Oriente Wrap-Up

Monday morning we set out in the canoe right after breakfast to head up the river back to Coca. During the canoe ride we contemplated our stay, all the cool stuff we saw, and decided that it was definitely worth it.

We had been a little (a lot) skeptical about going to a lodge. For one thing, it´s expensive (over 4 times the daily amount that we´ve been spending in Quito the last few days). And after a month of taking on the challenges of travel head on, on our own, we felt weird and kind of sheepish having everything arranged for us. I feel like our time spent volunteering in a tiny village in the most non-touristed part of Ecuador had made hardier travelers out of us, and we did not want to be unneccesarily pampered. We want to do things ourselves. We are not weak!

That being said, I´m super glad we went to a jungle lodge, and that our consciously spent dollars went to a great community. We saw WAY more stuff than we ever could have seen on our own, with the help of our extremely knowledgable and enthusiastic guides. The reserve was remote enough to be packed with life (Sani is the farthest lodge on that part of the Napo), as opposed to day trips out of Coca, which I hear can be quite a bust. The ammenities weren´t over the top: the bar and dining hall were basic, open-air buildings with thatched roofs and solar power, and we ate by candlelight when necessary. The food was a little gringo oriented, but it was simple and the portions were fair. We didn´t want to be in the jungle eating lobster and all-you-can-eat dessert buffets, and we weren´t.

Jeremy was awesome (we even discovered on the last morning that he has connections to Port Townsend--what a small, small world), and he picked activities that meshed well with our interests, so we got to go on longer, more strenuous hikes with the other younger guests. Even if we hadn´t seen an unprecedented amount of monkeys, we still would´ve had an awesome time.

All in all, it was a great experience. The Sani Isla community seems to be getting ecotourism ¨right¨and I was really happy to support them in their efforts. After all, this is what we´ve been saving money for...