Ecuador contains only 2% of the entire Amazon, and the wildlife here is miraculously concentrated. The north-east of the country is where the slopes of the Andes, the Equator, and the Amazon rainforest converge. This unique natural setting is known as the ‘core area’ of the rainforest.
A country famous for its remarkable biodiversity, most flock straight to the prolific Galapagos. Yet by a 30 minute flight or a road-trip from Quito, the pristine pocket of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador is never too far away.
With El Coca as a gateway into the Amazon, set sail up the Rio Napo and watch as the river banks burst with green. Headed towards Yasuní National Park, journey into the upper Amazon river basin, into thousands of hectares of protected and productive land.
Yasuní was designated by UNESCO as a ‘world biosphere reserve’ in 1989. The enormous bosque protegido (protected forest), and the colourful array of creatures which inhabit it has gained it a reputation for having the greatest biodiversity per square meter on the planet.
99% of Yasuní biosphere reserve consists of its original vegetation. Weave through bromeliads, vines and orchids on a journey through the terra firma towards the seasonal floodplains or the Varzea forest and the Iguapo wetlands.
On each journey into the Amazon rainforest, naturalists discover new species unknown to the world. Travelling here is engaging with nature that is entirely untainted, immersed in the same environment as 200 species of mammal, 610 species of bird, 130 amphibians and 121 reptiles to date, this is arguably as wild as you can get.
Learn about the fascinating species throughout your stay, live in windowless lodges frequently visited by other guests such as the alpha female pygmy marmoset - the smallest monkey in the world; the prehistoric looking hoatzin; and the three-toed sloth.
Within Ecuadorian Amazonia there lives multiple uncontacted tribes who retain autonomy in their beautifully rich native land.
