Unique Sustainable Amazon Experience in Ecuador: Culture & Wildlife Encounter

Airport meet and greet. Transfer to your accommodation at Garden Hotel San Jose de Puembo. (Suite category)
Depending on your tiarrival me- This day we could organize a lunch and cooking class: “You have to taste a culture, in order to understand it” – Deborah Cater. Ready to learn how to prepare one of those delicious dishes that you will learn to love along your journey? Take a cooking class with a local chef. This is a culinary tour dedicated for those food lovers, with no previous cooking experience. Take home the knowledge of an unforgettable experience in flavors, colors and products that Ecuador has to offer, so you can share back at home with your loved ones. Begin with a visit of a local food market to buy fresh fruits and vegetables for today’s menu according to the Chefs buying list. Then go back to restaurant kitchen where the chef will give you some tips and history before, he shows you how to prepare those local and savors dishes.
Garden Hotel San Jose de Puembo. (Suite category)

Meet at the Lobby and transfer to the airport to take your flight to the Amazon Basin. The journey to the jungle Lodge begins in Quito, Ecuador's capital city. From here, a 35-minute flight takes you over the Andes Mountains and snow-covered peaks to soaring over 8500 feet (2600 meters) into the Amazon Region. The flight destination is the port town of Puerto Francisco de Orellana, locally known as Coca, where you will be met by a bilingual guide and taken to a private dock. Here we will pause to use the restrooms before boarding a covered motorized canoe for a 2-hour, 50-mile (80-kilometer) trip down the sediment-rich waters of the Napo, the largest river in Ecuadorian Amazonia. During the ride, it is easy to spot handsome shorebirds such as herons, kingfishers, spoonbills and ospreys between the scattered native huts as you travel steadily away from civilization. Home base for an exciting jungle experience
Overnight at Napo Lodge

Head in the motor boat to one of the highlights of Yasuni biosphere Reserve. Then walk around 30 min, through “pericos” trail to reach the blind in the forest with a direct view to the amazing parakeet clay lick, which brings visitors face to face with up to 11 species of parrots and parakeets, sometimes even mammals like howler monkeys, tapir and peccaries come to this place to drink water and get vital minerals for their body. We end this morning with a visit to the intercultural interpretation center "Kuri Muyu", handled by the women of the community also knows as “mamakuna” learn about the kichwa culture, crafts, customs and traditional use of natural resources. We return to the center of the community, before hiking one hour in order to climb up the observation tower reaching 35 meters above the surface.
Overnight at Napo Lodge

Enjoy the sunrise at breakfast, visit the sustainable community projects, talk about the worldview Kichwa Addition to medicinal and walk in the Mama Cuna road, excellent opportunity to see more wildlife, ceiba trees, strangler, bamboo cane, vines and shrubs endemic from Yasuní. In the afternoon after a delicious local lunch paddle around stream, a black water ecosystem where you can spot monkeys jumping from tree to tree, caiman and sometimes even giant river otters trying to catch fish. Upon arriving you will have time to settle back and prepare for a traditional typical dinner to taste local flavors of the amazon, such as “maito” which is grilled fish wrapped in a “bijao” leaf and if you have an adventurous palate try the grilled worms of the “chonta” locally known as “chontakuru”. After dinner, prepare your flashlight for a night walk around the lodge to see different kind of insects, reptiles and even nocturnal mammals like the night monkeys.
(B/L/D) Overnight at Napo Lodge
Overnight at Napo Lodge

To close with a flourish, take part on the optional “wayusada” ritual, in which at dawn around 4:30 am is the time when the kichwa family share together the sacred “wayusa” and has been a way to past their ancient knowledge to the new generations, here you also share traditional chants and have the chance to “interpret dreams” with the wisest “mamakuna” at the community, a mystique experience indeed. Then head back for breakfast, while our staff pick you luggage for your return to Coca town, onboard our comfortable motorboats for the last chance to appreciate the Ecuadorian rainforest landscape, until you reach “La Mision” river port. Arrive in Coca and be escorted to the airport to board the plane. Scheduled arrival at Quito´s airport 15h10 (may change)(B.-)
Depending on your international flight, you will have a private transfer to the airport.