Fri 24 Feb 2012.

Left hotel at 8.30. Did not have tickets for us until after everyone else, so a little anxious. Flight left 30 minutes late at 11.30. Lunch in Coco was disappointing – poor packed lunch with not enough seats for everyone. The 2-hour river trip was lovely but a bit too fast and noisy for enjoyment. Got stung by soldier ant on my knee while standing on the walkway listening to instructions from the guide from Sacha. The 20 minute walk was fascinating but a little hurried, the 6-man canoe ride across the lake was wonderful, peaceful and calming. Again, the staff at Sacha did not know about Jan and myself, but allowed us to use the Smith’s room!!! As we were a group of 14, with the majority wanting general all-round activities and only 3 wanting specialist bird-watching activities, we were told to sort ourselves out and split into 2 groups of 7 !!! Not what we had expected or wanted for the price we had paid!! We ended up as a group of 8 and one of 6. Jan and I ended up with Martin and the “camera crew”. Martin – great. Camera crew – enough said!!! My group went first to the butterfly breeding centre and later for a walk in the dark (with torches) where we saw several tarantula spiders, tree frogs, stick insects, crickets etc. The spiders were all round the butterfly house, trying to get in to eat the pupae. The cabins at Sacha are great. There are no windows, just fly netting to keep the insects out and a large veranda complete with hammock, As we were cabin 26 (the last one on the camp) we had a great view into the forest and could hear the howler monkeys, birds, cicadas etc. We even had an aguti and 2 small aguchis walking past the veranda (they are like large cats but look more like rats).

First to board the canoes to take us to Sacha Lodge after the 2-hr covered, motorised canoe ride down the Napa River

One of the many butterflies in the butterfly farm at Sacha - they breed and export pupae to all parts of the world. They also grow the food plants for their butterflies. This is apparently one of the largest butterfly farms in S. America

A small tree frog seen on our night walk into the forest, just before he jumped!! The noise they make far outweighs their size!!

A tarrantula spider trying to get into the butterfly farm to eat the pupae - he was about the size of the palm of my hand (no I did not put him on my hand to judge his size!). We saw 3 different tarrantulas on our night walk into the forest.