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!
You will be picked up from the airport or the bus station, from where you will
be taken directly to our roofed motorized canoe.
Your transport consists of a covered motorized canoe
to protect you from the sun.
The interior of the canoe can seat 10 passengers
comfortably.
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.
The entrance to the Pashpanchu Lodge.
The restaurant of the Pashpanchu Lodge.
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.
The area map of Pashpanchu Lodges' surroundings.
A night excursion after dinner.
A night excursion to experience the critters of the night.
Tarantulas crawl outof their burrowss at night, but as
soon as you approach them, they withdraw.
Whip spiders are
related to the spiders, but but still very distinct. They are among the many
critters of the jungle you only get to see at night.
A Squirrel Monkey.
Brown Woolly Monkey.
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.
Challwuacocha is a beautiful black water lake surrounded by marshes and
swamps. At the far end it is covered with Water Hiacynth.
Dark clouds forming over Lake Challwuacocha.
An Araceae Lily shrub lines the shores of the
Challwuacocha lake.
Water Hiasynths cover the far end of the Challwuacocha Lake.
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.
The Challwuacoche Lake surroundings map.
The Sani Lodge built at the shore of Lake Challwuacoche.
You will have lunch at the Sani Lodge restaurant, from where you have a
beautiful view over Lake Challwuacoche.
View from the Sani Lodge over Lake Challwuacoche.
The restaurant at the Sani Lodge.
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.
Contrary to its name, the Black Cayman is not black
at all. This particular 3.5 m female frequents the
landing of the Sani Lodge.
It is so tame that you can use a normal camera taking a
picture of its eyes, while it is just below the deck.
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.
A Spectacled Caymen at Lake Amandi cocha.
The mouth of a Spectacled Cayman is narrower than that of
a Black Cayman and it only grows to about 1.5 - 2m.
While, the tour has a rather limited time, in one of the villages, you will
learn about the Kitchwa way of life.
A visit to a Kichwa community: The Kitchwa Kitchen
garden includes all sorts of staple food, like manioc
and even cacao.
Kichwa woman showing the
traditional way of cooking on a fire in a fire box.
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.
Scarlet Macaws have a salt lick at the Añangu community.
Green parrots have their own salt lick along the Napo River.
The 54m high canopy tower at the the Kichwa Añagu
community.
Built along side of a 55m high ceibo tree, the tower
gives access to a platform in the crown of the tree, as well
as an even higher platform looking down at the crown of the
tree.
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.
Buttress roots of the 55m high Ceibo tree measure
some 10 m wide.
View over the palm swamp forest from the tree platform.
The platform in the Ceibo tree at the the Kichwa Añagu
community is in built in the fork of the tree crown
at a height of 45 m.
Looking down at the tree platform from the top platform
of the Kichwa Añagu community tower.
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.
PARKS & TRIBES Travel Agency
Street: Las Casas,
Side street: Jose Coudrin, 2 blocks above the Occidental Highway
Cantón Quito, Prov. Pichincha, Parroquia
Belisario Quevedo