Although we already spent some time in the rainforest in Bolivia, we just hadn't had enough. So we sought out some more jungle adventures in Ecuador. Although there are many different rainforest regions in Ecuador one region in particular caught out interest, the Yasuni. There were two driving forces for our visit to the Yasuni, first that it is one of the most bio-diverse regions of the world and second that it may not exist much longer as the government is opening it up for oil exploration (link below).

The lodge we chose, Suni Eco Lodge is community run, so it is fully staffed and run by the Kichwa people. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and when he wasn't identifying birds or monkeys by their calls or finding frogs where we just saw leaves, he was regaling us with stories of going out hunting with his dad and using a blow gun and spears, or the time he watched a jaguar catch a monkey and toy with it a bit before eating it. It was a wonderful and relaxing experience. We hiked during the day, we hiked at night, we slept in a tent in the middle of the jungle and appreciated how much live can be sustained by just one square foot of the jungle.

Click on the photo to see the captions.
News article talking about Oil Exploration in the Yasuni region -
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/125-yasuni-national-park/wallace-text
Check out this video of the zombie ant fungus - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8



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