Spring Break in the Amazon

Spring Break in the Amazon

While others are relaxing on the beach, I’m here in the Amazon for Semana Santa break (Holy Week). I’m at Yachana Lodge, one of the jungle lodges that is accessible by flying (or driving) to Coca, then taking a motorized canoe down the Napo River (a main tributary to the Amazon River) for 2-3 hours, depending on how high the river is. Yachana means “teaching” in Quichua and the main focus of this lodge is on education, both for the tourists as well as for the local community. You might recall, I spent the November holiday at the Amazon Sani Lodge, but that was a completely different experience (primary forest, a lot more isolated, camping in tents). This place, Yachana, is like jungle lodge Hilton. I’ve got a very comfortable room, hot shower, first class bed and pillows, ceiling fan, electricity, even wireless! Beautiful bathroom with views overlooking the Napo River, a hammock on my back porch. So, it turns out to be a relaxing place after all!

Anyway…Yachana was founded by Douglas McMeekin, a businessman from Kentucky who went bankrupt in the 1980’s, became depressed and disillusioned, came to the Amazon to visit friends, met Juan, a native guide and founded Yachana. The foundation he started has many parts. The most important for income generation is the tourism (which I’m a part of). It’s not for profit, so all the money from the tours goes to support Yachana Technical High School, a boarding school for jungle kids. The school is top quality, teaching eco-tourism, English, among other subjects. I believe many of the teachers are from the US and UK. The kids who graduate from Yachana High School go onto work in tourism around the Amazon and all over Ecuador. Some of them have also won scholarships to do a semester abroad in the US or Europe, almost unheard of for students in the Amazon, where schools are the worst in the country. So, Douglas has done amazing things for the community. The funds also support the medical clinic in the neighboring community. I’m glad all the money I’m paying for this trip is going to a good cause.

So, let me give you an overview of my tour. Day 1-I took a short flight from Quito to Coca. Coca is an oil boom city in the Amazon. Hot, humid, dirty, mostly oil workers live there (in other words, not a place a tourist wants to visit!) Getting out of Coca is a relief when you board the motorized canoe. Even though it’s hot, the canoe is going at such a speed that the breeze feels great! I was even able to take a short snooze…anyway once you arrive at Yachana Lodge, you are greeted with hot towels and passion fruit juice and little snacks (in our case, fried plantains with avocado and cheese). Then we were shown our rooms and given the chance to unpack and rest. After that was a short hike to the Mirador or overlook where you could see the forest and the huge Napo River. Then was a delicious three course dinner and time for conversation after dinner. It’s usually an early bed and early wake up in order to beat the sun on the excursions.

Day 2 you visit a Shaman or traditional medicine man/healer. I’ve gotten “cleansed” before so it wasn’t really anything new for me, but for the others in the group, they were very into it. He chants and brushes you with leaves. I don’t really feel like I’ve got any ailments (a good thing!), so I didn’t feel anything different after words, but one elderly man in the group with back problems reported later that his back felt so much better after the shaman worked his magic. Let’s see what else…we took some more hikes through the jungle our guide told us the medicinal properties of all the plants. We saw a pack of tamarins (small “pocket monkeys”) scurrying through the trees, playing with each other. So cute! Also some prehistoric birds, parrots, toucans. Pretty amazing stuff.

Day 3-It was an early wake up (they blew through a conch shell as our alarm clock) for breakfast and hiking. We hiked through the Yachana reserve which Douglas bought up. His plan is to keep buying it, in order to preserve more of the jungle. Although it is not primary forest, you still see an amazing variety of plants and animals, insects, reptiles, etc. They say that the Yasuni National Park is one of the most bio-diverse area in the entire world. After our long, hot sweaty hike, we got the traditional meal. Fish steamed in banana leaves, yuca cooked over the fire, hearts of palm. Delicious and fresh.

It’s pretty common for a nap in the hammock after lunch. Then we did tubing down the Napo River. They tied up a bunch of inter tubes and we went floating down the current. It wasn’t very strong current so very relaxing. Our last meal together was spaghetti with bolognese sauce. Surprisingly good!

We again had an early morning wake up, a shorter canoe ride down the Napo, a taxi ride to the airport and a 20 minute flight back to Quito.

It was a great trip, I feel very relaxed, recharged and ready to tackle the last few months of school! J Check out my photos on Facebook.