Lago Agrio and to Cuyabeno Lodge

I did not take a bus ride to the distant Terminal Terrestre de Carcelén bus terminal in Quito. Trying my luck for the third time a day could have been two much: 4 blocks walking in the dark streets of empty neighborhoods and catching two buses on Sunday evening.. I took a taxi in the end. Being rushed to make sure I get a sit in the last evening bus, I arrived at the station way early and had to spend marvelous 4 hrs waiting for departure. I was told the terminal had all the amenities, but having arrived and checked.. all it was, was a row of food carts and a row of shopping carts in the open air, couple of benches on the side and gate entries to two bus platforms. I walked around the terminal to make sure I wasn't missing any of the promised buzz, but nope, there was none. So I plopped myself on a high chair of one of the friendlier looking vendors and shared next 4 hours with them.

Terminal Terrestre de Carcelén at night.

After small 30 minutes I was already uncomfortable and awkward. I managed to order a hot tea - which always meets a surprised faces as people in Ecuador do not regard tea drinking much. They indulge on coffee all day long, and on soda pop. Every time I was ordering a tea I had to repeat myself several times as they were not sure. What is funny, even though Spanish dictionary says a tea is simple un té, or té negro (black tea) this does not get you anywhere in Ecuador. You must specify that you want AROMATICAS and then it is all easy. Which is funny because it is a herbal tea. But you can take it from there and then say that you want a black tea. This way they will understand you easier.

Phone cabin, imagine that!

Surprisingly business is not bad for them, during my waiting time there were around 20 customers having meals and I was observing meal preparation and serving from the front line. The lady (single person operation) was very efficient and organized, as she had to be for such a limited space inside the food cart.

Last civilization point before jumping in a boat and take the river down to Cuyabeno Lodge.

I was hoping the bus would be at least as good as the Asian night buses. Well almost. The sits are practically not reclining and there are no "sleeper sits" at all. That bus stopped one time and picked up 4 local ladies (middle of the night 2 am around mind you), they were full of chatter and laughter and smelled of onions so badly that at first I thought they brought hot food on the bus. But no it was just their natural odor.. I am used to all kinds of smells and normally it does not disturb me so much. But this time it was something else, I had to put a jacket over my head and ear plugs with music on to be able to close my eyes and pretend to be sleeping.
They got off after 3 am and I was full of hope of another 3 hrs of "comfortable" sleeping. To my surprise the bus stopped at 4:30 am and we were told that we reached Lago Agrio. What?! It was not supposed to be for another 2 hrs!

Don't you just love the anxious bus drivers who drive frantically through the night over the mountains to get you in your landing spot 2 hrs before the time in the middle of the night practically?

Another short taxi ride to the main street in Lago Agrio and waiting 90 minutes on a bench across from the Hotel d'Mario, which was a meeting point for Cuyabeno bus driver.

Hotel d'Mario is THE destination in Lago Agrio. It serves as a major toursitic hub. All of the agencies are coming/ going from here.

<< flight delay for the remaining people, tour around Lago and confirmation that there is virtually nothing interesting around that place, other then it being a connection hub to jungle lodges. 2 hrs on a bus, and a boat trip>>


The trip to the Cuyabeno Lodge itself was already something. Having a perspective now, I was lucky to be there with relatively small crowd and in a low touristic season. The river itself gets as busy as a motorway, boats passing buy taking tourists out, boats following taking tourists in. It is true what they say that the Northern Oriente is the most developed in Ecuador.
The Cuyabeno Lodge project was started in early 1990, the guest book goes back to 1998 with the first signature being from a French man.
I reviewed the book and interestingly majority of the guests were US, followed by British, Canadian, German. The least signed guests were from places like China, India, Japan, not many South American guests either, Ecuadorians started to visit the place only in the recent years and this is probably mostly scientists groups or university classes (biology students and such). I could not stop my self from counting Polish visitors and the stats are interesting; <<more to follow>>