Just after Christmas, we headed off to the tropics, this time to the rainforest of the Amazonas region of eastern Ecuador. We travelled with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT), accompanied by guides Victor Emanuel and Peter English, with whom we had travelled to Belize for New Year’s 1996.  From the capital of Quito (at approx 10000 ft elevation) we flew east about an hour to Coca, capital of the Amazonas province.  Then we had a boat ride down the Rio Napo (which flows eventually into the Amazon), a truck ride along an oil company road, and another boat ride down the Rio Tiputini to the Tiputini Biodiversity Station.  After several days there (Liza intermittently terrified by giant cockroaches), it was off to the Sacha Lodge – via boat, truck, another boat, a muddy walk, and a canoe ride. Click here to read more about it!