February 21, 2018 – Quito to Yarina Lodge

February 21, 2018 – Quito to Yarina Lodge
We left the hotel at 7:45am to go to the Quito Airport.
On the drive we passed homes that squatters have built on the mountainside. The government will let them live there but there are no utilities. When they can afford it, they request to become part of the city and the government will install the utilities for a fee. The problem is that they are building on steep mountainsides that are known to be prone to landslides.
Right above some of these houses are the most expensive apartments in Quito. Most advertise that only foreigners and politicians should apply to rent there.
We stopped for pictures of one of the 2 active volcanoes just outside Quito.
We flew 1/2 hour to Coca Ecuador which sits next to the Napo River. The Napo is one of hundreds of rivers in the Amazon rainforest which feed the Amazon River south of here. We took a funky vehicle that had wooden benches on the back of truck to the river from the airport. You need to climb up the side and get your hips over the narrow opening to get into the seats. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
We arrived at the pier and were fitted for rubber boots to wear while hiking in the rainforest. We were told to Deet-up because we are in mosquito territory. We took a long boat down the Napo River to a small tributary where the Yarina Lodge is. We will stay here 3 night’s.
We had a delicious lunch of catfish with typical Ecuadorian sides of cucumbers, plantains, rice, and beans.
It was so hot that we got a siesta break until 4pm. We took a 2 hour hike through the forest near the lodge. Our naturalist’s name is Winter. It seems many families in the countryside of Ecuador name their children after English words. Fatima told us that she once met someone named Alka-Seltzer.
The first tree we saw, we were given a leaf to chew on. It tasted like cinnamon because it was from a cinnamon tree. One tree is supposed to have sap with healing powers. It is called the Dragons Blood tree. The sap looked just like blood. We also a bird called a flycatcher.

After dinner we went to a lake and sailed around for 45 minutes looking for night wildlife. We heard a lot – frogs and bats – but only saw fire flies.