La Selva Lodge

The first day on an Amazon Basin adventure starts the minute you leave your hotel and make your way to the international airport in Quito for a puddle jump flight to Coca. After meeting your guide and boarding a motorized canoe at the docks, you travel two hours down the Napo River, past communities on the banks and boats shuttling people up and down the tributary of the Amazon River. The next leg starts when you arrive at the La Selva pier, with a short walk to an inland stream where you travel by paddle canoes until the narrow waterway opens up into the Garzacocha Lagoon. La Selva sits on one side of the tranquil lake, blending into the deep green surroundings on its banks.

After storing your gear, you are introduced to the lodge and spend some time exploring the surrounding jungle before a fun dinner and turning in for the night.

Early starts are the way of the wild, and after breakfast you embark to the observation tower at La Selva Lodge. The tower is about one-fourth as tall as The Great Pyramid of Giza, or 120 ft. From the viewing station, the treetops of the jungle stretch out into the horizon. The landscape is animated with scintillating species flying up through the layers of the canopy below to perch on high outposts.

Over 600 species of birds rule the roost in the jungle-flying high and swooping down after insects before regally resting just out of reach. After returning to your luxury Amazon lodge and lunch, the day’s activities continue with a hike along the Charapa Trail-where monkeys clamber through the treetops, and capybara scuttle back and forth on the jungle floor. After the hike, and when the sun goes down, guides take you on a night canoe ride in search of caimans under the millions of stars in the sky.

Embark on a short ride to the Yasuni clay licks. The licks are a gathering point for the 30 species of parrots that live in the jungle, stopping early each day to feed on the clay which is high in salt, a rare commodity in the jungle. Color and movement collide as scarlet macaws, cobalt-winged parakeet, and orange-winged parrots dazzle the crowd with acrobatics and flights to outlooks around the surrounding cliffs.

After the observation tower, the morning continues with an immersion into the way of life of the indigenous women of the Amazon Basin at the community center of Mandi Wasi. Learn about traditional cooking techniques, the crafts of the jungle, and catch up on the latest news at the daily meeting place. Activities before dinner include a night hike to find the nocturnal creatures of the forest-including frogs, snakes, and spiders.

After an early breakfast and a fond farewell to the staff at La Selva Amazon Lodge, you retrace your route up the Napo River, past the ramshackle streets of Coca, to the airport, and onward to Quito. The journey is bittersweet, as the sheltering canopy of the overhanging forest and the low-hanging trees of the narrow stream give way to the wide waters of the Napo River-where boats and barges clutter the landscape, and the communities along the river banks that appear and disappear within minutes. The passion of the people of the luxury rainforest lodge remains as a reminder of the wonders of nature-and the importance of preserving it for future generations to explore.

The Ecuadorian jungle’s biodiversity is often referred to as the “lungs of the planet,” an apt description for a region that defies description but provides an irreplaceable natural resource, including the air we breathe, to the world at large.