It was a 6 hour bus ride down from Papallacta to Coca, a city which sits on the north bank of the Rio Napo and is the gateway to the half dozen or so Rio Napo river lodges in the Amazon Bassin. We chose to spend 4 nights and 5 days at Sani Lodge. Our choice was heavily influenced by the fact that Sani is owned and operated by a local indigenous community such that all of the free cash flow is invested back into the community and in the education of its people. The local community holds regular council meetings during which every resident has a say in how the lodge is run and how the profits are invested. Everyone in the community has an equal opportunity to work at the lodge for a period of time on a rotational basis. Those who demonstrate a passionate work ethic are rewarded with additional biology training and schooling to learn English in the U.S.
We chose the camping option, or as it is more appropriately referred to in the UK, the "glamping" option
. Glamping stands for glamorous camping which is surely what this was. A state of the art 2-person Coleman tent was set up on a platform and the platform also had its own tent-like covering so that it was kind of a tent within a tent set up. Mattresses, albeit thin, sheets, pillows, towels and soap were provided, the beds were made for us daily, towels were folded and tent side candles were lit for us every night prior to our arrival to the campsite following our splendid dinner at the lodge across the laguna. Glamping in the jungle as the birds and insects loudly voiced whatever they were living in the background was a surreal experience (watch video clip here).
The alarm went off at 4:45 AM every morning. We would rapidly change in the dark with a headlamp into our jungle gear and make our way down to the dock for 5:15 AM where Ramiro would be waiting to paddle us across the lagoon to breakfast at the lodge. By 6:15 AM we would be joined in the canoe by both Ramiro and Freddie, our very knowledgeable guide, for spectacular rides through mangrove lined streams (click here for video clip) and hikes through the jungle
. We even did a night hike on one evening after dinner. The vegetation was so lush and the wildlife so diversified. We saw black caimans in the water and fished for and caught piranhas (we got a good laugh as we called the first one Little Claude). We saw many varieties of wildly coloured birds, monkeys including the red howlers, a boa constrictor and an anaconda and numerous insects (especially during the night hike), butterflies and frogs, etc.
We visited the local indigenous community one afternoon and when Freddie asked for a "hardcore volunteer", I could not resist and accepted the challenge wondering what I had just gotten myself into. It seems that natives who grow up in the jungle feed on the live larva of a particular beetle for its protein. Freddie proceeded to demonstrate how this was done by first biting and crushing the larva's head to kill it, otherwise it would do damage to Freddie's tongue by cutting it with its sharp mandibles. He then slowly pushed the rest of the now dead larva into his mouth, chewed and swallowed, and then looked over to me with a broad smile on his face, holding out a bowl full of live and squirming larvae
. I picked one up reluctantly, held it between my thumb and index finger as it squirmed like a worm trying to free itself. It was quite a bit thicker than a worm though and about the same length. I thought there's no way I can do this, but then again I had been issued a challenge and there was also no way that I was going to back down. It took some time, maybe 15 or 20 minutes, and each time that I would raise my hand holding the larva close to my mouth, I would see the little critter's mandibles open up. I had to crush his tiny head with my teeth first to avoid my tongue being bitten. I finally accomplished just that by putting the mind over matter thing to the test and then pushed the sucker into my mouth and chewed. Freddie had explained that the juice of these critters is also extracted for cooking oil and sure enough that is exactly what it tasted like, some type of plain cooking oil. There was only liquid and I spat the rest out. Biting the head was like biting an empty tasteless shell of some kind. Click here to watch Nat's video.
Glamping in the Amazon
Friday, August 30, 2013
Yasuni National Park, Ecuador
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2025-02-11
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cendrine
2013-09-03
after reading out loud the larvae eating exercise to fellow colleagues DURING LUNCH HOUR, we have all lost our appetite. Apart from that what an amazing experience and beautiful pictures. xxx