Hallo, welcome to
the
PARKS AND TRIBES website about
national parks eco-tours
in Ecuador. Let us you tell more about the
fantastic national parks of Ecuador, that no travel agent will ever tell
you. Why? Very simple, because they have no idea, as no travel agent in
Ecuador knows more than 3 or 4 parks at best, they simply have no idea what
the parks system of Ecuador has to offer. We on the other hand know almost all
51 fo them.
How is that possible you ask?
BECAUSE WE WERE PART OF THE TEAM THAT SELECTED THE AREAS TO THE NATIONAL PARKS
SYSTEM!
OUR PARKS AND TRIBES ECO TOURS
(Scroll down for the full description of the current page)
STANDARD COFAN LODGE TOUR
Start your Cuyabeno
journey on
Ecuador's most scenic wide Amazon tributary, the Aguarico River. Spend 3 nights in the Cofan Lodge,
exploring the lower Cuyabeno and Zábalo Rivers.
The Cuyabeno Loop explores
the breathtaking scenery of lower Cuyabeno and Zábalo
Rivers and the Cuyabeno Lake. Watch the amazing birds and
wildlife. Pass 2 nights with the amazing Cofan Indians in
the Cofan Lodge and enjoy 2 nights of comfort in the famous
Cuyabeno Lodge.
The Lagarto Cocha Expedition on hidden
creeks and lakes is the best Amazon journey in Ecuador!
Discover Indian tribes in Ecuador, Monkeys, Sloths,
Dolphins. No other Amazon rainforest in any of the
Amazon-Andean countries can match the wildlife viewing
of Cuyabeno and it is far better than Yasuní!
The Cuyabeno Lake Program
explores all the wild places surrounding the Cuyabeno Lake.
Bonsai-shaped Macrolobia trees with the whispering of the
mysterious prehistoric Hoatzin birds and the noisy Blue and
Yellow Macaws. Our Cuyabeno Lodge is on the best location,
because we were the first and chose the best location on a
seasonal island in the Cuyabeno Lake itself.
Our Northern Andes Tour lets you get a
taste of some of the best Andean National Parks,
visiting the highest groves in the world: the Polylepis
trees, the highest mountain in the world calculated from
the center of the Earth, the Chimborazo with Vecuñas and
Lamas, the highest active volcano in the world, the
Cotopaxi.
Our National Parks Tours take you on a fantastic
journey along the best possible sample of Andean and coastal
parks. They have been designed to complement
Galapagos and/or Amazon cruises. They can start from different places, particularly Quito,
Guayaquil and Cuenca. While the full program lasts 9 days, it is possible to
make a limited selection of parks, like the 6 days' "Andes
and Coast" module.
We have a fabulous selection of Galapagos
programs, including cruises, island hopping, scuba
diving or relaxing on one of the many different hotels
varying from modest inns to deluxe resorts.
A fabulous program for visiting the most
famous cultural highlights Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu and the
Sacred Valley. At the same time it serves as the Lima hub
for the Peru National Parks Tour. This module is an
extension to our National Parks Tour Ecuador and/or Galapagos National Park
and/or Amazon Cruises.
We are
Dr. Flavio Coello, former director of the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve and current
professor or ecotourism and national parks management, Dr. Randy Borman,
official member
of the Cofan Tribe and Dr. Daan Vreugdenhil, aka the "Parks Man",
member of the former United Nations team that selected the National Parks
System of Ecuador. Nobody knows the
national parks and reserves of Ecuador better than we do.
Ecuador's National Parks System
Let us tell you a bit more about the parks and nature reserves of Ecuador:
Ecuador has some of the richest national parks systems in the world, with the
greatest varieties on earth in
climate
zones of Ecuador, landscapes and species of
native animals of Ecuador and
flowers of Ecuador.
In other words, Ecuador is the most biodiverse country in the
world calculated per square kilometer. And yet........ hardly anybody
visits the national parks. So we decided to
develop different National Parks Eco Tours Ecuador representing the highlights of
Ecuador's national parks system.
Rising to the
highest parking lot in the world: the 1st mountain shelter in
Chimborazo Park at
4800m.
More and more national parks
in Ecuador are getting modern quality visitor centers like
Cajas National Park.
WHY
VISITING THE NATIONAL PARKS OF ECUADOR?
Ecuador is the world's climatically
most diverse country with tropical rainforests along the North coast and in the
Amazon, deserts in the south coast and Galapagos and the Andes mountains in the
middle, creating a great variety in
climates;
There are 51 parks and
reserves, each with interesting nature and beauty that can't be found
anywhere else;
The most interesting vacations
are those that combine culture and nature;
Ecuador has both;
Ecuador is a small
country and you can easily visit a different park everyday;
Nowhere else in the
world can you find so much different life forms and ecosystems at such short distances;
There are somewhere
around 1650
species of birds recorded for Ecuador, most of which live
in the parks and reserves;
With 9 climate zones, there
are always parks that can be visited during an optimal season;
Parks vary from
rain-drenched
Amazon parks, to
semi-deserts on the south coast, from chilly
high elevation areas to coastal mangroves, from cloud-forests to cactus
jungles, from lakes to mountain tops;
Your visit is essential
for the conservation of the parks and reserves of Ecuador.
On excursion through the dry
forest of Machalilla National Park.
The Vecuña, one of the rare
Andes species is always visible near the glacier of the Chimborazo Volcano.
10 REASONS TO
MAKE THE NATIONAL PARKS ECO TOUR ECUADOR WITH PARKS & TRIBES:
First of all,
because nobody else organizes such tour;
Only Parks & Tribes
actually knows the majority of the protected areas of Ecuador;
We trained a limited
number of guides to accompany the tours;
We always
strife for the most economical solutions in a pleasant 3 star hotel
environment;
It is the
mission of Parks & Tribes to help protect the protected areas of Ecuador;
The only tour operator
with an Indian tribe as shareholders (Cofan Indians);
Our mission
is to protect, not to make money, therefore we strife for economical prices
so that more people can participate;
Our jungle biologists started
organizing national park tours in the nineteen eighties because we were
concerned that many ecotourism operators of eco tours mostly organize tours outside the national
parks, taking their guests to easily
reachable patches of secondary forest.
By doing so, such tour operatos actually compete with the really important official nature reserves.
We want to bring you to the national parks, where you can enjoy the best nature
in Ecuador.
We
also feel that national parks need to create employment and economic
opportunities for communities living near the
protected areas. By organizing national parks tours, we let you enjoy the most
fantastic nature of the country thereby contributing to the conservation of
Ecuador's fantastic national
parks while helping local communities at the same time. So, by coming along on our tours, you get to see
the best of the best Ecuador has to offer, while conserving pristine nature and
helping communities.
We try to organize our tours as economically as possible,
but you should be aware that hiring transportation with a guide costs us about
$200 per day. So you can calculate that we are not making a lot of money on our
pricing.
Cuicocha Crater Lake near
Otavalo is one of the most scenic
lakes in the country.
On excursion
watching wildlife and birds from the water.
Ingapirca is a splendid Inca
monument that equals many of Peru's monuments in the Sacred Valley.
The Andean Fox is the
largest mammal predator after the Puma.
The latter however is very elusive, while the Andean Fox is frequently seen in
Cotopaxi National Park.
PARKS
AND TRIBES
