A visit to the Amazonian Forest - Some Vistas at the resort

Here are snaps of the vistas that we saw at the Jungle Resort (Suchipakiri).

This greeted me when I went to the cabin in which we spent the night.

Looks deceptively calm, pluck one of them and one will experience the ants.

This is the only butterfly that I could capture

One of the beautiful flora of the forest.

Another example of the flora. There are multiple hues of the same flower.

The woods beside the Misahualli river

Ants on the Banana Tree

Another one which obliged me

A panorama of the forest around the resort where we stayed,

A visit to the Amazonian Forest - The Zoo

We wanted to go to the cave of Jumandi, but we were late to enter the caves so we had to settle for a zoo that was close by. But it was not a bad deal.
Some of the sights at the zoo.

One of the ducks

An Emu

The Galapagos Turtles

The Bamboo Avenue (my name)

The Tapir

That effectively ended our trip to the Amazonian Jungle.

A visit to the Amazonian Forest - The Boa and Waterfalls

The night was great as we were able to see a very clear sky with lots of stars. We did not spot any satellites. At 11 it started to rain. So we experienced a dinner rain rather than a tea rain.
The next day morning we were greeted by raindrops on the leaves and flowers.

Raindrops on the leaves

Raindrops on the leaves

After a late breakfast we left the Jungle resort. We managed to get stuck at the same stream, but came out faster this time as we resorted to pulling the stuck van using the unstuck van.
We passed over the hanging bridge once again to be back in civilization (at least we can claim to have spent a night in the forest).
We went for a place where there was some festivity going on account of it being the carnival day in Ecuador. Many were displaying their ability to play with Boa-Constrictors. They were offering the public a chance to be draped by a Boa for a dollar each.
Here is one of them.

The Boa Constrictor

Draped with a Boa Constrictor

The Boa again

The daring amongst us did drape the Boa around their shoulders and took their photos. I was not one of the daring ones for sure.
After the Boa we went to a Cascade. The walk to the cascade was an adventure. The cascade itself turned out to be small one, but the water was good and cold and the wash refreshing.

At the cascade

A visit to the Amazonian Forest - The River Misahualli

Although we did not get close to the Amazon river we were up close with one of its tributaries, the River Misahualli.

Some of the more daring ones had a good swim in the river. There are no piranhas here in this part of the jungle so it was good.

The River Misahualli

Another view of the river

A visit to the Amazonian Forest - The Walk

Once we reached the resort everybody was worried about breakfast and lunch rather than being worried about getting into the jungle and enjoying the vistas.
So everybody got cooking for breakfast and lunch and by the time we were done it was almost 1 in the afternoon. So we had to opt for the short trip into the forest and a trip to the banks of the river Misahualli.
By 2:00 we left the resort for the short trek into the forest. Before that we had to wear gumboots and everybody was quite uncomfortable with the idea.
But by the end of even the short trip everybody had realized the worth of the gumboots and were thankful that they were forced to wear it.
The jungle was thick, despite it being close to the resort and despite the fact that many troupes went through the same motions. In some places our guide had to hack through the forest using his machete. So it gave a feeling of being deep in the jungle.
We got to see the cocoa tree which is the main ingredient of the chocolates that so many love to eat.

The cocoa plant

Also got to see a tree whose roots(?) one could use as a scrapper.

Scrapper Roots

Saw a huge tree which was about 150 years old. Never go around to asking its name or species.

The children dwarfed in front of the old tree. This is the base of the tree.

Soaring into the heights

Leaf cutter ants.

Got to see the leaf cutter ants (not a very good picture. Will try and provide a link to the video of the same).
At one point the guide took us through a tiny stream as there was a bee hive from which some bees were trying to actively sting the passer-bys.
Over all was a good walk.
What we missed was the tea-rain which is expected to happen in these jungles.

A visit to the Amazonian Forest - Reaching the forest.

Tena is a small town Southwest from Quito. It is one of the easy entry points into the vast Amazonian forest. What one gets to see at Tena is only a glimpse of the rich diversity of this forest.
We left Quito a little after midnight in two school vans for Tena. We reached the town a little after 6 in the morning. The resort that we had booked for our stay was about 5 - 6 kilometers inside the Jungle. To reach the Jungle one had to cross a hanging bridge which spanned the river Misahaulli.

The bridge over river Misahualli which is the entry into the Amazonian forest. This view is from the forest into the town of Tena.

The bridge is pretty old and worn out. Barely a van can go across and an empty one at that. So we got off the van and walked across the bridge while the drivers drove the practically empty van (the luggage was still in the van) across the bridge. The bridge is hanging from the two concrete pillars on either bank. The pillars are quite old and are damaged. Nevertheless the bridge seems to be in constant use despite these limitations.
So we actually walked into the Amazonian jungle.
Once inside one got to see the thickness of the jungle almost immediately. One passed a few streams of crystal clear water and finally one such stream became the undoing for the van. The van go stuck in the small pebbles in the stream and we had go get down to push the van. Few of the first photographs in the jungle as we were trying to get the van out of the stream.

The flora consisted of more such flowers and the fauna consisted of more such insects.

The typical sight inside the jungle.

We managed to push the vehicle out onto the other side with some difficulty. The second van driver refused to make an attempt. Fortunately we were almost near the resort where we were to take shelter for the night so we walked it down with the luggage in the van.
One had to walk close to the river bank to reach this place. One sight that greeted us was a butterfly about the size of the span of an adult and completely blue in colour. Unfortunately none of us could capture its beauty. It was too fast for any of us to react.