Jungle Adventures

El Coca

El Oriente is the rainforest area of Ecuador, which is vast, green and humid. Imagine, slicing the country in three parts vertically with the slice further West being the Coast, the middle slice the Highlands / Andean region and the “fat” slice to the East the “Oriente”. And that is where we’ve been the past couple of days.

The Oriente is very green AND very humid. When we arrived in El Coca, also called Puerto Francisco de Orellana (one of the biggest towns in the area), the first thing we noticed was the sticky air. Coca sits on the river Napo (one of the Amazon tributaries) and it is a hub for petrol workers, scientists on their way to the rainforest and tourists who come to enjoy the wonders of the jungle. We spent two nights in Coca and it was fascinating to observe what a transient place it is. The city has grown a lot over the past decade mainly due to the oil and the tourist industries and the locals don’t seem to mind. There is work for everyone and money to be made, so a lot of people from other parts of the country come to live to this region.

Río Napo

On our second day we decided to leave the city (one day was long enough to be there!). We travelled to Pompeya on the river via “La Isla de los Monos” (the Monkey Island) and back. When we left Coca it was a rather pleasant day, cloudy, but dry. Within half an hour it was pouring down with rain and we could hardly see anything. Fairly scary when you are sitting in the middle of a fat river… We were glad that our companions, Jhon (that is the Ecuadorian spelling) and Jairo were used to this type of downpour.

Monkey Island is a sanctuary for nine species of monkeys.  We saw three different species and learnt a lot about the different uses of plants and fruits. I get the feeling that almost every plant in the forest has a medicinal use. Jhon’s grandfather was one of the first settlers in Coca who came from the Huaorani tribe, so he was full of wisdom and tricks when it came to jungle survival.

Tasty BBQ treats

Further down the river we arrived at Pompeya’s Saturday fair. For a moment I got the impression we were in Glastonbury, if it wasn’t for the fact that we were the only white people and on the BBQs there were live worms and unidentifiable pieces of what looked like chicken….  Jhon bought us a worm skewer and at that point I was glad I had made it clear (earlier in the day) that one thing I wouldn’t eat were worms (we’d been offered all sorts of jungle treats which we couldn’t refuse)… Stu had to put a brave face and eat one, though he was very quick to “share” his meal with the others. 

The journey back to Coca was very wet, but it was fun spotting the monkeys and birds that were along the riverbank. We got back to the city in time for dinner and sampling the local nightlife. Even though our hosts, Jhon and Jairo, invited us for a night out in town we chose to have a quiet one as the next day we were picked up early to go further into the rainforest: to the Scientific Research Station at Yasuní National Park. Exciting!