WHILE YOU'RE IN ECUADOR (June 2000, vol. 22 #5)

Traveling to the Galapagos Islands is not exactly like going down to the neighborhood convenience store for a quart of milk. So, if you're going to spend six or seven hours crammed into the back of an airplane, you should allow for enough time to visit Ecuador's tropical rain forests as well.
In March of last year we had the good fortune to hook up with an Ecuadorian company, Canodros S.A., which offers both experiences.
First we had a four night cruise aboard the newly refurbished Galapagos Explorer II. The accommodations, the food, and the service were peerless. The instruction about matters pertaining to our comfort and safety were thorough. The articulation before each of our twice-daily trips ashore to various island sites was excellent as was the knowledge and courtesy of the resident naturalist/guides. We encountered many groups such as ours from the Explorer II, all were enjoying and photographing - but not disturbing - the unique habitat and inhabitants of the Galapagos.
We did not, on the other hand, encounter many tourists on the second part of our trip.
We left Quito aboard a 12 -passenger Cessna and flew southeast across the Andes to land on a short grass strip close to the Capahuari River. We traded places with a group of departing -guests: they expressing envy as they climbed into the Cessna - that we still had the experience before us - and we waving goodbye to them before we clambered down the long stairway from the airfield to the river.
A small party of men waited there to welcome us. They were Achuar, the people indigenous to this region. The hour-and-a-half transport in their several motorized dugout canoes made for an effective mental and physical transition to the remote Kapawi Ecological Reserve. Clusters of white-winged swallows flushed from low branches that extended over the water. We passed under raucous nesting communities of russet-backed oropendolas and yellow-rumped caciques. Red-capped cardinals, in a crisp red, black, and white attire, called "little soldiers" or soldaditos in local Spanish appeared in trees along the bank. But there was sparse evidence of human activity.
All along the way, Ruben, the Achuar guide in our canoe, called out the names of trees, pointed to a plumbeous kite drifting above, identified the calls of the monkeys and the thrashing of a peccary in the vegetation on the bank, and saluted a brigade of blue and yellow macaws passing overhead. The indigenous people know and value the identities and the interconnectedness of all life in their environs.
Time passed quickly as we motored along, slipping through alternate zones of clamorous activity and dreamy tranquility. We modeled our voices to suit.
Before we knew it we were approaching the landing docks of the Kapawi complex.