Hank, Nadine and I visited the Amazon region of NE Ecuador. To get there we flew from Quito to Coca, Ecuador; then we took a large canoe with motor east down the Rio Napo for 3 hours; then we hiked about a half mile through the forest to a smaller river; then we took a smaller canoe about 20 minutes to the Sani Lodge. This lodge is run by the Sani community that has lived along the river for many years.

We went on several hikes through the rain forest and saw lots of birds, monkeys, small mammals, bugs, centipedes, spiders, frogs and black cayman. Probably the best view was from the canopy tower, which is a large, metal tree house built about a hundred feet up in a giant ceba tree. We tried to catch piranhas but only got catfish. Next time we will have Nadine cut her toe a little bit and then swish it around in the water. Hank and Nadine practiced shooting a blowgun and were quite accurate; the big lime they shot at is dead.

The first couple nights we slept in a tent in the forest. There were surprisingly few mosquitoes and unsurprisingly many ants, bugs, spiders and frogs, some of which are nice and some of which can hurt you. Hank and two other guests got sick one night after dinner and Hank got severe stomach cramps and threw up all over our tent site about midnight. About that time was when I realized that if he was seriously sick we would have to hike about 30 minutes through the forest back to the lodge. It only takes 5-10 minutes to paddle the canoe from the lodge to the tent site, but the Sani folks paddle the canoe back to the lodge each night. Swimming is not advised given the caymans, electric eels and piranhas in the lake by the lodge. Anyway, he survived and went to sleep around 3 a.m. Hank said that barfing in the Amazon rain forest and at the Auschwitz concentration camp solidifies his position near the top of the “13-year old kids who have barfed in the most interesting places” list. The Sani folks planned to send in a shaman to clear the “dirty air” that made him sick.

Other than Hank getting sick, we had a great time in the forest and learned a lot.