After spending 2 weeks in Canoa it was time to make the conscience decision to leave. This is a lot harder than one would think when you’re surrounded by a beautiful beach, great weather and cheap beer. Finally I summoned the courage to pack the backpack and jump on the bus to Bahia, the main bus hub for this area. 

The plan to was to skip over Manta and head straight back to Quito to book a tour into the Amazon. Who’d a thought they don’t let people just wander into the Amazon by themselves! After a nice ride into Bahia chatting with an American couple, I arrived only to find the buses only leave early in the morning or late in the night. I was there at noon, so made the call to head to Manta for a couple of nights.

Manta is another beachside city, however it’s huge with a giant port separating the two beaches. In was a different city than the likes of Atacames, Pedernales or Canoa. Each city caters for a different demographic, and Manta is clearly targeting the retiree market. In fact I would say it’s perfectly suited for those with a few years under their belt and if you want to see a slice of beachfront Ecuador on easy mode, then Manta is the city to visit. 

After two nights in Manta it was back to Quito. The 8 hour bus ride on the Executive bus turned out to be 10 hours on a standard bus. Not the most comfortable ride, but I got to Quito stayed for a few nights while organising a 4 days tour into the Amazon reserve of Cuyabeno.

The first leg of the tour was getting to the oil town of Lago Agrio. This involved an overnight bus ride for 10 hours along an endlessly winding road. The aircon on the bus didn’t work, so it was stifling hot and no possible way to get any sleep. There were a few other people doing the same tour that also caught this bus, and we all agreed it was the worst bus ride any of us had ever had. Ever!

Next was a 2 hour mini bus ride out to El Puente where the canoes were waiting. We were staying at Samona lodge, which ended up being about a 2 hour canoe ride after stopping several times to see the wild life. Our guide, Juan, had a sixth sense when there were monkeys, lizards, caiman, turtles, dolphins, you name it, were nearby. The next day he even wrote on his arm “Juan is the best seener” after we all were amazed by his “seener” abilities.

The lodge itself was basic and perfectly clean. They had an eco friendly philosophy, so there was electricity for the kitchen staff and one powerboard in the hammock room for people to charge their cameras. Everything else was done by candle light, and when you’re in the pitch black Amazon with no moon to help illuminate anything, thing can get a little difficult (try going to the toilet in pitch black. Not easy!!). 

That night were went caiman hunting. Caiman are like the mild less aggressive cousins of crocodiles. We were lucky enough to have a caiman not swim away and we were able to paddle a meter away from it and take photos. It just lay there in the water fairly non fussed by the camera flashes. Coming from Oz and our very friendly crocodiles, I couldn’t help but expect the caiman to leap at the canoe at any point. But nope, he clearly liked the attention and wasn’t camera shy.

Over the next couple of days there was a lot of canoe riding through the rivers. The canoes had motor engines, however when we were looking for animals or reptiles, they’d cut the engine and Juan would paddle from the front. We managed to see two anacondas, one was a baby of just 2 meters, while the other one was an adult of our 7 meters in length. Unfortunately we made a little too much noise hitting some of the mangrove trees trying to get closer to it and off it slithered off into the water. Juan was pretty determined to find it again and each night we paddled through the mangroves looking into holes for the giant anaconda but unfortunately no such luck.

We hiked through the rain forest on two occasions. The first was in the morning, which involved walking through swamp and being knee deep in mud that clung to your gum boots almost pulling them off your feet with each step. One of the Argentinian girls that was with the group was only short, and she ended up more then knee deep in swamp with mud and water filling her boots. Naturally we all found this hilarious as she tried to get to the other side of the swamp, and the Canadian guys couldn’t help themselves and took photos. 

The second hike was at night. This was a favourite of mine, as we tramps through the jungle looking for insects, spiders and lizards. All of which we found no problem as there was an abundance of them. The highlight of that night was the firefly. The two Canadian guys and myself were chilling out in the hammock room with a beer when two green lights I thought were the LEDs from the battery charges started moving. Quickly grabbing a torch and shining it towards the glowing green dots revealed a large firefly. The glowing green dots were it’s eyes. After it posed for a few moments as we all started at it amazed, he took flight and vanished into the dark of the jungle. 

On the last day we visited a local indigenous village and were greeted at the shore by a monkey named Nachos. He was the pet of village and overly friendly. Nachos climbed up anyone close enough to let him, and to both me and the two Canadians he climbed on our faces and started grooming us. This involved him biting your nose, eyelids, anything really he could get his mouth around. The biting was more like a bite from a playful puppy, but after having a monkey on your face for 5 minutes you kind of want to get him off you! 

After leaving the village we stopped at the local shaman. He took us around jungle surrounding his hut and showed the local medicine plants and what their healing properties were. He also performed a presentation ritual, sort of like welcoming us, and did two healing rituals to cleanse the bad spirits from the two Canadian guys (which involved a stinging nettle and made their backs welt up, but not painful). 

With the shaman we dropped off a Dutch lady, Merel. She had arranged to stay with him and perform a vision ritual involving drinking their hallucinogenic cocktail called Iowaska. She arrived back at the lodge the next morning and said it was an incredibly intense experience, and one she wouldn’t try again. Like any drug, it can affect people in different ways and Juan said he had a great experience when he did it.  

The last day arrived and after breakfast we were back on the canoe speeding back to the port where the mini bus awaited to take us back to Lago Agrio. Everyone on the tour but me took the bus back to Quito. Juan the tour guide was heading back to his home town of Banos and so was Merel. The three of us caught the 10 hour bus to Banos, arriving at midnight. 

This is probably enough for one post! Next up will be Banos and where ever I end up next. The plan is to leave Banos today to Riobamba. There’s a train ride called the Devils Nose I want to do, but we’re hearing it’s not running from Riobamba at the moment, and worst still, the train is being renovated and has been replaced by some poxy yellow bus. I figure the best thing to do head there and find out for myself.