Friday 26th April 2013
Another early start, we are getting accustomed to them now; we beat the alarm again, quick wash, packed the rest of our case, and down for breakfast at 6 am. We paid the bill to be told we were coming back here, which is a shame, cos not the best of Hotels, but we asked for a bigger room which he said we could!
Our guide was waiting, he loaded our cases, and back to Quito airport, we were checked in by another guide who apologised for the mix up yesterday, and has offered us a free tour on 29/4/2013, which we have accepted.
On Napa River with guide heading for boat
The plane was late arriving, so we did not arrive on the Napo River until 11 am, but wow, we are in the jungle, we are so excited.
We boarded the motorized canoe, and we were off, we were heading for the Yasuni National Park where we would join the Manatee Explorer deep into the Amazon Jungle. We spent one
Stopped to deliver some rice to drivers daughter
and a half hours on the canoe; there are only five of us on the trip, so it looks as though it could be fun, although one of the other guests was reading Biography of Jerusalem, the other lady with her daughter works with the Missionary in Quito! So watch this space. The river was very shallow in places, and we went aground once, but a bit of rocking we were off again. It has not rained for three days, so the water levels have really fallen.
Manatee Explorer
We boarded the Manatee and we were given our cabins, ours is called ‘Monkey’, the boat needs a bit updating, but it is fine, and we have an en-suite, always important at our age. We have a bottle of champagne on ice with two glasses, to celebrate our honeymoon, and apparently we have another one for tomorrow, our Agent has given us one,
Geoff on top deck
and the ship the other, really chuffed about that.
We had lunch which was a very interesting starter, with palm stalks, chilli, onion, and you can add banana chips and popcorn, it was actually very nice, for main we had pork with nuts, so I passed on that, Geoff said it was lovely, they gave me some beef which was very tough, but editable, banana passion fruit, it
The river is like the M1 transporting lorries etc up and down
looked like a banana outside, but passion fruit inside, very good.
The afternoon was spent just lazing around whilst cruising down the river, the sun is out, and it is very pleasant. We have
Parking for the night, not sure how we get off
now come to a stop on the river, the parking was very interesting, because where the water has receded, the canes have fallen in the water, not sure how we are getting off, but sure they will work it out.
Sunset on River Napo
Later we had a talk on our evenings walk through the jungle, we took the canoe and went up river for about fifteen minutes, we landed on shore, and started walking in the jungle,
Geoff just did not take this seriously, he wanted tigers and monkeys, not beetles and spiders, it was quite funny, we saw a
Can’t remember name!!
baby toucan who was not happy to be woken up, also a tarantula, well I saw its legs at it scurried down its hole, we saw tiny frogs, and lots of funny little
There was a tarantula down there somewhere!
creatures, but suffice to say my camera is not good enough to show you.
It is either full moon or very close, it was a stunning ride back in the canoe, we boarded to be greeted with some funny drink, and prunes wrapped in pastry.
At dinner tonight we had a funny sort of soup, followed by a piece of steak, then a guava fruit, very good, we also opened the champagne and shared it with everyone.
Have to go now as we have to be up early in the morn