NEW 14 DAYS TRIP
AGUARICO – CUYABENO – AGUARICO – ZANCUDOCOCHA – NAPO
APRIL 01- 14 / 2008
With a group who a few years earlier had successfully made our 15 days Yasuní trip, we started a new adventure tour in the Cuyabeno area.
Rowing on the river Aguas Negras
A couple of days before, we had placed two row canoes along the river Aguas Negras, a tributary of the Cuyabeno river and took the position with the GPS.
Now we were on the Aguarico River on a beach and the GPS informed us, that we were 21km away of the canoes, 21km we wanted to walk trough the virgin rainforest, without a path, opening our way with the machetes. Today we arrived from Coca, after a three hours bus ride to Puerto Gregorio en then one hour downriver on the Aguarico in a motorized canoe. We camped on the beach and were preparing all our luggage and food we had to take with for the next seven days.
Camping on island in the Aguarico river
Us,that is the Swiss family of three, Cesar our Kichwa cook, Teodoro and Isaac our Secoya guides and carriers and me, Franziska, the Naturalist guide.
The first day trekking went well and we made some kilometers going through the jungle. Following a hill rim we encountered several monkey groups: Woolley Monkeys, Squirrel Monkeys, White-fronted Capuchin Monkeys and a family of Black-mantled Tamarin Monkeys. In the evening we put up our camp along a little creek and Cesar cooked us a delicious meal with soup, noodles and tomato sauce on the open fire.
The next day got more difficult, we didn’t make a big progress and the motto of the day was: “uphill, downhill, swamp!” After lunch we got in such a dense swamp that we made only 200 meters in one hour! And we couldn’t see the end coming on our compass course of 55 degree east. So, one hour later, we decided that there was no way to get through and go on, so we had to give up. Isaac found a shortcut out and we started our way back to the Aguarico River, where we arrived again the next afternoon.
Cook Cesar preparing diner
Back on the river we luckily found a canoe going downriver which gave us a ride to the Playas de Cuyabeno village, on the entrance of the Cuyabeno River, while our Secoya guides returned home to their little village upriver.
The next day we hired a small canoe with a 15 HP outboard engine and Marcelino drove us in six hours to where we had placed the row canoes. Here we camped over night and went piranha fishing for dinner.
The next whole day we paddled down the Aguas Negras, passing under fallen trees, circling around branches and logs sticking out of the water and trying to row in harmony together… In the late afternoon we arrived again on the Cuyabeno River and stayed in an abandoned lodge on the shore. The next morning we paddled down to the Aguarico River and stayed the night in our Yacht Jungle Discovery. What a luxury after several nights sleeping on the floor and taking a bath or a shower in the river and creeks!
The next two days we traveled in our motorized canoe downriver the Aguarico to Zancudococha with Lucio as our driver. On the way we camped on a small island and visited the Cofán indigenous family of Pacuyacu, near Zabalo. We went on a hike with a Cofán native guide and stayed some time in the house of Atanasio, the oldest of the family.
Just like when we had pitched our mosquito nets in the community house of Cuyabeno, here again as we barely arrived and settled down in the community house of Zancudococha, a huge thunderstorm struck with a downpour for several hours and we were happily and safe under our zinc roof. After pushing around our luggage to avoid all the holes and drops from the roof, we started a “Jass” game which went on for hours until the rain stopped.
We hired our Kichwa guide Manuel who accompanied us for the next three days until we got to the little down of Tiputini on the Napo River.
The first day we walked for 2 ½ hours to the huge lake of Zancudococha, while our luggage arrived by paddle canoe, manned with a whole Kichwa family. With them we explored the lake and a small island in the middle and went fishing. We were the only ones on the lake…. until a huge Black Caiman got interested in us and we had to get away pretty fast… But a little further on, away of its eyesight, we were able to catch our dinner.
We camped along the lake shore and had different delicious fishes for dinner and breakfast, besides our traditional oat porridge…
Next morning the canoe returned back to the village and we stared our 35km hike through the forest to Tiputini. This time we made good progress, we could follow the path maintained by the military, who uses it to be in contact between the main station in Tiputini and the small control camp on the Aguarico River. In the afternoon we arrived on the small Cocaya River which had a very high water level after all the raining in the last three days. We hade to swim over to the other side, but how could we bring over our luggage without getting it soaked??? Luckily I had a long rope in my backpack and we constructed a lift over the river. After one hour all our backpacks were safely on the other side and we pitched up our camp again.
The next day we crossed for over one hour a swamp again, but since the path was cleared, it was easier to walk, even when we had the water above our knees.
Suddenly we got out on farmland and then followed the new road under construction to the abandoned air strip and then along the huge military camp until we got to the town of Tiputini at around 3pm. Already loud music was flaring out of the loudspeakers and in the shade, the first ones were drinking their cold beers. So we couldn’t stand behind, especially since it was my birthday and we ordered a box of beer as well. After the walk and the heat of the afternoon, we really enjoyed them! Later, Lucio arrived with our canoe to pick us up. He had followed the Aguarico downriver until its confluence with the Napo river, stayed two nights in the village Nuevo Rocafuerte and then came upriver to Tiputini to meet us again.
We travelled upriver in the search of a sandy beach but the water level was rising and all the beaches and banks were already under water. So we stopped by a Kichwa family and asked for their hospitality. We pitched our mosquito net inside their house and we could even use their kitchen, an open fire in a sandbox. Tired, before 8pm we were all in bed…
Passing the luggage over the river Cocaya
The next day we travelled the whole day up the Napo River against the strong current until we arrived after 7pm back to Coca, where we had started our adventure 14 days ago. On the way we slept for a while, observed the huge transporters, carrying lorries and pipes for the oil companies, the daily life of the Kichwa families and villages along the river and started again a long game of the famous “Jass”.
Once checked in, we enjoyed a long shower in the hotel and had a nice dinner in the restaurant, served without the smell of the fire and smoke that we had already so gotten used to…
During the meal, while tired and glad to be healthily back, we already started to plan our next trip, where could we go again for a 14 days trip? Where does a new adventure awaits us?
Franziska Müller
Naturalist Guide Kempery Tours
May 2008
Our camp while trekking
Teodoro Opening the path
Trekking
Black Caiman in Zancudococha lake
Sun rise in Zancudococha lake
Zancudococha lake
River Napo, getting closer to Coca
