Santiago to Mexico City... And back to Mexico City: Cuyabeno: The Jungle

From Baños we headed north-east to Cuyabeno Reserve, located within the Amazonian forest near the Colombian and Peruvian border. Known as the primary jungle, it was filled with flora and fauna and definitely exceeded all expectations we had. In fact, after our four days we were still not ready to leave. To give you an idea of what we saw (or heard), here is a list of some of those animals:

River dolphins
Birds (Toucans, Macaws, Parakeets, Hummingbird, Fly Catcher, Cormorant, Kingfishers, Herons & more)
Monkeys (Woolly, Flying, Capuchin, Howler, Common Squirrel)
Snakes (including a baby anaconda...)
Spiders (Tarantula, Scorpion, Wolf)
Caiman
Piranhas & Paichi
Frogs (including one that lived in our toilet) & Geckos
Sloth
Bats
Jaguar (thankfully only heard this one...)
Animal nests (Anaconda, Wasps, Armadillo, Termites, Cicadas)
Animal Tracks (Tapirs, Wild pigs, Anacondas)
Butterflies & many other insects...

Our first day, after a very uncomfortable and hot overnight bus, consisted of getting picked up from a hotel and continuing by minibus to the Cuyabeno River. Here we met our guide, Jorge, and continued for another 2 to 3 hours by river boat to our lodge. We were lucky enough to see a river dolphin on our way (who knew there was such a thing), as well as monkeys and snakes and more! Wow, what a start to our trip. Despite the heat we were already enchanted by this place. Once we arrived we spent the afternoon resting at the lodge before we headed out to go fishing for piranhas and hunt for caimans (what, wait..?). Our driver Fernando gave a demonstration of fishing for piranha and then we each proceeded to give it a go. It was definitely harder than it looked and none of us had much luck. We then went around the corner to watch the sunset and a few of us had a swim (Paul included)]. Note that this was also where we were catching piranhas... not for the faint hearted! Caiman hunting consisted of riding out in the river boat in the dark, using a torch to identify the caiman by their reflective eyes. Jorge and Fernando then proceeded to try and catch a small caiman to look at. No luck tonight but we saw many! Good luck sleeping tonight...

Us on the river boat.

At the lagoon. The eater levels fluctuate greatly day to day and throughout the year.

Fernando with a piranha showing us how it's done.

Paul post swim.

Our lodge.

The shy frog that lived in our toilet. It swam in the bowl but would hide up under the rim if we needed to use the toilet and hold on tight when flushed. It made me a tad uneasy using the loo...

Day two we headed out for a walk in the jungle to look for anacondas. Again, why does every activity here sound so dangerous?? Despite that I really did feel pretty safe the whole time It was hard not to with Jorge at the front of the pack with a machete (apparently just for cutting away any plants in the way...). Unfortunately/luckily we didn't find any anacondas but it was a great walk exploring the jungle, coming across more animals and insects and being shown a lot of flora and their uses.

Paul and me with some war paint made from rolling and squeezing leaves.

Jungle paper.

A plant used for natural fibres to create clothing, bags etc.

We did however find many anaconda nests.

Again, we spent the afternoon resting as a respite from the heat. In the evening we headed out to Fernando's community to get shown how to make a local food, mandioca (cassava) bread. Fernando's grandmother showed us how to make it, from start (digging up the cassava) to end (cooking in a pan over the fire).

Recently, Fernando had come across a baby howler monkey that had been abandoned by its mother and had taken it to the community to look after it until it got big enough to live in the wild again. The baby monkey spent the evening sleeping and snoring on my shoulder with its little tail wrapped around my arm. It was so cute! One of my highlights so far.

Digging up the mandioca.

Mandioca / yucca / cassava

Baby howler monkey!

A bit unsure at first...

Until he found a comfy and warm spot to sleep peacefully.

After grating and straining the mandioca it was cooked in a pan. We ate it with tuna (normally smoked rover fish) and chili. Yum!

On the way home we did some more caiman hunting. This time Fernando successfully captured a small caiman which we had a go at holding. A very strange feeling!

Me and the caiman.

On the third day we went for another jungle walk in the morning, bird watching in the evening and a night jungle walk! During the evening we found a baby anaconda. It was lying a puddle quite far from the lagoon, as the puddle was drying up and it was too small to make its own way to the lagoon, we moved it there and saved its life. There were a few hiccups along the way though... During the night jungle walk we saw a number of spiders (including a tarantula and the more terrifying wolf and scorpion spiders) and other insects. It was definitely a bit harder getting to sleep after seeing what came out at night!