Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve

One of the main draws of Ecuador was getting to see the Headwaters of the Amazon.  The Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve is in the Amazon Rainforest, a section of river that floods into a huge, beautiful lagoon annually.  We were lucky enough to be there during that time. 

We stayed at the Caiman Ecolodge.  It was definitely rustic.  We never did get hot water, though others did, and the electricity only ran from about 6:30-10 at night.  There was no cell reception or wifi.  We were truly cut off from the outside world, and it was wonderful.  We flew to Flores, and then were picked up by bus at the airport.  The bus drove us to the river, where we transferred to a motorized boat for the ride to the lodge.  Along the way we saw wildlife- anaconda, several types of monkeys, macaws, and even river dolphins!  

For three days, we rode around in the boat, hiked in the rain, and saw so much wildlife.  We ate delicious meal and relaxed in hammocks.  We learned how to make traditional yucca bread, and practiced using a blow gun.  A local shaman talked about traditional medicine. We swam in the lagoon at sunset. We learned about the trees that grew up from the water and how they were used.  We ate live ants. 

This was such a fun part of my trip to Ecuador.  I could have ridden around in the boat looking for animals for weeks.  Unfortunately, it was back to the real world after a few days. 

A partial sightings list:
Tiger Heron
Ninga
Anaconda
Spider Monkey
Capuchian Monkey
Sun Duck
Macaw
Wool Throated Monkey
River Dolphin
Quatzen
Sloth
Caiman
Amazon King Fisher
Black Headed Parrot
White Caracara
Flycatcher
Common Wooly Monkey
"stinky turkey" bird
Ani
Dogfish
Pirahna
Black yellow rump casique
Red beaked heron
Highland frog
Banana spider
Paca
Wing Head Kingfisher
Oropendula
TOucan
Woodpecker
yellow headed vulture
mini bandedtoucan
Eagle
Montsake monkey
White winged swallow
Amazon kingfisher
Heron
Pygmy kingfisher