December 31, 2011

The Most Remote Place We Have Ever Slept

 While we were in Ecuador we did go other places besides the Galapagos.  Besides Quito we flew across the Andes into Coca.  From the airport we took a bus to the dock where we boarded a highspeed outboard canoe.  We sped east down the Napo River into the Amazon jungle.  Right out of Coca it got extremely dense. It wasn't long before we were seeing egrets on the sand bars and parrots flying overhead.  Every so often we would see a Yasuni house or village or a family paddling along. Below is a typical view of the jungle shoreline while we were there.  The water was very low but only 3 weeks past the water was well over the banks.
 After 3 hours on the outboard we came to a dock.  From here we took the boardwalk you see below and hiked along it a little less then half an hour. From the boardwalk we could see all sorts of creepy crawlies and amazing jungle plants and life. 
 At the end of the boardwalk was a small dock with dugout canoes.  We took these canoes through a stream with mangroves dipping into the water. After about half an hour of paddling the stream eventually opened up into a lagoon.  At the far side of the Lagoon was La Selva Jungle Lodge.  Seen below is our first glimpse of it.  The dock is on the mid right and the lounge area are the 2 twin roofs (and floors and walls and stairs and bar)  made out of native materials in the Yasuni fashion.  We had arrived after a 35 minute flight from Quito to Coca, 3 hr canoe ride, half hour hike and half hour dugout canoe.
This is the most remote place that Geordie has ever been and possibly the most remote that I have ever been (except for maybe parts of the BC backcountry which is an entirely different class of far away from civilization).

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