Day 5: Primary Rain Forest and Jungle Night Walk

At the final morning at the oasis of relaxation Hakuna Matata we went seeing their frog house where they keep several species out of which we could find the colorful Arrow Poison Frog (the little frog is not poisonous if you touch him, but if he touches blood or a wound). After some final hummingbird pictures from the main house built with a 360deg view into the rainforest we left to our next habitat. Tena is only 10km away from the lodge, so we arrived quickly to pick up some water, see the local pharmacy for repellent replacement or take a fine coffee and juice in the small cafeteria close to where we also got chance to refill our backpacks with fresh gear for the next two days. I was still easily able to fit everything into my 30L backpack, yet others for example were using a rough duffle bag to take their stuff.

30 minutes from Tena we hat a short stopover in Mishualli, where we were walking over the fascinating old school (concrete and steel rope) style hanging bridge crossing Rio Napo. Then the trip continued deeper Tito the Amazonas high plateau (about 500m high) which is for a length of about 3000km constantly falling to the Atlantic Ocean until 0m without higher mountains.

To Liana Lodge we arrived after a short monotree kayak ride down Rio Arajuno, which the lodge is directly facing to. Before heading to the “basic, but everything it needs little huts” we had lunch and were introduced to the connected Amazoonico project the lodge was founded for by a Swiss guy who was volunteering the management position after the owner had died. Afterwards we took a short boat ride to the remigration station where a lot of different animals were taken care of. It was certainly a little sad to see these currently sick animals in the cages right in the jungle but this was according to the volunteers supporting the project (and paying 1000€ per month to be there) the best way for then to live in their current condition.

The from my perspective best part of the day followed after dinner. We took a night ride with the boat up the river to the Amazoonico harbor from where we started our about 1,5 hours night walk back to the lodge. The atmosphere was fantastic and adventurous and so were the animals we saw. Various frogs, grasshoppers in all colors and sizes, a scorpion as well as spiders from small till the Bird-Spider were calm and easy photo subject though not easy to spot of course…