After a good nights rest, we were all ready to leave Quito and make our way towards the Lodge in Rio Napo with some stops along the way. With the speaker blasting and energy high, we made our first stop at a mountain about 13,300 feet above sea level. To test the true effects of this, I tried to do high knees for thirty seconds and nearly passed. After taking some pictures we headed towards our next stop, the hot springs.
The private, German owned hot springs were very popular among the locals and most people on the trip said that it was there favourite part. With two giant hot spring pools and numerous smaller hot springs, everyone had enough space to relax and take in the minerals as well as the view within the valley we were in.
Our next stop, the humming bird sanctuary allowed everyone to be closer to these fascinating birds than we ever were before. With 22 different species and hundreds of birds around us, there was always something to look at. The birds almost seemed like they had ADHD as they would literally never stop moving. This made it very difficult to take pictures of them, but most of us took some slo mo videos so we could actually see how fast their wings were moving. If it wasn’t for my building appetite, I could’ve stayed there all day and watched the humming birds.
Finally some food! We stopped at a restaurant about 40 minutes from the humming bird sanctuary. With only a 10 dollar budget, I was confused how we were all going to afford a full meal and a drink; but, then I realized I was in Ecuador where food is much cheaper so everyone could order anything they wanted. I ordered a cream of chicken soup and garlic trout which perfectly satisfied my appetite. Luckily we made it to the restaurant at the perfect time to watch the second half of the Real Madrid vs Man City game where we cheered with the waiter and some locals.
Our final stop before the lodge was the cloud forest. It’s called a cloud forest because we were actually inside of a cloud. The little vision and light rain provided scenery with ambiance that I haven’t experienced before. Skip, who is pretty much omniscient when it come to anything Ecuador, informed us on the unique plants and animals in the cloud forest.
After a long day of travel, experience, and learning, we all got settled into the lodge and feasted on salad, rice with chicken, and plantains. After dinner, a giant cockroach and grasshopper welcomed me into my room, but I made an example out of them to let the other bugs know what’s up. We fell asleep so fast with the natural and calming sleeping sounds of the rain, birds, and bugs around us.
