Ecuador - could one of my top ten travel experiences be a noise?

How could a noise possibly feature in my top ten of travel experiences? Simply because the volume was totally unexpected. The unexpected in a good way is the travel scenario many of us live for. But before I elaborate, I first need to take you to the outer reaches of the Amazon basin to a place known as the Oriente in Ecuador. It may cover some twelve million hectares, but contributes just 2% to an environment in which many fear will one day disappear forever having a profound effect on the way the earth operates. A situation I suspect the earth has endured before but not at the hands of one of its own creations.

Riding along the Napo River was a real thrill, like one of those scenes in a movie where explorers travel by longboat to unknown parts. This river is actually one of the Amazon’s major tributaries being some 800 miles in length fed from the waters running off the slopes of the local volcanoes.

If visiting Ecuador and wanting a taste of the rainforest, Misahualli is a popular jump off point with guided tours and trips downriver. You learn about the different types of trees, the bromeliads clinging to the branches while butterflies flit past just stopping momentarily much to the frustration of photographers.

A giant moth rests on a tree trunk thinking it's invisible to the world while a worm castle suggests there is as much going on underground as on top.

The soil depth is actually pretty shallow and in true rain forest not much of the sunlight filters to the floor but there is still plenty of flora and fauna to find.

During the day it can be eerily quiet and if you want any chance of seeing any birdlife you are best off searching at daybreak or late afternoon when the temperatures cool and the birds tend to feed.

Of course, by its very name, expect rain! But is often restricted to an hour or so in the afternoon and can be intense, it’s all part of the rainforest experience. To be fair, this isn’t primary rainforest with most close to the river having been felled at some point, but for the likes of you and me you would never tell, Mother Nature soon grows back although we were told the definition of Primary and Secondary rainforest was the number of species of plants and trees found in a defined area.

Riding down the Napo you pass various settlements close to the river’s edge with stories of tribes only making contact with the outside world some seventy years ago and missionaries being murdered on the first contact. A group of villages pan for gold by the water’s edge, not enough to make it commercially worthwhile but anything helps in this place, life is hard. Maybe dreaming about El Dorado keeps people going?

Nowadays for the Quichuans, most of the men work away leaving the families in their stilt houses. A visit to a local family will no doubt lead to a demonstration of how 'chicha' is prepared, a saliva fermented yuca drink. You will probably taste it just once so can cross it off your to-do list!

So back to that noise, our trip from Baños saw us arrive in the evening to the jungle lodge, the minibus doors open and suddenly you are hit by a cacophony of sound and it’s so loud, a mixture of frogs, cicadas, birds you name it. It really was incredible. I left my lodge room light on overnight as loved waking up in the morning to see what had been attracted.

To get a flavour of the noise, take a listen to the following which is an actual recording I took on the night.