Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

The activities at Sacha Lodge were almost all during the day but we had two nighttime excursions. The first night we were there, we went out on the lake in the dark. Our guide scanned the water with a large flashlight while we rode behind him in the canoe. When we got to the other side of the lake, a pair of eyes reflected back at us. It was a Black Caiman: pretty much an alligator but for South America. It is the largest predator in the Amazon basin. In the picture below, his head is at the surface and he’s facing into the plants.

The second nighttime activity was one of our favorite things we did at the lodge. It was a walk through the forest with flashlights and headlamps, looking for whatever we could find. I think I liked it because I was surprised at how much we could find and I felt like I had slightly better odds of finding something myself instead of needing the guides 100%.

On our way into the forest, our guides started us right off with this Tarantula. It was perfectly still the entire time we watched it because, if you look closely, you can see the wings of a cockroach it had just killed and was waiting to eat. Including the legs, this was probably about as big as my hand.

We saw another stick insect feeding on a leaf.

And here is a whip scorpion hanging out on a tree:

I did see a snake moving under a bush about 5 feet away but when I called the guide over, he was only able to see it for a split second before it slithered away into the leaves. It was long enough for him to know it was a very poisonous snake though so what does he do? He and the native guide head right over to the bush and start digging through the leaves and underbrush with sticks to try to find this thing. Um, what part of “very poisonous” did they not understand? No pictures of it but hey, there’s a piece of bravado instead.

- Dave

I mentioned in the previous post that we saw a lot of wildlife on our walks and boat rides at Sacha Lodge. Although you can see several examples in our gallery of Ecuador pictures, those have no descriptions so I thought it would be interesting to show more of them with some context.

Many of our walks were on land, hiking on a trail through the forest. The foliage is dense so it’s harder to see wildlife than it was in the open such as in the Galapagos. Much of the time, we needed our guides’ trained eyes to see animals even if they were very close to us.

This Crested Owl was about 30 feet up and very well concealed. His coloring matched the shade he was in very well. I had to brighten the shadows in the image below to make him easier to see.

The Amazon Tree Boa below on the other hand was at eye level right off of the trail. But did we notice him? No, our guide did. It was a juvenile, probably 20 inches long. There’s no sense of scale in the picture but his head is about the size of my thumb. (Everyone knows the size of my thumb, right?)

I mentioned in a previous post how our guide had no problem picking up creatures you and I wouldn’t dare to. But he picked up this very little frog and held it out to us, saying is was a Poison Dart Frog. The natives use the skin excretions from these frogs to coat the darts they shoot from their blow guns. The poison is only effective if it gets in the blood though so handling them for small amounts of time is actually just fine.

There were lots of bugs for the budding entomologists out there. Millipedes on the ground, wasps in the air, lots of ants in the ground. This Stick Insect was right next to the trail a foot or two off the ground and was about 6 inches long.

One of the nicer canoe rides we took was spur of the moment. We were returning from an afternoon trip and crossing the lodge’s lake to return to our room. We heard lots of rustling from the trees to our left so our guides made a quick turn down a narrow creek and into the trees. Immediately a troop (about 40 or so) of squirrel monkeys (below) appeared overhead making screeches and checking us out. They were very curious. They climbed through trees and jumped from one to another as we followed the creek’s path all the way until it opened back up into the lake. This was one of our favorite experiences at the lodge.

The boat rides were probably our favorite type of activity overall. I liked them because being on water meant that you were in a more open piece of the forest so it was easier to spot animals. It also was a lazy way to endure the heat :-). Plus, you’d see animals typically found in the water such as the Caiman Lizard below.

The Amazon Basin in Ecuador is a major destination for birders and one of the activities the lodge offered was to leave the lodge and take a boat down the Napo River to Yasuni National Park so we could see the flocks of parrots there. There are some clay licks (natural, not man-made) where they have set up some viewing platforms. it started out looking like that day was a dud with only 2 or 3 parrots but by the time we left, there were several hundred that we could see, all jockeying for position and flying around. The picture below is just one piece of the whole scene.

Finally, I mentioned before that the lodge had a butterfly house that you could go to anytime. Our guide showed us a moth there whose wing markings looked like huge eyes to deter predators.

You didn’t have to wait long for butterflies to land on you. This one clearly thinks Meredith’s leg is a source of pollen nectar.

That concludes our tour of animals we saw in the forest … during the day. Stay tuned for night-time creepy-crawlies!

- Dave

For the last leg of our trip in Ecuador, we went to Sacha Lodge, a lodge in the Amazon Basin of Ecuador. That last description is a bit misleading. The t-shirts all say “Amazon - Ecuador” but the Amazon doesn’t actually flow through Ecuador. The lodge is really on the Napo River which is a major tributary of the Amazon. If you call them on it, it turns out that they meant the Amazon Basin. Hmmm. Anyhoo. To get there, we took a 25-minute flight from Quito to Coca and then a 2-hour canoe ride down the Napo. I say canoe but this has ten rows for 3 people, is covered, and has two motors. This is the 747 of canoes.

It’s a nice ride. You learn quickly that straight lines are not desirable here. The river is very shallow and there are many sandbars hidden just under the surface. The boat’s pilot knows where they are though and he weaves all over the place, sometimes all the way to the opposite side of the river to avoid them. He was pretty good but there were two occasions where everyone on the boat had to help rock back and forth to work it loose from where we had just run aground. Oops.

The jungle, erm, sorry, rainforest scenery along the river was a refreshing change from the Galapagos and the highlands near Quito. And because you’re moving quickly, there’s a cool breeze in your face. And that was the most misleading of all. You see, the Galapagos were very hot and humid. But you’re on a boat a lot or snorkeling so you have ways to cool down. But in the rainforest, it was even hotter and even more humid. Have you ever been somewhere so hot and humid that you’re never really dry at any point in the day (or night)? You get out of the shower and dry off only to realize you’re already sweating again. Two showers per day was the norm and there was a day in there that required three. Luckily they had laundry service.

Activities at the lodge were pretty mellow. They usually involved a walk in the forest, a canoe ride (normal size canoes this time), or watching birds from a platform. Sacha Lodge is known for its canopy walk, a set of three towers that rise to the level of the forest canopy and have a suspended walkway between them. The idea is that since the canopy is where most of the birds - and some monkeys - spend their time, you gotta go there to see them. When we were up there, we saw a few colorful birds including some toucans and, in the distance, some howler monkeys.

Oscar, one of the naturalist guides, looking for birds.

Meredith on the canopy walk’s suspended walkway.

Typically there was time after lunch to rest a bit before the late afternoon activity and you could swim in the lake next to the lodge to cool off. There were piranhas in the lake but it turns out there are a lot of myths and in the end, they’re scavengers so if you’re alive and don’t have any open wounds, they won’t touch you. Lots of people swam and had no issues. Still, I thought it was a better bet to take a guide up on his offer to take us out on a canoe and go piranha fishing instead. And if we got one big enough, we could take it back to the lodge and eat it. Apparently, piranha is a tasty fish. There were four of us in the boat: Meredith, myself, another guest, and our native guide (you had two types of guides: a naturalist guide who spoke English and a native guide from the area). We didn’t catch a lot - I caught one and our guide caught two.

Dave and his Super, Giant, Man-Eating, Scary Piranha.

The guide showing us the piranha’s teeth.

I asked the guide if the piranha has upper teeth as well to match the lower teeth you see in the picture. It turns out they do. I know this because, when he reached in to pull back the piranha’s upper lip , it bit him deeply on his finger. He said it was only the second time he’d ever been bitten by a piranha. He was bleeding a lot. Remember what I said about piranhas being scavengers? We didn’t stay out fishing much longer.

One of the other unguided options the lodge offered was a butterfly farm with many local butterflies and moths. This wasn’t unique to the rainforest but still pretty cool nonetheless to walk through huge numbers of them flying around you. See the Ecuador gallery for a few pictures of those!

On our walks through the forest, the native and naturalist guides would point out birds, insects, reptiles, etc. The picture below shows a large ant on our native guide’s arm (he put it there intentionally). It’s called a Bullet Ant because when provoked it bites you and then immediately stings you too. Supposedly the first English speaker to whom this happened decided it felt like bullet.

A Bullet Ant climbing our native guide’s arm. Before you ask, no, it didn’t bite/sting him.

A typical scene of a canoe activity through the rainforest.

Crossing the lake towards a creek that heads into the forest.

A typical view of the rainforest from a canoe ride. Very lush and dense.

Another view of the forest.

Ivan, our native guide, was excellent. Very friendly, knew so much, and loved sharing it with us. In addition to picking up harmful insects (see above), he showed us medicinal plants and told native stories about plants and animals in the forest. He even created a trap from scratch with trees and vines, set it, and triggered it to show how they would catch small animals. It worked! Now I feel like I could survive if I were stranded in an Ecuadorian rainforest. In the above picture, he’s fitting Meredith with a crown made from a palm frond.

Another great thing is that, after hearing me and another guy in our group joking non-stop for a few days about blow-guns, he brought one out with some darts and a target. He set a papaya up on a stake about 30 feet away. He then loaded a blow gun with a dart and we each took turns with target practice. The gun’s barrel was pretty long - harder than I thought it would be to keep steady. After a couple of misses, I was able to hit it just off-center with the dart going through the papaya. Surprisingly lethal!

All in all, we had a good time at the lodge and we’re glad we went. It is a little unfair to compare it to our experience in the Galapagos since there we saw more wildlife and much closer but the rainforest has its own look and feel which made it worthwhile. Now if they could just turn down the heat…

- Dave

Meredith has already mentioned the shopping and crazy good deals we saw on things like leather and wool. I thought I’d throw in some pictures of the markets plus a few other things we saw around Quito.

It turns out that Ecuador has many volcanoes - over 25 - and quite a few are still active. A popular one to see is named Cotopaxi; it is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. We started the day driving there from Quito, visiting the park’s visitor center, and walking around a small lake at about 12,000 feet above sea level to get used to the altitude. It’s always surprising to go to altitude and feel the effects. Walking seems easy at first but exert yourself just a little more and you’re out of breath. We didn’t collapse though so we decided we were comfortable with it and we pushed on down the road.

We drove up to the end of the road which is a parking area at 15,200 feet. The plan was to hike from there up to a climber’s hut where people who are hiking to the summit start out (that would not be us). The problem is, once we got there, it was snowing hard and the wind was blowing. Sure, we could have done it. We’re hearty people. But we’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves, right? Up until now, the day had been gray and we couldn’t see the top of Cotopaxi. So given the winds, we decided to wait it out a bit and see if they would blow some of the clouds away from the summit. It worked out, almost. The picture below is us with about the best view of the mountain we had in the background.

It’s amazing to feel the difference in altitude between 12,000 and 15,200 feet. The parking area was on a gentle grade. I walked the downward direction with no problems. But walking uphill back to the car and I felt like I’d been running for 10 minutes!

After Cotopaxi, we had a late lunch and our guide dropped us off at our hacienda for the night. The next morning, we went to a market in a town named Saquisilí. Most people who visit the Ecuador mainland go to a market in a town named Otavalo. We did that as well but the main difference is that Otavalo is targeted at tourists and Saquisilí is meant for locals. There was more food for sale at Saquisilí and the crafts that were for sale were meant to be used, e.g. pottery for cooking. We felt like Saquisilí was a more authentic experience and highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Ecuador.

A woman in Saquisilí market selling pots for cooking and storage.

A woman selling fruit and vegetables at her kiosk.

These round “cakes” are the size of large cheese wheels. They’re made purely from sugar cane juice and taste a bit like light molasses.

I guess when you buy a sheep, it’s like a member of the family. He has a better seat than the others in the back of this truck.

Definitely the place to go if you have a hankering for pig heads.

After the Saquisilí market, our guides surprised us by taking us to a tour of a local rose farm. Many people don’t know this (at least I didn’t) but Ecuador is the world’s second-largest exporter of roses - only Kenya exports more - and most of them go to the United States. We saw all stages of production. We walked through several very large greenhouses where they had a different variety every 3 or 4 rows - who knew there were so many kinds? They then showed us the final stages where they sort them according to stem length, package them, and refrigerate them until shipping. They said they have 12 days from picking a rose to getting it into the customer’s hands at the florist or else it’s too late - the flower is too open.

Roses were in almost every hotel, hacienda, and restaurant we went. Huge bouquets with several dozen at a time were typical. In the US, this would be prohibitively expensive but we were told roses cost about a dollar each down there.

Looking between the rows of roses in a greenhouse.

Blue roses. I thought these were supposed to be real but it turns out they dye them to be that color. The country where they’re most popular: Japan.

A sorting rack in the packaging area. The different heights of each column make it easy to sort stem lengths.

Roses packaged and ready for shipping.

We’re very glad that we chose to spend time exploring the Ecuadorian mainland. It’s hard to say you’ve been to Ecuador if you’ve only seen the Galapagos.

- Dave

A lot of the trip in South America, we’ve been around English-speaking guides, but in Ecuador we’ve had some opportunities to use the Spanish we learned from reading the Lonely Planet Spanish Phrasebook we picked up at the airport on the way here (Dave took German in school, I took Latin, and I’ve had a little bit of Italian in the past, so we are serious gringos here).

Given the low standards set when buying a phrasebook right before arriving to Ecuador (we bought it after the Patagonia part of the trip), I have been feeling pretty accomplished with my use of Español. I am really comfortable ordering food and drinks, telling taxi drivers where to take us, and I was able to bargain at the market we went to on our own (though not as well as the Ecuadorians, obviously. Apparently, after soccer, bargaining is the national sport). Our Patagonian guide Irene would attest to the fact that this is incredible progress given my limitations in Patagonia, where I pretty much knew how to say “Gracias” and “Donde estan los banos?”

Unfortunately, I’ve had two blows to my Ego Español in Ecuador. The first was that it took about 20 minutes and an English-speaking manager to tell the hotel that one of my T-shirts was missing when the laundry came back (don’t worry, they found it the next day!). The second blow happened yesterday when we were picked up by a driver from our hotel in the highlands to return to our hotel in Quito. Our driver spoke no English. It’s an hour and a half drive. It was a pretty quiet drive. And we had a few misunderstandings along the way.

Guess I should stick to food and drinks if I want to keep believing that I’m pretty good at this Spanish thing.

- Meredith

I’m really glad we’ve spent some time in the highlands - we’re getting a good sense of the culture of the Ecuadorian people, the local history, and some beautiful scenery.

We’ve been to several markets and towns where local crafts are produced. I may have bought a few things. My favorite town was called Cotacachi, which is where all the leather goods are made. Historically, these leather goods may not have been of much interest to me (saddles, chaps, etc.). But Ecuador is an enterprising country, and the leather craftsman have significantly expanded their repertoire. We only had an hour in town on the day we came, so I had to focus, or else I wouldn’t have gotten anything accomplished. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to completely ignore shoes and boots. Now you know how hard that is for me!

Fortunately, I was rewarded for my focus and restraint by two leather jackets and three handbags. Oh my God, they are amazing - trendy with incredible quality, and at least 1/5 - 1/3 the price they would be at home. You really should come here.

- Meredith

A quick post to clarify any ambiguity. I saw what one of the emails looks like for people who subscribe to this blog via an email subscription. I noticed that the email form of each post does not indicate who wrote the post. Your rule of thumb should be: if it’s informative, erudite, and witty, that’s Meredith. If it’s analytical, has a list, and/or is a bit dry, that’s Dave. A quick review of recent posts:

Meredith: Conservation, Iguanas, Montezuma, Darwin/Evolution, Geology

Dave: Posts about photo galleries, Typical Day in Galapagos, Unexpected Patagonia

If you ever want to know for sure, look at the web page for the post and the author is listed under the headline.

- Dave

When people talk about the Galapagos, the animals they usually discuss are ones on land such as giant tortoises and iguanas. But we snorkeled every day with good reason: there are many more species underwater. On our first full day in the Islands (our first snorkel), we swam in Darwin Bay at Tower Island. Our guide said we had about a 5% chance of seeing hammerhead sharks and this was our best chance of seeing them on the trip without going scuba diving. So, of course, we saw 6 adults and one baby hammerhead. “Great, Dave!”, you say, “Where are the pictures?”. Since it was our first day and I bought my underwater housing just before we left, this day was the day I brought it in the water without a camera in it to test for leaks. Oh well.

Over the course of our trip, we saw many different types of sea life. We saw lots of other sharks (white-tipped reef, Galapagos), sea turtles, and a huge variety of fish. Most fish were pretty skittish but we had a few including a bullseye puffer that were very curious. There were jellyfish too and I had the welts/scratches for a few days to prove it. We saw huge starfish, marble rays, and some coral too although this is not the place to see huge amounts of colorful coral like the Caribbean or Australia. The highlights included swimming with sea lions and having a school of penguins swim through through our group!

I edited a short (under 5 minutes) video last night of some of the things we saw. Click here for a higher quality version and click here for a lower quality one (the latter is better for slow connections though).

We also saw animals on the surface:

Sea Lions relaxing on their backs

Penguins swimming

A Marine Iguana

Sea turtles coming to the surface to breathe

False Killer Whales right next to our boat!

A Spotted Eagle Ray just under the surface.

- Dave

It’s probably not a surprise to you to learn that I am interested in wildlife conservation. On March 13, we got to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, which is in the town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. It is part of the Charles Darwin Foundation, which is committed to the conservation of the Galapagos Islands and its varied wildlife.

Although it’s clear to visitors of the Galapagos Islands that much of the wildlife is not afraid of humans (they just ignore you and go on about their business), there are many things which threaten them, and in fact, several species are now extinct or near extinction. For example, various populations of Giant Tortoise species were decimated by sailors and whalers coming through the islands in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Because tortoises can live for a year without food and water, unlike cows, goats, chickens, etc., they were taken as a long-lasting source of fresh meat for crews of ships that were out at sea for long periods at a time. Many whale populations were also severely impacted during this time.

At the Charles Darwin Research Station, we learned about the programs to help eradicate the threats to endemic wildlife (introduced species like cats, dogs, goats and insects are causing significant problems for birds and reptiles in the Galapagos). In addition, we got to see the Research Station’s programs-in-action to help repopulate various species of tortoises, iguanas and finches. We got up close and personal with giant tortoises which are being studied and many of whom are participating in breeding programs (we saw a few in the wild up in the highlands of Santa Cruz as well). We also got to see baby tortoises which are born at the Research Station (either through the breeding program, or through a program to collect eggs from the various species of Giant Tortoise on the different islands). The babies stay at the Research Station for 5 years until their shells are tough enough to withstand attacks from predators. Then each tortoise is released to the proper island that hosts its particular species to help repopulate it over time.

The visit was outstanding. If you are interested in learning more about the Charles Darwin Foundation, please click here.

Meredith and Dave with Giant Tortoise

I cannot get enough of iguanas. They are amazing. Before the trip, I was really looking forward to seeing both the Land Iguana and Marine Iguana of the Galapagos Islands. Imagine how happy I was to discover that the iguanas are different on the various islands!!! Different colors, different features!

Here are pictures of Marine Iguanas:

Many of the Marine Iguanas we saw had this Black-Grey Coloration

But the Marine Iguanas on Espanola are Red and Green!

And here are pictures of Land Iguanas:

A Fine Specimen From Isabela Island

The Male Land Iguanas on South Plaza Island have Bright Yellow Accents (and the Females love to Eat!)

Santa Fe Has its own Pale-Colored Species of Land Iguana

And our Naturalist Guide, Martin, saved the best part until near the end of the trip. On South Plaza Island (and only on South Plaza Island), a male Marine Iguana has mated with a female Land Iguana and produced hybrid offspring!!! AND WE SAW ONE!!! Here it is:

The Holy-Grail: Hybrid Land/Marine Iguana

It’s the same concept as a mule (which is a cross between a horse and a donkey). The offspring is sterile, so it won’t be able to reproduce. But honestly, how incredible is nature? Is anyone else as excited about this as I am???