A Visit to the Yachana Lodge

On Easter Sunday, a trip to the Yachana Lodge) had been arranged (the Yachana Foundation is GVI Amazon’s in-country partner). We all put on our orange lifejackets and met up at port. The canoe was on time for once, and the ride was a pretty strange sensation, with the sun and the nice weather in the back, and the big gray rain clouds in ahead of us. To the sound of thunder, we walked up the trail to the lodge, and once we got the “Drunken parrot” bar, we were all very excited about the milkshakes in different exotic flavors. While I had mine with passion fruit, I admired the tarantulas in the ceiling, the fabulous view and the parrot that had given the bar it’s name.

Hugh, an American working at the lodge, gave us a talk about the Yachana Foundation, and explained to us the importance of the work that GVI and the volunteers, we, do. It was slightly amusing to look around at the individuals of our group, that originally chose to do this for fun or for the experience, and see them suddenly realizing the part that each and every one of us play in the conservation of this area. After this interesting talk we got to meet the founder, Douglas from Kentucky, and we visited the butterfly house with all the owl-butterflies and other beautifully colored butterflies. It was a different, but nice, way to spend Easter Sunday.

Berglind Karlsdottir, GVI Amazon volunteer, April - May 2011

A Visit to the Yachana Lodge