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PARKS AND TRIBES

YASUNI NATIONAL PARK TOUR, NAPO RIVER, ECUADOR

NAPO RIVER TOUR ECUADOR: EXPERIENCE THE AMAZON AT YASUNI NATIONAL PARK. Tripadvisor: BEST PLACE FOR WILDLIFE: Best Choice + Price

Is this really the Top Yasuni National Park Tour in Ecuador?

YES! This is why...

There are some 8 lodges along the Napo River. While most lodges provide nice programs, each of them accomodates its guest primarily in its own cabins and provides excursions within its own parameters, usually no further than 1 or 2 km away. Moreover, most lodges along the Napo River are rather expensive. We felt however, that our guests, should be able to see all the best highlights of the Napo River at an affordable price.

So this is what we did: We made agreements with 2 indigenous community owned lodges, the Pashpanchu Lodge and the Pilche Lodge, to both host and guide our guests. But in stead of offering excursions just located near the lodges, we selected the most scenic and the best sites to see birds and wildlife along the Napo River and within the Yasuni National Park. In order to offer a program at an affordable price, our tour stays at the upper part of the Napo River downstream from Coca. Yes there are a few more highlights along the Napo River, but to get there, one must travel much further, thus sacrificing excursion time for travel time at considerably higher costs. Having known the Napo River since 1975, we are the most knowledgeable people to organize tours along the river.

So what makes the Napo River so special...

• The Napo River is located along the Yasuni National Park, the most diverse jungle in the world, and you willl be visiting its highlights!

• Along the Napo River, you will find land-bound mammals, like monkeys and birds, belonging to well-drained forests; but with such abundance of water, you will also get to see lots of water-bound fauna like: Caymans, Ducks, Cormorants, Herons, etc.

• There are a variety of indigenous Kitchwa communities along the Napo River and you will be visiting several of them.

But there is more...

• You can fly from Quito to Coca on the Napo River in no more that half an hour;

• Alternatively, you can take a comfortable bus at night, arriving in Coca early in the morning;

• Our programs are organized in collaboration with small Kichwa Indian communities;

• All programs are so child friendly, I took my grandchildren (3,5 & 6) there. Wao, did they love it!

3 DAYS YASUNI NATIONAL PARK TOUR

Yasuni National Park Tour, Ecuador, Day one

You will be picked up from the airport or the bus station, from where you will be taken directly to our roofed motorized canoe.

To avoid a rather boring first stretch over the river from Coca, in stead you will be taken to Puerto Providencia over land, where you will enter our motorized canoe  to Pashpanchu Lodge. This is a pleasant lodge owned by the Pashpanchu Kichwa indigenous community. After enjoying lunch at the lodge, a local naturalist guide will take you on a nature walk to the Pashpanchu Lake, to spot wildlife, birds and plants.

As you will spend the night in Pashpanchu Lodge, you will have dinner at the lodge, and enjoy a night excursion to watch nocturnal animals.

Yasuni National Park Tour, Ecuador, Day 2

The following morning you will have an early breakfast at the lodge, to depart for Challwuacocha Lake. After a 20 minutes walk, you will board a paddle canoe to look for birds, and wildlife.

In fact, the ending "Coche or Cocha" in Kichwa means "lake". So speaking of Challwuacocha Lake is a bit double, but this is a common practice.

The lake is teeming with fish, and of particular interest are the “Paiches” the largest fish predator of the Amazon, which can grow up to 3,5 m long. This fish has the habit of hunting for other fish right from the surface of the water, with its back emerged, so you can actually see it stalking along the marsh shrubs. These intriguing giants owe their air breathing ability to their primitive lung and gill system, which also allows them to breathe underwater. This is a developed ability, as they tend to live in areas with water that contains poor concentrations of oxygen.

“Paiches”  are the largest predator fish of the Amazon, as they can grow up to 3,5 m long.

On the way to the Sani Lodge canopy tower, one has to pass through a very narrow and shallow creek.

After passing through the swamps and marshes you reach a huge canopy tower, next to an even taller Ceibo tree with an umbrella shaped crown. As you climb the 35 m high canopy jungle tower you get a marvelous view over the jungle and the part where most life of the jungle takes place: the tree crowns, covered in epiphytes.

You will have lunch at the Sani Lodge restaurant, from where you have a beautiful view over Lake Challwuacoche.

The lake also has a great population of Black Caiman, one of which has the habit of resting at the landing of the Sani Lodge. Please note, as this is a wild animal, there is no guarantee it will do so during your presence.

After your visit of Lake Challwuacoche, you go to the Pilche Lodge across the Napo River - owned by another Kichwa community - to have dinner and stay the night.

After dinner you will be taken on night excursion to look for nocturnal animals in the forest, like lizards, insects, spiders and frogs.

While, the tour has a rather limited time, in one of the villages, you will learn about the Kitchwa way of life.

Yasuni National Park Tour, Ecuador, Day 3

The following morning, before breakfast, you will visit a salt lick of green parrots along the Napo River, which usually – but not always - get down to the salt lick between 5:30 and 6:30. So you will have to be at the canoe at 5:00 AM. After watching the birds, you will return to the Pilche Lodge, to have breakfast and gather your luggage.

You will then be taken to the Kichwa Añagu community which manages Lake Añagu and surroundings. You will visit Lake Añagu, where the famous Napo Wildlife Center is located, the Red and Yellow Macaw salt lick and a 54 m high canopy tower along an even taller Ceibo tree with an observation platform in its crown.

Most live of the jungle evolves among the forest canopy. This is the home of birds, monkeys, sloths, insects, as well as the majority of plant species and flowers. Difficult to watch from the forest floor, there are 2 canopy towers along the our Yasuni National Park Tour, Ecuador, and you get to visit them both.

Epiphyte clad branches in the jungle canopy.

After visiting Añagu, you will be taken back to Coca, where you will be dropped off at floating landing of the Mission Hotel (not included) on the Coca boulevard.