My Nephew, Adam, helping with paddling duties...

Crazy fungus I saw when hiking in the rain...

The most poisonous frog in the Ecuadorian Amazon...Don't worry he was let go and was ok...

Hiking In The Amazon Rainforest...

Final Sunset in the Amazon from the tree tops...

Today was a great day in the Amazon!!! It was a rainy day, all day today, but it was still a great day. The day started a bit later, 6:30a.m. We met for breakfast then we made our way to the observation deck at the lodge for some bird watching. We saw toucans, some monkeys, and a lot of different bird species. After a couple of hours of wildlife and bird viewing we went back to our rooms and got suited up in our rain gear and hopped in the canoe. We paddled down a creek for about 1/2 hour looking for wildlife along the way. It was really rainy so we didn’t see much wildlife on the creek. We paddled to a hiking trail and started about a 2 mile hike in the jungle. We saw millipedes, enormous palm trees with different root systems, a tarantula, and had explanations of the uses of some of the trees in the amazon. We came across a termite nest on one of the trees and our guide, Marco, opened a portion of the nest. The termites were all over his fingers and he ate them!! I was invited to try it, so I did. I eat termites now. They are pretty tasty. They taste a bit like cedar and smoke. I probably ate about 15 of them. We hiked in the rain, crossing rivers and muddy trails and towards the end we came across a lemon ant tree. Inside the branches are hollow pods. Marco opened one of the pods and there were so many tiny ants. I was invited to try them as well. So, I did. They were crazy!! They tasted like lemon. I put my tongue to the pod and all of a sudden there were maybe 20 ants crawling on my tongue. I eat ants now too. I’m probably only going to eat termites and ants from now on. High in protein and kind of tasty.

We hiked almost back to the lodge. We came to the end of the trail and our canoe was there waiting for us. We got on the canoe and had about a 10 minute paddle back to the lodge. Once we were back we had some lunch and then some free time until 4:00. I tried to get some photos off my phone, it wasn’t working for me. So I took a nap. My room has a jacuzzi tub on the balcony and Adam wanted to go in the tub. So he mentioned it to Marco at lunch, and he sent some staff to my room to start the bath for Adam. When we got back from lunch the guys were here filling the tub. They had candles lit for him and a nice robe. It was pretty hilarious. The tub took forever to fill, but Adam had a nice jacuzzi to himself with candles and bubble bath. The kid loves spa experiences.

At 4:00 we met on the dock and canoed down another creek to another hiking trail. It was still raining, but not as hard as it was earlier in the day. We hiked for a short while, and saw the most poisonous tiny frog in the Amazon. I didn’t touch it, or eat it, or lick it. Then we reached a tower attached to an Iron Wood tree. It had something like 300 steps up to the top of the tree. At the top there was a platform and we did some bird watching. We saw macaws, toucans, other birds, some more monkeys, and 2 different sloths. It was a great evening of wildlife viewing in the top of the trees. It was an awesome experience. Towards sunset it stopped raining and we had an amazing sunset over the rainforest. The fog was so cool. We waited until the sun went down and made our way back down the tower to the hiking trail. We hiked back to the canoe in the dark, hoping to spot some nocturnal wildlife. We didn’t see anything except for a lot of mud. It was ok though, we have seen so many different animals and birds here, it was a winner trip. We got back to the lodge by canoe, in the dark. We could see cayman eyes in the creek, with flashlights, on the way back. It was a bit eerie. Once back, we showered quickly and met everyone for dinner. It’s our last night here so we had great conversation with the couple from Washington, that have been in our group since the beginning, and Marco. We said our goodbyes to our new friends and went back to our rooms. Now, just writing up the blog for the day and I’m going to go to bed. I’m really tired tonight.

Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 6:30a.m. We canoe back to the welcome center, about 1 1/2 hours. The we board a motor boat and have a 2 1/2 hour ride back up river to the dock and we will take a taxi to the airport. We fly back to Quito tomorrow morning and should arrive in Quito at about 12:30 in the afternoon. We are going to stay at the same hotel in Quito tomorrow. No big plans for the city tomorrow. Maybe we will go to the Basilica and tour that and then some more exploring. On Friday we will head to the Andes and spend two nights at two different towns in the highlands. I may not have anything to blog for my Thursday report as we will be traveling a lot. But if we do something exciting in Quito when we get back, I’ll do one more blog post. Three in a row!!

Thanks again for checking out the blog and reading. Maybe it’s fun. I don’t know. I’m enjoying writing and posting photos of the Great Adventure of 2017! So, there’s that…