Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
After reservations are made, guests are flown from Quito to Coca and board a motorized
boat that takes them down the Napo River for two hours before finally reaching the lodge,
which has 26 rooms built into thatched cabins that synthesize effortlessly into their natural
environment. A gourmet restaurant and 'hardcore' birdwatching tower complete the ex-
perience.
Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve
The Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve or Cuyabeno National Park as it's sometimes referred as
is an immense ecological reserve over 1,000,000 acres in size. With over 200 tree species
per acre (more than all of Europe) at least one-third of the entire Amazon Basin's bird
species (over 580 and counting) and about 350 species of fish, the park is a nature-lover's
paradise. Cuyabeno's slim tributaries are the perfect base for a jungle trip, as the Amazon
River itself found downriver in Peru and Brazil is too wide to really view any wildlife on
its bank from a canoe.
It's recommended to have your lodge our tour agency handle all of the travel arrange-
ments, which usually involves flying directly from Quito to Coca or Shell followed by a
drive over an asphalt road before finally boarding a canoe that takes you straight to your
lodge. Getting there is half the fun but Cuyabeno is actually one of the most accessible
Amazonian reserves in South America, and traveling time isn't long.
