December 13:

We went to bed between 4 and 5 and woke up again at 8:30. Thankfully all of us were feeling pretty good. We had breakfast at the hotel.




A nice little buffet with waffles, sausage, eggs, yogurt, and some fresh fruit including a couple interesting things like taxo and guava.

We explored the grounds at our hotel and a pretty nice playground.
  
I'd booked this hotel knowing we wanted a buffer day that we could do just about nothing if we wanted. So it was attractive that this hotel had a pool and sprawling property with gardens, hammocks, playground, and even some animals to check out.
The playground included a zipline and a little playhouse where Hamish and Manimal pretended to be all sorts of characters.

After a while we went in to change into regular clothes and then decided to take a walk down the Chaquinan Trail, a disused railroad track.
  

We set out thinking we might just stroll a bit but decided to carry on into the small town of Puembo (15 min walk for normal people, 30 minutes with ours). We passed farm fields and one bull that may or may not have been tied to anything.
  
nice bull, nice bull.
View toward Quito:

Using the power of google maps, we found a restaurant (mi Refugio de puembo) and ordered their set lunch for $2.50 apiece, including soup, chicken, vegetables, rice, juice (cranberry guava), and an ice cream treat for the kids.



It was very good!

We tried for a minute to figure out how to catch the bus back (we'd seen it go by walking in), but my efforts at communicating on the street with a couple of locals got us nowhere. In retrospect I have no idea what they thought I was asking or what they thought they were answering. I think one showed me a phone number for the police... So we hailed a cab when we saw one so we could get to our nap time. Nap was a Disaster, frustrating everyone. But this is vacation. So out to the playground we went, fighting to hang on until the restaurant opened at 7. We then put the kids to bed one at a time. We relaxed just a few minutes before we also crashed.

December 14, Into the Jungle:
Everyone slept well and late. We had to wake Hamish up at 8. Downstairs for breakfast, and then the kids watched Spanish cartoons while we wrapped up the jungle packing. We left two suitcases with the hotel and had gone to a decent amount of effort in our packing such that minimal repacking occurred at this stage.

On we went back to the Quito airport. The La Selva jungle lodge staff met us with boarding passes and checked our bag (how, exactly this is possible, we do not know, but man it was nice). Our original flight had actually been canceled just the night before, but we were booked on a later flight, and I was happy for the delay when my stomach was a little unsure first thing in the morning. The flight to Coca was easy and uneventful. We decided pre-trip that if we were actively traveling, most anything goes. Each kid got an old iPhone loaded up with some daniel tiger, Dora, Veggie Tales, and some very basic games.


We met our guide, Dan, at the airport, and took his van to a local office where we left bags. He then took us to a local hotel for lunch (another simple buffet with mostly chicken, rice, and plantains, though I had some babaco juice that was pretty tasty). We went back to office and then walked around the corner to the dock. It started raining as we boarded a motorized canoe.

From here, we took a 2.5 hour ride down the Napo. Manimal slept for an hour and a half. Hamish napped for about 45 minutes. It rained on us for the first 45 or so, during which we bundled under large provided ponchos.

The Napo, for what it is worth, is a giant river.
We spent the whole trip zipping back and forth across it, though, rather than cutting a straight path, presumably following known channels. But the Napo is just a tiny little feeder into the monstrous Amazon river. You can't even see it on this map.
Enhance!


So we only went about 2.5 hrs downriver to reach near that white dot right on the Yasuní national reserve. A good day or two more of traveling and we could have just *reached* the Amazon river around Iquitos in Peru. Then you can ride it all the way East to the Atlantic. I think it would take a while.

Anyway, we reached our destination. There was a short walk from the motor canoe across a spit of land to a creek. Then, we boarded a quiet, man-powered canoe and rode up the creek into the lake and onto La Selva.


We arrived about 5 p.m. to welcome drinks (tamarind juice) and a quick orientation. Then we were shown our rooms.

 

Our rooms were minimal, simple, but very nice and comfortable. The whole building only had partial walls, with screened portions and curtains making up remainders. There was no actual door, only a curtain at the entrance. But the porch had a nice hammock and a large soaking tub.
  



We had plenty of electricity and fans, but no air con. Running hot water, safe to bathe in, but not potable (actually came out kind of muddy looking, making the bath a little less appealing). Oh, and of course there was wi-fi.

We met Dan about 6 for an evening canoe ride around the lake.


We saw squirrel monkeys, a baby boa, various birds, and cayman eyes. We returned for dinner and then put the kids to bed one at a time. Everyone was beat and slept happily. Well, the kids crashed easy at least. Alli and I took a little while between the ambient ~75 degrees and high humidity and intermittent coughing as we tried to shake the last of the colds we carried with. I think we both agreed that it seemed maybe we wouldn't sleep early on, but noticed it was only 1 a.m. when we thought the sun would rise any second and slept well thereafter.