Our Amazon adventures - Sacha Lodge - Life as a naturalist guide

Que tal everyone! Hows sunny SA??! Well, we´re FINALLY on vacation again, got back to quito about an hour ago. Had a REALLY eventful time at Sacha, seen loads of new things and guiding is really going great! Had quite a lot of rain at sacha these past few days, its all flooded underneath the boardwalks (see photos), and some of the trails are just a huge mess with all the mud!!! But that just adds to the fun! Anyway, I had to do a transfer to the fetch new guests from the airport in coca a couple of days ago, and the rain decided to really come down in full force as soon as we got onto the motorised canoe. As a result, we (all the tourists and me) got totally soaked, but i suppose they dont call it the rainforest for nothing! Anyway, when we eventually got to coca that morning, we found out that the plane had been delayed cos of the rain, so the tourists couldnt get back home to Quito until 4pm that afternoon(instead of noon!), so we had a lot of unhappy people!!! We had to sit in coca for over 4 hours waiting for the plane, sacha even had to buy the guests lunch at a nearby hotel.The new guests finally arrived at coca at about 4:30pm, and so we just made it back to the lodge in time before it got dark, luckily! Quite an experience! Well, weve got a couple new guides at the lodge now, all american... Seth, Josh and Jeff. Josh is that guy we went to banos with us before i started my spanish course. We ve had quite a few problems with staff this time around unfortunately...Ulla (the only other girl guide..austrian) is getting really bad comment cards so theyre gonna get rid of her soon. Her boyfriend ..pedro (portuguese) keeps complaining about everything so it looks like hes getting fired too. He even went to the office and complained to helmut (the manager) about Ulla´s bad comment cards! Crazy. Rich really doesnt like pedro, hes a really weird looking guy, tucks the bottom of his pants into his socks!!!! This other american guide, damian, is also getting fired. He went and told his one guest that she couldnt go to the parrot lick cos the lodge was short of a canoe!! (instead of just saying the weather was bad!)..so she started crying and ran to helmut to complain..helmut freaked as u can imagine! Anyway, we got the new guides now, so its not a big deal. My comment cards are still doing great..getting excellents and goods..of course, rich always gets all "excellents"! Tips have also been going well..i almost managed to double my salary with my tips, so im really happy about that. Richs tips have also been great, as expected, but we have had a lot of british people who dont tip well unfortunately..the americans are the best with tipping. Well, i had 5 groups this time around..my first group was three middle-aged couples..2 from england and one from america. It was hilarious cos the american couple was an old man of 76 years old, and his wife, a 41 year old! And can u believe it..they were at sacha on honeymoon..just got married 2 days before they came!!! Quite a strange setup, but they were really nice..all of the three couples were really great, very friendly and excited to see everything. My next group was not that great..2 young women from singapore and a couple from scotland. The scottish couple was a bit weird, really looked like they had had a really hard life, but i got a pretty good tip from them which i NEVA expected. Anyway, the group was a bit weird cos none of them were really talkative which made things a little uncomfortable! I made the women from singapore write in the guestbook in chinese!!!! So now we have hebrew and chinese in the guestbook! The next group i had was two REALLY old couples from the uk. The one couple was ok, but the other woman drove me BATTY for 3 days...moaning and complaining about every little thing!!! Some of the comments she made u would actually never believe..like "You are GOING to show me EVERYTHING before i leave!". I tried to remind her that the jungle is not a zoo! Anyway, she even moaned cos she said the other woman in the group was going to slow her down on the trails(cos the other woman had just had a hip operation) ..so she wanted to change groups and go with a younger couple! So the first day i really went speedy on the trails to try and prove a point..and can u beleive it, it was the moaning woman that couldnt keep up! I had a good laugh! But i tried my best to show her everything anyway, showed her eveything that moved, told her all the bird calls, plants etc ..and it paid off cos in the end, all she could do was tell all the guests around the lodge what a great guide she had!!! Some people i will never understand! After that group, i got a really nice group..a couple from denmark and a couple from switzerland..all scuba divers. they were really nice...especially cos they knew NOTHING about the jungle so my job was easy...they found all the details about the jungle interesting which was great. It really makes a difference when u can see people are enjoying themselves, sometimes u even forget that u r actually their guide!! But my last group was the best..a couple who were on honeymoon from the netherlands and an american couple. they were quite young which was great. Richs groups have been quite interesting too..in his last group he had an old lesbian couple..can u imagine the comments!!! the one woman in the couple was a real complainer..even told him on one of the trails that she was bored so the native guide took her back to the lodge! She even went to the barman on the last night and complained that she had a "damp" sock..yes, ONE damp sock..and could he please dry it for her before she went to bed!!! Some people!!! She even bought her own cereal for breakfast..crazy!!! U really wouldnt believe how crazy some of these tourists are ..like some of them actually expect to see gorillas in the jungle! Rich also got a VIP American couple..the guys hand swelled up on the first day from some insect bite and he was convinced he was going to die..sacha had to organise a doctor for him to be waiting at the airport when he got back to quito. So, as a result, he missed out on most of the walks, and on the last day, even asked me if anyone had died at the lodge from any tropical diseases (and he was being serious!!!). I had to try my best not to laugh!!! When i told him no, his wife piped up and said " well, people probably have died but they probably just keep it quiet to stop bad publicity." I nearly died when she said that! Anyway, they were really rich, couldnt stop talking about their restaurant in the Bahamas that was voted 7th best in the world..but they left a really great tip for rich and couldnt stop raving about what a great guide he had been.Rich also had a british couple who were just really weird..pulled their socks up to their knees! He also had two english couples for his one group who kept him out till 2am the morning buying him every cocktail you can imagine at the bar. Its actuallly amazing how many drinks you can have at the bar in the 3 weeks u work at the lodge, while still having an empty bar bill, cos its always the guests buying u drinks, which is great. I have finally tasted the three milk tart, really great, as are all of the puddings at sacha. I also managed to see my first two toed sloth..sitting at the top of a palm tree in a little hairy ball..very cute. I also got to see a whole group of coati mundis on one of the trails..quite a rare siting so i was really lucky!!! So, just to summarise, these are the animals i have seen so far..capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, pygmy marmosets, blackmantled tamarins, squirrel monkeys, dusky titi monkeys, three toed sloth (which reminds me i got to see two on one canoe ride the one day..one moving SLOWLY across the one branch..GREAT to watch..almost fell out of the canoe trying to show my guests!) , two toed sloth, coati mundis, night monkeys (with their white eyebrows..very cute!), kinkajous (related to racoon family), olingo, opossums, rainbow boa, garden boa (one which lives in the roof of the bar!!! see photos!), a false coral snake, chonta snake, smoky jungle frog (HUGE!), poison dart frogs (loads of them!), many different species of tree frogs, caimen (smallish crocodiles), hoatzins (huge birds that live on the side of the lake) and of course loads of tarantulas and pirahnas!!! Which reminds me..i finally caught my first pirahna..and a big one too!!!! Took a photo so u could see. The one night on the night canoe ride with one of my groups..we managed to get right up close to a caimen..i could have touched it!!!Its head was sticking out of the water and you could see the rest of its body lying just below the surface..just as we came near..it slowly tilted its head to go under the water..got a PERFECT view of its teeth ..and it even blew bubbles as it went under the water...REALLY freaky..but great! As u can imagine, my guests refused to go swimming in the lake after that, especially after we went pirahna fishing the next day! The night canoe rides are my favourite..its really great when its full moon and all the stars are out and we just silently float around the lake looking for caimen..really pretty, the guests love it too. Guiding is really going well, im really enjoying it now that i have learnt enough to do a good job. Im still battling to learn all the birds and of course their calls are really difficult, but everyday i learn something new, especially having the native guides around. My spanish is moving REALLY slowly, but i know enough to communicate with the native guides and translate what they say, so now Im just taking it easy. I have to say that the only time when the guiding is not fun, is when your guests are not the greatest..then guiding is really difficult!!!(As rich will tell you too!!). Rich is also doing well, hes become really interested in frogs and snakes, so he is really enjoying the night walks even more. He takes the camera with him everywhere to try and get some good macro (close up) shots...and he has really got some good ones! We went to a frog expo yesterday at the universidad catolica here is quito..saw some really cool frogs..blue ones, bright red ones, luminous ones..and also this one frog that is so venomous that one frog can kill 100 humans!!! scary! So that was really fun! Today it is nice and sunny in quito, its been raining since we got here. Spent the whole day yesterday just doing odds and ends..catching up on emailing etc. Today we are going to Mitad del mundo..the centre of the world (a town on the equator) for the afternoon..hopefully get some photos and postcards to send back. there is apparently a nice restaurant there that serves a buffet of typical ecuadorian food, so we re gonna try it out. Tomorrow its off to Papallacta (say papayucta)..the thermal baths up near the volcanoes..cant wait!!! then we re probably off to mindo ( a nature reserve), to hopefully see this really cool bird..called "cock of the rock"! Then to a place near Bellavista (say beyavista) cloud forest where there are hundreds of different types of hummingbirds, and then possibly to Yanacocha, another biological reserve.Really great to be on vacation to get a chance to do all these things..will tell u all about these places when we get back at the end of the week..going back to Sacha on the 22nd feb(monday). Well, i hope that everyone is doing great, been GREAT getting all the emails, nice to hear whats going on in other parts of the world!!! Hope that everyone has a great valentines day and survives the heat of february! Will be in touch again soon! Take care, Hasta luego (until then!) Chao! Lots of love, us:-) PS hope u guys enjoy the photos..there are lots there of the parrots at the parrot lick and also some of the lodge ..the walkways, the sundeck, the butterfly farm, pirahnas etc..so enjoy!

Guiding at Sacha Lodge