Ecuador Amazon Basin Tours and Trip Extensions

Day 1
Your journey into the Amazon jungle starts in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, where you will take a 30-minute flight to the jungle town of Coca. You will enjoy amazing views of snow covered mountains and volcanoes and the endless green expanse of the rainforest as you begin your descent into the Amazon. At Coca airport, you will be greeted by your Yachana guide and transported on a quaint open-sided wooden-benched little bus to the river port. You will board our covered and comfortable motorized canoe for the three tour trip up river. A box lunch will be served and life vests are provided so you can fully relax and enjoy your ride along one of the largest tributaries of the legendary Amazon river. At Yachana Lodge you will receive a warm welcome with hot face towels, drinks and snacks and a talk by your guide introducing you to Yachana Lodge facilities. Alter you have rested your guide will take you on a short hike to a spectacular high viewpoint where you can see the splendour of the rainforest reach out as far as the eye can see in every direction and you will watch the first of several beautiful Amazon sunsets. On clear days you can even see the snow-clad Gran Sumaco volcano rising up in the distance.

Day 2
Your guide will lead you on an amazing journey into the rainforest where he will explain the medicinal and cultural uses of various plants and amaze you with the diversity of birds and animals that inhabit the rainforest he calls home. This is truly a wonderful and fascinating experience for all the senses accompanied always by the sounds of the jungle orchestra! Visit the Butterfly House on your return to the Lodge where you can learn about the fragile symbiosis between the species and the plants they rely on to survive. In the afternoon there will be a visit to the thatched home of a traditional healer where you will take part in a traditional cleansing ceremony and learn to practice your skills at using a blowgun and spear. Take a night walk with your guide and discover a very different side of the forest. On this walk, you will experience the insects, amphibians, reptiles and other animals that only come out at night and your ears and eyes will quickly start to notice sights and sounds that which you would never have noticed without your guide's acute senses showing you how.

Day 3
Go bird watching before breakfast to an island upriver and see over 30 species of birds in one hour! Visit a lagoon down river and go on a hike in search of the endemic hoatzin, a large prehistoric-like bird only found in select areas of the Amazon. Visit Yachana High School and take a tour of the campus including a permaculture and organic farm. Interact with the students who are learning to be the next generation's community leaders. This visit will give you a chance to find out first-hand how meaningful education is making a difference in the lives of many young people from the Amazon region. Take part in a cooking class before lunch with our Yachana chefs showing how to cook wrapped fish over an open fire and other delicacies straight from the forest. Eat this lunch traditional on banana leaves followed by a delectable Amazon desert. In the afternoon learn about the traditional making of highly decorated ceramic bowls called mocaua from an indigenous girl from the local community and then learn how to make a natural fiber basket from a freshly cut rainforest plant. Watch a stunning sunset before dinner and stargaze from our fabulous riverside deck after dinner. Catch a Yachana DVD about the work of the Yachana Foundation and sample taste our very own Yachana chocolate!!

Day 4
Have a hearty breakfast and travel by canoe downstream from Yachana to Coca with your guide who will accompany you to the airport where you will catch your flight back to Quito. Greet & meet in Quito, transfer to your charming inn, overnight and evening meal at the inn in Quito.

NOTE: The last night stay of this tour takes places in Quito after you return from the Amazon Basin.

Activities
A typical day at Sacha begins at sunrise or earlier, in order to take advantage of the cool morning hours when the rainforest's animals are most active. Each group may decide on its own wake-up and breakfast time, as well as the difficulty and duration of their morning outings. In the afternoon, visits begin at around 3:00 and often continue into the evening, when the nocturnal insect and frog chorus begins.
Wherever the destination, our excursions proceed slowly in order to appreciate the fascinating details that our guides point out around you.
Activities are spread out over a wide area and allow visitors to explore several distinct but equally fascinating habitats. Several trails lead through pristine terra firme forest, where 150 foot kapok trees tower above and roots form huge buttresses to give trees support. Others follow strategically raised boardwalks in seasonally flooded forests, where walking on the ground would be nearly impossible during most of the year due to groundwater. One trail many choose to follow even leads across fallen tree trunks and a steel cable zip-line through rich swampland!
A favourite activity of our guests is to paddle dugout canoes along tannin-rich black-water creeks and lakes, where luxuriant lianas, orchids, bromeliads and palm trees thrive. And wherever an outing may lead the possibilities of spotting animals, from the tiny pygmy marmoset to the feared ocelot or puma, are endless.
During free time at the lodge, swimming and piranha fishing are also activities not to be missed but do not worry! Piranhas are scavengers and the guides will prove that swimming is perfectly safe.
For adventurous souls, the day does not necessarily end with dinner. Night walks and canoe trips, with the aid of flashlights, often reveal creatures seldom seen during daylight. Caimans (of the alligator family) and giant insects rule the jungle after sunset. Do you dare search for them?

Wildlife
Anyone who has ever planned to visit the rainforest has at least once asked: "What animals will I see there?" There is an incredibly high diversity of species found around Sacha Lodge, and we are sure that you will have the opportunity to see many fascinating creatures here. However, the wild is unpredictable and no two visits are ever the same! Monkeys are seen quite frequently, but how many of the 8 species found here will cross your path? They range in size from the tiny half-pound pygmy marmoset to the noisy 17-pound red howler monkey, and night monkeys can be found in groups as small as 2 while squirrel monkeys can travel in groups of more than 150. Besides monkeys, there may be as many as 60 other species of mammals within our reserve (not including up to 50 species of bats)! So keep your eyes open, and maybe you'll spot an anteater, a 3-toed sloth, or even an ocelot as you explore their natural habitat.
As for reptiles, be sure take advantage of our night activities to look for one of Pilchicocha's resident spectacled caimans. Members of the alligator family, caimans are often seen from canoes out on the lake, and sometimes the babies even come to hide under our dining room! A variety of lizards and snakes can also be found along our trails, if you move quietly and keep your eyes peeled. Several different boas, vine snakes and even the giant anaconda have been seen during many of our excursions. There are a few poisonous snakes as well, but not to worry – they try to stay out of peoples' way and no one has ever been bitten here.
Frogs, on the other hand, are much more common to see, from bulgy-eyed tree frogs to camouflaged leaf frogs to tiny colourful poison-dart frogs. So watch your step, day or night! And then, of course, there are birds.

In recent years Sacha Lodge has become a favourite destination of both professional and amateur ornithologists.

So far there have been an incredible 587 different species of birds found here! This is a staggering number, especially if you consider that approximately 900 species have been registered in the entire continental United States and Canada. In only 4 or 5 days, it is not uncommon for even the most casual birder to see over 250 species here. With only minimal effort you can expect to see dozens of colourful parrots, toucans, hummingbirds, tanagers, hawks and oropendolas, and of course there are plenty of elusive LBJs (little brown jobs, of course) to keep the avid bird enthusiasts occupied for days. Our guides will carry telescopes along to bring your birdwatching experience close-up, and be sure to keep your binoculars handy at all times!

NOTE: The last night stay of this tour takes places in Quito after you return from the Amazon Basin.

Day 1: Quito - Lago Agrio - Rió Cuyabeno - Laguna Grande
Fly over the Andes to the oil town of Lago Agrio. Continue by private transportation to the entrance of the Cuyabeno Reserve in the Bridge of the Cuyabeno River. Load your luggage onto a dugout-motorized canoe and follow the winding Cuyabeno River to Laguna Grande, the largest lagoon in the Cuyabeno reserve, the site of the Cuyabeno Lodge.

Day 2: Explore the Flooded forest via foot and canoe
Rise at dawn to birdwatch before breakfast and spot river dolphins. After breakfast a trek through terra firma forest with your naturalist guide to explore plants and wildlife. Your guide will teach you about the forest and medicinal plants and local folklore. After lunch and a siesta you will take a trip by dugout canoe to the flooded igapo with macrolobium trees covered with abundant epiphytes to spot the active monkeys and birds in the afternoon.

Day 3: Cuyabeno exploration
After breakfast journey down the Cuyabeno river followed by a short trek through terra firma to reach the Siona village with picnic lunch served by our cook. You will return to the lodge late afternoon for a siesta or a refreshing swim in Laguna Grande. After dinner, a nocturnal excursion to spot caiman and nocturnal birds.

Day 4: Cuyabeno – Lago Agrio – Quito
Following an early breakfast journey up the river to the bridge where our vehicle will take you back to Lago Agrio. We will accompany you to the airport where you will catch your flight back to Quito. Greet & meet in Quito, transfer to your charming inn, overnight and evening meal at the inn in Quito.

NOTE: The last night stay of this tour takes places in Quito after you return from the Amazon Basin.