Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Trouping Through the Jungle


The next morning at Sacha Lodge deep in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador started very early. We got woken up at 5:30 to go on our first hike, after a quick breakfast along the lake.


We are hiking the Canopy Trail, from the lodge to the 3 towers in the upper middle of the trail map.


They gave us all boots to wear, but it wasn't really very muddy.


Here we are at the first tower. Uh-oh! We have 264 steps to climb to the top!


But we made it, and were above the trees, walking on a small suspension bridge to the other 2 towers.


We saw lots of birds, and of course all of them were new to us. First up was the Greater Yellow-Headed Vulture.


We also saw a Palm Tanager -


An Eastern Wood-Pewee -


And my favorite, the Black-Headed Parrot.


On the way back, we stopped quite a bit to learn about the jungle. This is our guide demonstrating how to cure sinus problems by using shavings from a local tree.


We saw lots of giant termite nests. Don't touch it, Rosemary!


Our guide was really good at seeing things along the way, like this millipede.


And he even noticed this tiny frog!


There were lots of Kapok trees around, but this one is the largest.


On the way back to the lodge, we visited the butterfly house on the property. Most of the butterfly houses I've visited have food out, so the butterflies stop, but this one didn't, so it was difficult to get a picture.

We made it back in time for lunch. The day isn't over yet!

3 comments:

  1. Fascinating!! What was the weather like in the Jungle?

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    Replies
    1. Hot and sticky - very different from Quito at almost 10000 ft.

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  2. Some amazing things you saw, but where was Tarzan? ;c)

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