Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This 69,000-acre reserve includes flooded forest and oxbow lakes. It
also harbors archeological remains from the Napo culture of the 12th
century. Ceramic shards and graves provide testimony to a large pop-
ulation and a well-developed culture that flourished in the region
prior to contact with the Europeans. Today, the local Quichua com-
munity administers rustic cabañas in the area and can provide guid-
ing services into the reserve.
Contact
CONFENIAE
(the Indigenous Association of Limoncocha),
Av. 6 de Diciembre 159, Quito,
/fax 2-2543-973. It is
also possible to hire a guide in Coca and canoe to the reserve.
2-2220-326,
Yasuní National Park
Yasuní National Park is the current reigning champion when it
comes to preserving biological wealth in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Or-
iginally created in 1979 to protect the rainforest, Yasuní's current
borders incorporate more than 2½ million acres, as well as a reserve
for the indigenous Huaorani people. In fact, UNESCO (the United
Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization) declared
Yasuní an International Biosphere Reserve. The size of the park,
however, has changed as often as political interests have, and usually
reflects the ever-expanding appetite of the oil industry - rarely with
any input from the Huaorani themselves.
There are only a couple of practical ways to visit Yasuní and stay at an
ecolodge. Two hours from Coca down the Río Napo is the village of
Pompeya, where guests heading into the park register with the
Maxus oil company. From the south side of the river, a southbound
drive along the oil road ends at the Río Tiputini. From here, another
couple of hours via motorized canoe through rainforest will bring you
to Tiputini Biodiversity Station. The other way to visit Yasuní is via
trails near the military outpost at Anangu, which is near the Sacha
and La Selva Lodges. Fromhere, day hikes can bemade into the park.
Combine the numerous lakes, rivers, swamps, and forests in Yasuní
with minimal development, human habitation, or hunting, and the
end result is an unimaginable wealth of biodiversity in large, contigu-
ous expanses of primary forest. This is one of the few places where
large predatory cats roam undisturbed, troops of monkeys rule the
canopy, dolphins play and caimans float, and where hundreds of bird
species sing their melodies.
Contact Tiputini Biodiversity Station or Sacha or La Selva Lodges
(see pages 345-46 and 348) to arrange visits to the reserve. Camping
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