Amazon Rainforest Lodge

Transfer to Quito airport for a flight to the airstrip in the rainforest. You will be met and taken to a small Amazon River port, where the lodge staff transfers you to motorized canoes for the river trip to a rainforest lodge. Enjoy a box lunch along the way. Arrive at the lodge for a welcoming drink, a trip briefing, and an afternoon activity.

Spend your days exploring jungle trails, canoeing on the lake, bird-watching, and looking for orchids and other wildlife with the help of guides. Evening jungle walks and visits to the “parrot lick” are common activities. The lodge’s guests will be divided into small groups, each of which will be led by a local naturalist guide with expert knowledge of the rainforest’s medicinal and other useful plants and well-educated in the other biological and ecological wonders of the region.

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 firma forest, where 150-foot kapok trees tower above you, 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.

A favorite activity of guests is to paddle dugout canoes along tannin-rich black-water creeks and lakes, where luxuriant lianas, bromeliads, and palm trees thrive. Swimming and piranha fishing are also activities not to be missed…but have no fear! Piranhas are scavengers, and the guides will prove that swimming is perfectly safe! For adventurous souls, the day does not end with dinner. Night walks and canoe trips, with the aid of flashlights, often reveal creatures seldom seen during daylight. Frogs, monkeys, caimans (of the alligator family), and giant insects rule the jungle after sunset.

Return by canoe and vehicle to the airstrip for your return flight to Quito.