amazon rainfall splattering on our thatched roofs.
Time flies....we climb massive towers (200+ steps) to view the forest canopy ....
The Napo River from 50+metres above the jungle floor
We journey upriver to hidden pathways where birds and animals gather at clay salt licks...
Scarlet Macaws
Yellow-crowned Amazon parrots (we think)
And, plain chachalaca birds, all vying for their favourite spot at the clay lick...
We night hike and find an amazing array of insects....creepy crawlers...
10 cm millipede
A blurry black scorpion (6-8 cm)
Can you see it?
Sergio finds an ant nest and tells us to put our hand in to feel the 'electricity' from their bites.....(something mom would tell us to never do)..........guess what, there was a jolt or 2!!!
The jungle hikes take us deep into the wild vegetation.
The dampness and sweat cling to our bodies, wrapping arms and legs in a slippery sheen....
We spot jaguar tracks...
along with a tarantula that was coaxed out of its hole by our guide, Sergio
watch the skittish playful howler monkeys overhead and more...
Sergio our guide is brilliant...his eyes and ears are tuned to the sounds and sights on the trails and streams around us.... birds and more to be seen at every corner
Entering the black tributary to the Napo...a river of darkness
Snail kite (hawk)
Anaconda
Hoatzin
Mangrove swamp
Caiman
Bushmaster Snake
Red Howler monkey
Mostly, though, we walk in silence, caught in our own web of thoughts.....this a spiritual, meditative moment....the natural cathedral that surrounds us is far more magnificent than structures made and revered by people elsewhere.
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These are the places that should be protected...should be held close...sacred lands where for most of us ...we've lost the words to the prayers and ignore the beating of our hearts as it pulses in rhythm to the jungle cicadas.
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And....these are the places found nowhere else...where the communities strive to survive....educate (us) and the community how to live simply....in honor.....and respect.....
We are blessed to be among these 'guardians' of ancient ways.
The future is uncertain as is the changing landscape around them.
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Travel Tips and Suggestions
Getting to Ecuador...
By air.....we flew into Quito from Mexico City....you can arrive from just about anywhere to Quito
By land...border crossing by foot/bus is fairly painless...providing you have the proper documents
Getting to the Napo River...
By air..... approximately a 30 minute flight from Quito to Coca
By bus... 7-8 hours from Quito to Coca
Yasuni area eco lodges....are about a 2-4 hour boat journey downriver from Coca.
Staying in Yasuni....plenty of lodges...google/email to get more info...prices vary
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Finally...
Napo River Cultural Center....website is @ www.napoculturalcenter.com ....our home for 3 nights/4 days....was perfect...staff excellent ...our rooms 1st class...food great... new friends....that we've made for life....and staff like Sergio are filled with warm hearts...gentle manners and a passion for showing us 'their way'
What can we say......just go!
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Epilogue
.....But the patterns of the rain and the truth they contain
Have written my life on your skin
Jungle love, it's drivin' me mad
It's makin' me crazy........ lyrics by Steve Miller Band
Hasta Luego!
Shayne y Yvonne
Additional Random Photos
A jungle vine
Heliconia flower
Another parrot clay lick high on a cliff
Garden tree boa
Moulting insect
Termite nest
