February 21, 2017: What a day of contrast! We left busy Quito during Tuesday morning rush hour. Aggressive drivers, horns, people taking advantage of the slightest break in traffic to claim their space. It truly was remarkable that we didn’t witness a collision or a flattened pedestrian. I was thankful for our skilled driver, Ramiro, who guided us expertly through the fray.
We made it to the airport unscathed and boarded the plane to Coca. I love the security process in Ecuador! Shoes on, no X-rays, no lines. Fabulous! From the small airport in Coca, we boarded a motorized canoe for a two hour trip down the Napo River. We connected to a small tributary (Anangu Creek) for another two hours in a small, hand-paddled dugout canoe.
To go from the frenetic city of Quito, to an airplane, to a diesel-powered boat, to a small, manually-powered canoe, with only the sound of the paddle pushing through the blackwater stream, the cacophony of rainforest birds and cicadas, and the chatter and howls of monkeys was breathtaking. We saw colorfully-plumed birds, the biggest spider I have ever seen (fish spider), families of monkeys … squirrel monkeys, white-faced capuchins, red howler monkeys, and a black, red-headed snake that sat motionless, observing us as closely as we were observing him. And the butterflies! Oh, the dancing butterflies … too quick and flighty to capture on film.
Tomorrow we rise at four-thirty to head to the clay licks, where we hope to get lucky with parakeets, macaws, and some to-be determined mammals. So, buenas noches!