Cuyabeno is a national reserve located in El Oriente, the amazonian part of Ecuador, where I spent 4 days in the rainforest.

Rainforest, that’s the right term 🙂 It was basically raining the whole time!

From Latacunga I took a bus to Quito and then directly a bus to Lago Agrio, the entry point to the jungle. I spent a night there and the next day I left with an agency for 4 days in the Cuyabeno reserve.

After a 2 hours bus ride, we arrived to the Cuyabeno river, where we boarded a canoe and followed the river to eventually reach our basic lodge where we would spend our nights. It’s funny to follow this river, because there’s not “coast” on the sides of the river, just a wall of trees, leaves and vegetation! And what is impressive is to see all the trees growing in the water! We could see no solid ground, just water and trees!

We were quite lucky this first day as the weather was not too rainy, and during the first boat ride we could already see some animals! We saw quite a lot of monkeys, playing around in the trees, jumping from branches to branches, that was really cool 🙂 We also saw some snakes, such as a rainbow boa and an anaconda! And of course a lot of different birds 🙂

We stayed in the lodge part of the afternoon and later we left with the boat to watch some more wildlife. We could spot some pink dolphins in the river, they are not really pink, just a little bit, and we mostly saw them come back to the surface to breathe, some crazy big fishes 2m long, and again lots of birds. After this we headed to a lagoon to watch the sunset and swim in the lagoon, that was quite funny! Unfortunately the sky was clouded so we couldn’t see a lot of the sunset.

Later on we kept riding the boat while it was dark to spot some wildlife who come out at night, we could see some owls, bats and more snakes 🙂

The next day was visiting the comunities that live in the forest, and learn a bit of their traditions and lifestyle. We discussed with a woman who showed us how they prepare and store yuka, a root that they grow and eat, it was really interesting to see the whole process! From cutting the tree, taking out the root, peeling it, mashing it, drying it and eventually cooking it. And it was quite good 🙂

In the afternoon we went to visit a shaman, the medicine guy of the village, who explained us the training and study he went through to become a shaman. Apparently it takes about 12 years of study to become a shaman! He told us as well about the way he learned his skills, about the ayahuasca, the hallucinogenic drink they take to have visions and enter in transe, and how he diagnoses and heals his patients. It was really interesting to get an insights of such traditions!

Later in the afternoon, after sunset, we left for a night walk to spot more wildlife that live at night. Eventually we didn’t see much except a lot of spiders… And more insects… Later when we were back at the lodge we spotted a caïman close to the lodge 🙂

On the third day we left for a day walk in the forest, to get a feeling of what it is to walk in the forest. We didn’t see much wildlife as it was raining like crazy… But it was nice to walk in this forest and see the huge vegetation that grows there!

In the afternoon we watched birds from the lodge and could see some toucans and parrots, as well as some vultures 🙂

Later in the afternoon we went for a short walk to the monument Mitad del Mundo (half of the world) as the equatorian line passes also in the reserve. And later on we went with the boat to spot more animals that live during the night, such as caïmans, but we weren’t lucky this time and didn’t see anything. But when we went back to the lodge we could see the same caïman next to the kitchen as the day before 🙂

Finally the next day we left in the morning back to Lago Agrio where I took a bus to Quito.

Quito is Ecuador’s capital, at 2850m, the historical center is beautiful, with colonial buildings and quite a lot of different churches. On the first day I walked around the historical center and went up to El Panecillo, a big statue of Mary with wings on the top of a small hill. Walking up there I realized that Quito is quite high 🙂 From the top of the hill we get a nice view of Quito.

On the following day, after a walk in the city during the morning, a friend of mine arrived in Quito to start his own trip in South America, and we’ll be travelling together for some time 🙂

The next day we did a guided walking tour of the city, which was really interesting! We visited the basilica, which is quite recent as it started being built 150 years ago. The thing that is quite interesting is that it mixes some indigeneous symbols with the catholic symbols. For example the gargoyles are local animals, such as a monkey, a turtle, a jaguar, etc… which is actually quite fun 🙂 The basilica is still unfinished, as a legend says that when the basilica is finished being built, the apocalypse will arrive, so they still leave some parts unfinished 🙂

We also visited the Plaza de la Independencia with the four powers being represented there, such as the Presidential palace (power of the state), the Archbishop’s palace (power of the Church), the Municipality (power of the people) and the Cathedral (power of God). Every monday during the morning we can see the change of guards in the presidential palace as well.

During the tour we also had some info about the country’s society and politics, as well as the economy, which was really interesting! We also could see some nice streets and taste some typical food 🙂

On the next day we went to visit Mitad del Mundo, a neighbourhood 20km north of Quito were the Equatorial line passes, basically latitude 0! I was told that there were some museums explaining how the line was “discovered”, some “scientific” experiences that could be done, and a planetarium with some info. Unfortunately it was not that interesting and documented…

However it was fun to see this line and cross it 🙂 Even though it is not the correct one and the real Equatorial line is located a bit north of where the actual monument is 🙂

Finally tomorrow we are leaving for the Galapagos Islands for a week, and I admit that I’m really looking forward to visiting this place!