Ecuador has such a diverse landscape and so many places to visit it’s hard to choose where to go. We started our month in Ecuador with a five-day Amazon Jungle Tour on the Cuyabeno River in Ecuador.
Exploring the Amazon Basin: Our Amazon Jungle Tour
If we’re completely honest, we would have trouble locating the Amazon River on a map. But then, perhaps we shouldn’t feel too bad. It took researchers until 2014 to agree on where the source of the Amazon actually is. And, looking at the map below, it’s no wonder – the ‘Amazon’ is a massive collection of tributaries spanning more than a third of South America.
Photo courtesy wikipedia
In fact, the map above only shows the major tributaries in this massive system. The river(s) that we explored on our five-day foray don’t even rate a mention. If you draw a line due east from Quito and stop just before you reach the Colombian border, that’s where our trip took place (Just above the ‘R’ in ‘ECUADOR’). But how did we end up there?
Well, once we’d decided we weren’t going to tackle Brazil this trip (too big! too much!), that eliminated several of the more popular areas to explore the Amazon. And since we’d already spent over a month in Colombia, we decided against revisiting there. But even ruling out those countries still left a bewildering number of choices. So, when all else failed, we turned to Google. Michelle found a post by someone who had gone through the same process as us, decided on Ecuador, and finally chose Cuyabeno Reserve instead of the more popular Yasuni National Park, mainly because you go much further into the jungle in Cuyabeno. Sounds good to us! In fact, he had us at ‘I spent a lot of time researching this and…’
…And he was right. We had the most magical trip in Cuyabeno, and our (his) choice of Waita Lodge was a huge part of what made it so wonderful. So settle back into your canoe seat, pull on your poncho and come with us as we venture into the Cuyabeno Reserve in northeast Ecuador.
Deep in the Jungle
We stand watching curiously as a large barge carrying a truck manoeuvres its way through the surging light brown waters of the Aguarico river to set down at the dock where we wait. Meanwhile, a small groups of school kids in bright white and blue uniforms watch us just as curiously as they wait for their boats home.
We’re starting to get a feel for just how far into the jungle we’re heading on this trip. We’ve already taken 24 hours to get this far and we’re not even there yet. For the next five days we’ll be staying within the Cuyabeno reserve, where 44 indigenous families from the nearby community own the Waita Lodge.
Our tour with Waita Lodge began with a pickup at Lago Agrio, a small town about 400km east from Quito. The first challenge we faced was actually making our way to the pickup point. Our options to get there are limited: there’s the good way, and the horrible way.
The horrible way is to take an overnight bus from Quito, which leaves at 11pm and arrives at 7:30am. Giving you just enough time to have a coffee and thoroughly review how much you regret your decision before the 10:30am pickup.
The good way is to catch a 35-minute flight from Quito to Coca, and then take a 2 hour bus ride up to Lago Agrio. This does require arriving in Lago Agrio the night before your trip, but on the other hand you have a nice sleep and wake up refreshed, ready for a wonderful trip.
We choose the good way!
This morning we piled onto the Waita Lodge bus with our 11 companions for the week including a family from Canada, an English couple, a Dutch guy, and a Belgian. We head south along the highway and then east, through fields of palms being harvested for their bright orange ‘chestnuts’ and cacao trees with large red fruit ready to be picked and processed into that famous Ecuadorian chocolate. Two hours later, we arrived at the edge of the Rio Aguarico, us watching the barge and the kids watching us.
Somewhat thankfully we’re not riding on the barge, and instead find a seat in a long canoe which will take us on many adventures over the next few days.
As the canoe buzzes along the river the cool breeze cuts the warm tropical air. We see glimpses of communities on the riverbank and even the oil company camp. After two hours, we turn off the Aguarico and onto Rio Cuyabeno, the river narrows and becomes more winding. The houses and huts thin until there is nothing but us and the jungle. We see some river dolphins and toucans, the first of many wildlife sightings over the next few days. At 4pm we pull off the river onto a small lake and between the trees we can see the palm roof of the lodge and our guide Diego waiting for us on the dock. We’ve arrived at Waita Lodge!
Life in the Lodge
The Waita Lodge is the perfect place to disconnect from the world. There’s no phone coverage, and the generator is only on for a few hours a day – just long enough to keep our batteries fully charged for the hundreds of photos we’ll be taking! The traditional cabins are clean and spacious, with warm showers and mosquito nets on the double beds. Not that the nets are really necessary; there’s no malaria here, and for the most part the insects really don’t bother us, even in the evenings. The temperature is perfect: it’s rare that we need even a light jacket. The ponchos that the Lodge provides keep the water off of us during the occasional tropical storm.
Before dinner we go for a swim in the river, which is warm and calm (more accurately, Michelle goes for a swim while Al lounges in the hammock) . Diego tells us that our meals for the week are being prepared by a former Master Chef contestant! The chef prepares a different meal for us every day, including mushroom curry, beef stew, ceviche, and cake. Fresh fruit juices are served with every meal – again a different flavour every day!
Jungle Walks and Insect-o-Rama
“Gather in my friends, gather close like sardines. I have something very interesting to show you,” Diego whispers. We all shuffle closer to see what he’s found. In the circle of his torchlight we see a small hole in the ground. He picks up a stick and gently pokes it into the hole. Suddenly a black furry leg bursts out of another hole just a short distance away and the large, furry body of a spider follows. On queue, we all let out a gasp of “Whoa.” Diego says somewhat despondently, “It’s a wolf spider.” He was hoping for a tarantula.
We’re less than 70m from the lodge on our first night jungle walk and we’ve already seen some extraordinary insects. We see giant arachnids with six legs and a very long sensor, huge cicadas whose bodies vibrate when Diego picks them up (deafening!), a cowboy spider replete with a lasso-web, and the wolf spider coming out of its hole.
We take a few of these walks over the course of the week, some at night and others during the day. There’s always something new to see. We see lots and lots of leaf cutter ants carrying pieces of leaf 6 times their size (super cool). Diego finds a ‘tractor millipede’ which a few of us have run over our hands and arms (Nope). We learn about lots of different types of jungle medicine – everything from anti-nausea to contraceptives to vines that store litres of water in them, that you can use if you get lost. And a tarantula.
Diego’s explanation of the animals is so engaging, and he admits insects are his favourite. Not only do we learn a lot, we also feel a lot more comfortable with ‘what’s out there’ – while there’s lots of creepy crawlies, Diego does a great job taking (most of) the terror out of them.
Daily Boat Cruises and Toucan Jackpots
One of the highlights of our daily routine is the boat tour. Most days we wake up early to the sound of the howler monkeys’ eerie whoops and growls, and are out on the water just after 6. Diego is at the front of the boat, looking and listening for wildlife as the canoe glides quietly over the completely still water.
On our first tour, before we even pull out from the dock, he points out a group of “stinky birds” sitting in the trees overhanging the swollen river on the bank opposite our lodge. Diego’s enthusiasm is contagious. He has a degree in tourism and has self-taught himself all about the animals, plants, and traditions of the area. We’re constantly amazed at how he’s able to find even the tiniest of animals.
A tree boa. If you can’t see it, how the heck did Diego find it?
‘Up there, in the top of the tree, it’s a white breasted toucan. The larget toucan in this area of the Amazon’. This time it’s not Diego spotting the birds, but Lewin, out resident 9 year-old Richard Attenborough in the making. Lewin is here with his family from Canada and he’s loving every minute of the trip. He’s particularly looking forward to our trip to a tree tower where he’s hoping we see a ‘Toucan Jackpot’. We can’t help but get swept up in his excitement at seeing all kinds of animals in the trees.
Atop the treetop tower
During the boat tours we see an endless variety of animals, insects and plants. Our list of favourite animals is long – we cheer on the acrobatic squirrel monkeys swinging and leaping through the trees (groups of 200, always moving as they don’t have a house). kingfisher blues skimming close to the water, sloths, macaws, and parrots of many colours squawking away, and of course the toucans with their ridiculously oversized beaks. Diego knows all their names in Spanish, English and Latin.
Click for video
Most of our pictures of the toucans are either blurry or too far away. We did get one good one though.
We also see the famous pink river dolphins, which funnily enough are no longer called that – at least the ones near the lodge aren’t. They become pink if they’re very active (to do with their circulation) and if they’re making regular long migrations, e.g. from Brazil to Ecuador. These guys are staying within the reserve more because the water’s not as polluted as it used to be; hence they’re more of a two-tone grey colour. We learn a lot about the animals and the area’s ecology during the boat tours.
Click for video
Our canoe driver is very talented with an outboard motor, skillfully manoeuvring the 20m canoe into tiny spots, under and around fallen trees. On one outing we all have to sit in the bottom of the canoe as we pass under a large fallen tree and then several people have to move to the back to sink the rear of the boat enough to give us enough clearance to pass.
At one point Diego stops the boat and has us all shout ‘Marching’ as loud as we can a few times. After our echoes die away, we can clearly hear the sound of marching feet. He explains that this noise is a warning sound made by the Marching Wasps, basically saying ‘We’re here, go away before we have to do something rash.’ We move on.
P-P-Piranha!!??
One morning Diego announces he has a special activity for us. We pile back into the canoe and putter gently over to a lagoon off the main river we haven’t been in. (We’re always taking new and different ‘shortcuts’ to see what we can find). When we arrive at the lagoon, he hands out simple fishing poles to us – literally, just a length of bamboo with a short piece of line and a hook on the end. And then he passes down a bag full of raw meat. “Today, my friends, we will be fishing for piranha.” We load up our hooks with a small cube of meat, splash the water a few times, and lower our hooks into the water.
Within seconds our lines are jerking as the piranha attack the meat. Unfortunately the water isn’t boiling and churning like a James Bond movie, but – with a sharp tug, we are pulling up the unmistakeable small silver bodies of this most feared tropical fish. We catch about a dozen and keep five or six of the larger ones for dinner. Delicious!
Plenty of Activities, and Plenty of Free Time
In between our morning, afternoon and occasional evening activities, we have plenty of free time to rest, swim, read, kayak or stand-up paddleboard, or just relax. One day Diego gives us a great info session on the history of the indigenous groups local to the region and across Ecuador. It was super informative, and he patiently answers all of our questions.
The boat ramp where we kayak and SUP from
Bittersweet Farewell to our Amazon Jungle Tour
Our final day at Waita Lodge is bittersweet. We’ve grown close to our fellow travelers and the staff at the lodge, and it’s hard to say goodbye. One of the best aspects of choosing this lodge is that there is a maximum of two groups, or 20 people. For most of the time there’s only the 11 of us there. We take one last boat ride down the river, enjoying the scenery and reflecting on our experiences over the past five days.
Overall, our experience at Waita Lodge has been unforgettable. From the incredible wildlife and beautiful secluded lodge to the fabulous staff it’s a trip of a lifetime. We leave Waita Lodge with a newfound appreciation for the beauty and diversity of the Amazon rainforest, and with a deep respect for the indigenous people who call it home.
If you’re looking for an off-the-beaten-path adventure that will leave you breathless, we highly recommend an Amazon Jungle Tour to Waita Lodge on the Cuyabeno River in Ecuador.
The Waita Lodge Amazon Jungle Tour In a Nutshell
Getting there and away: We flew LATAM to Coca and only booked a couple of days in advance. There’s one flight a day, costs about $125 CAD. As well as the overnight buses, you can take buses during the day to and from Quito to Lago Agrio. It takes 7 hours? 9 hours?
Buses from Coca to Lago Agrio leave frequently from the Terminal Terrestre el Coca. No need to book. It cost us USD$4.30 per person for the 2 hour trip. Be sure to keep the terminal entry ticket as well as your actual ticket.
We left our large backpacks in Quito to give us the most flexibility at the beginning and end of the tour. You can take any size pack on the trip if you’re not returning to the same place.
At the end of the trip the tour company will take you back to Lago Agrio. We asked them to drop us at the town of Jivino Verde. Here we waited about 3 minutes before many buses from Lago Agrio took us to the own of Coca. This cut more than 2 hours off our trip. (But try to get on a ‘Directo’ bus if you can….)
In Coca: There are plenty of hotels you can book when you arrive. There are stalls to he street selling BBQ meals and restaurants all in walking distance. The airport is right in town so you can walk there from the centre of town. There’s not much at the airport, but there is a cafe.
In Lago Agrio: We had read this town was dangerous and dirty. It’s not likely to ever be a tourist destination of its own, but it’s not terrible. The pick up hotel, D Mario, has a pool, pool table and nice area to hang out as well as a restaurant and the staff are very friendly.
