Cuyabeno more
economical vs costly Yasuní river transport;
Cuyabeno narrow
slow flowing creeks vs Yasuní faster rivers;
Cuyabeno swamp
forests vs Yasuní dry forests on the hills;
Cuyabeno 1 medium
tower vs Yasuní 2 50+m quality canopy towers;
Cuyabeno 15
effordable lodges vs Yasuní 5 lodges.
We originally selected Yasuní for being the largest mostly uninhabited
Amazon area in Ecuador. The rivers are fast running upland streams that lack
charming slow flowing creeks necessary for wildlife observation.
Most probably
you will get many more species on your bird list in Cuyabeno than in Yasuni as
it is easier to observe birds and wildlife from the water than from the forest. Moreover, it takes much more time to enter Yasuni, as you have
to travel to the border with Peru to get into the lakes. That makes it much more
costly and time consuming than getting into Cuyabeno.
In 1975, then junior
wildlife ecologist Dr. Daan Vreugdenhil was part of the United Nations project
for selecting the National Parks System of Ecuador, proposed the protection of
Cuyabeno National Park,
at the time about 150,000 hectares. In 1976, then junior wildlife biologist, Dr.
Flavio Coello, was the first superintendent of the national park. When Cuyabeno
was invaded by illegal settlers, he requested Daan Vreugdenhil to return from
his native country the Netherlands to help solve the problem. Together they
advised the government to correct the park boundaries by eliminating the invaded
area. That is why the park has a "bottle neck" shape near the entrance of the
park. They also recommended to compensate the lost area by expanding the park to
the border with Peru. Flavio Coello succeeded in passing the proposal, thus
growing seize of the Cuyabeno National Park from 150,000 hectares to
590,912 hectares (5,901 km2 or 2,330 square miles), quadrupling its total
size. Read more about the
Conservation History of Ecuador and other hidden places in Ecuador.
Parks and Tribes is a
company owned and run by conservation biologists and a native Indian tribe. Our
conservation biologists were part of the United Nations team that selected the
national parks and protected areas of Ecuador. We know all the protected areas
of the country and selected feasible modules to get you to the best areas. Our
guides are hand-picked and selected on their knowledge of birds. We use that
criterion, because if a guide knows the birds, he/she also knows about nature.
If not, it is very unlikely he/she knows about nature. Their simply is no other
tour-operator in Ecuador with so much knowledge about nature.
Yes, it is totally
possible to customize a trip to your interests and available time. Just let us
know how you want your trip and we look for ways to make it work.
The mission of the Cuyabeno Lodge
and Cofan Lodge, to which we
are co-owner, is to make the jungle more accessible for more people. Cuyabeno
Lodge was the
first lodge in the Cuyabeno Lake, and in fact, in much of the Amazon of Ecuador. The Cabins have been designed to provide
functional comfort to our guests, providing comfortable beds, mosquito netting
and showers with hot water.
The lodge has been built within the reserve in an
ecologically sound fashion: The wood for buildings has been brought in from
outside the reserve. All the construction of the cabins and accommodations was
done with maximum involvement of the Siona Indians and as many services as
possible are carried out ty the Sionas.
The Cofan Lodge is entirely owned by the Cofan
tribe and they maximize their involvement as an cultural emerging experience as
well as ecotourism with native Indian guides.
Nowadays, you can
make all your travel arrangements yourself, but it takes time to find your
information and organize it, particularly if you don't speak Spanish.
How much can you economize and is it worth it?
Most rental companies charge you about $100 per day, but then you still need to
pay for your hotel. But then you have to do all the driving in a country for
which no decent maps exist, lacking the small roads to the parks. When you
finally made it to the park, their will be no English speaking guide who will
know about the biology of the park, so you miss out on all the interesting
information. If you think to go there by bus, it will take you much longer, and
you will still need to get a taxi from your bus stop to the park, in which case
you will end up paying just as much as renting a car.
When you are in
the country, your time is limited and your individual travel in-country
destinations have cost you much more than their mere costs alone. Your air
ticket, your vacation time, etc. are all part of the cost of each destination
module. If something goes wrong with the coordination of the local
transportation you have arranged, you may miss out on an entire element of your
trip or even miss your return plane.
It will easily cost you $1000 to get yourself a ticket home.
If we organize your logistics and hotel, you have the peace of
mind, that an organization takes care of your coordination and it doesn't costs
you much extra and sometimes less. Parks and Tribes, finds your
hotels and transportation to suit your specific needs: whether it is $25 or $125
per night hotel, we help you out.
Our
programs are rather customized and we try to accommodate your exact travel
needs. To avoid misunderstandings, we don't offer an online credit card payment
option. Just send an email to
to make a reservation. For more details visit our
reservations page.
At the moment, there are just
under 1650 bird species known to Ecuador, but the records are not so precise and
the real number should even be higher. This brings Ecuador on the third position
of the world's greatest bird diversity, directly after the much larger countries
Brazil and Colombian.
The Tropical
rainforests are particularly about the small mammals and birds that move about in
the trees. You can't even half appreciate your stay in the national parks of
Ecuador if you don't
have a pair of binoculars around your neck all the time. You won't be able to
get a good look at the
beautiful colors of the orchids up in the trees and the hummingbirds in the
bushes. You miss the baby monkey
on the back of its mom; you just sit there while you friends with binoculars are
awestruck when a King Vulture soars by.
Of course, without binoculars, you can
ask a friend to share his/her binox, you think. Great, so when
s/he first spots a bird, you still sit there waiting anxiously until s/he is
finished looking. And your friend does not feel relaxed, knowing that you are
waiting to get a peak at the bird as well! Finally s/he turns over the binox to
you. Ahhhh, what a petty, the bird has just flown away. So do yourself and your
friends a favor, rent a pair of binoculars and double your jungle experience. It
really is worth the $15 (for the entire period) of the rental.
Ecuador has an effective emergency number, which
- like in the USA - is 911, and they actually answer! In most locations, your
vehicle will be within a driving distances of maximum 2 hours from the nearest
hospital, usually much shorter. In Cuyabeno, the emergency situation may take
longer, as it will take up to 2 hours by canoe to get a person to the road, but
in the mean time, an emergency vehicle would already be waiting for arrival. In
extreme emergencies, a helicopter services may need to be called in.
In the towns and cities,
mosquito densities are very low and nowhere are mosquito nettings being used.
Mosquitoes are present anywhere in the tropical jungle, but strangely enough, rarely in large numbers. You are advised to use
DEED. See our
packing list.
According to the
2012 World Health Ecuador report,
malaria is in the range of 1 - 10 confirmed malaria cases per 1,000 inhabitants
per year. For prophylactic treatment you should consult your medical provider.
There is more and
more evidence that sunbathing may not be so good for you, BUT if you are
Caucasian from Europe or North America, you will do it anyway, right?
So we will only give you some tips.
You will be on
the Equator, where UV radiation is extremely high. You need to protect your
skin, even if you are dark-skinned. Where a hat, not just a baseball cap, but
something to protect your ears and neck. Don't wear sandals or walk on bear
feet. You may end up with horribly painful feet if you expose the to the sun.
Your feet get the most direct sunlight as they are exposed horizontally to the
sun!
Always put on
high grade sun block (don't forget the edges of your ears). Accustom your
skin to the sunlight by exposing it for no more than an hour the first day and
add another hour everyday afterwards. Don't be fooled by an overcast sky, you
can still get sun burn. Be particularly aware in the highlands, where the UV is
even higher! On the water (Cuyabeno, Galapagos) the UV effect is greater. Also
beware of wind, as it also tends to increase the sun burning of your skin.
Camouflage clothing is NOT the best for the jungle! Most animals notice you
anyway. In stead, wear white or light cloths. Mosquitos ( and Tse Tse Flies in
Africa ) avoid white cloths and are attracted by dark cloths. Moreover, white
reflects heat best. It does help lightly spraying your cloths with DEED, but its
effect will wear off after a few hours.
Our tours are physically very demanding and can be
done by anyone with a regular physical condition. Hikes are rarely more than one
hour, although in collaboration with the guide physically more demanding hikes
can be made. Normally,
the tours are no designed to be carried
out by persons with a walking disability, although most parks can actually be
visited without leaving the car. For boat rides, if your condition is good
enough to be able to get into the boat, then something can be arranged.
This is a
very important question, about which we have written a full page:
Ecuador, kidnapping and travel safety. You will be surprised about what you
will find out, and it will put you at ease.
Throughout the
Amazon region, most national parks lack narrow rivers and can only be seen from
very wide branches of the Amazon river and from trails through the jungle. When
you are on a major branch of the Amazon River, you hardly feel you are in the
tropical jungle because the shores are so far away.
If you walk on
land in the Amazon jungle, you don't see very much. When looking up to the
canopy, the contrast between the sky and the leaves are so intense, that the
leaves almost seem black and animals are so high up in the trees, that you can
hardly distinguish them.
In
Cuyabeno, on the other hand, the rivers shores are so close on both sides that
you really feel inside the jungle, while the narrow rivers still provide
sufficient opening to see the trees with beautiful daylight lighting. In other
words, in Cuyabeno you see both the forest and the trees; therefore,
exploring
the Amazon rainforest
from the water is much easier in Cuyabeno! No other national park in the Amazon
region from Venezuela to Bolivia offers this kind of jungle experience and
wildlife visibility from the water! That is why the Cuyabeno Amazon tours are
the best in the world!
Standard 4 day packages, like the standard
Amazon visits;
and
the
Cuyabeno Ronde.
Additionally, one can have customized programs being developed for birdwatcher
and other groups specifically interested in birds as well as other animals
and/or plants.
Yes, one of the facts about the Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador is that Cuyabeno is right on the equator. We looked it up on Google Earth and the
equator runs a little bit north of the lakes, where the parks administration
erected a little monument.
This used to be
permitted, but recently the National Park Service of Ecuador prohibited the
catch and release policy in most protected areas. Now, only the Indians are allowed to fish and keep
their catch for personal use.
Dear visitor, our website gives you info about
our
National Parks Tours,
our
Galapagos programs, the
Cuyabeno Loop,
as well as our
Cuyabeno and Cofan Lodges in the Amazon.
For those who want to combine the
Exuberant Nature of Ecuador with the Famous culture of Peru, we even have a
7
days Highlights of Peru extension! Our website
gives you the best information on the internet, because we are the only tour
operator run by professional biologists. Take a look:
OUR PARKS AND TRIBES ECO TOURS
(Scroll down for the full description of the current page)
STANDARD COFAN LODGE TOUR
Start your Cuyabeno journey on
Ecuador's most scenic wide Amazon tributary, the Aguarico River. Spend 3 nights in the Cofan Lodge,
exploring the lower Cuyabeno and Zábalo Rivers.
The Cuyabeno Loop explores
the breathtaking scenery of lower Cuyabeno and Zábalo
Rivers and the Cuyabeno Lake. Watch the amazing birds and
wildlife. Pass 2 nights with the amazing Cofan Indians in
the Cofan Lodge and enjoy 2 nights of comfort in the famous
Cuyabeno Lodge.
The Lagarto Cocha Expedition on hidden
creeks and lakes is the best Amazon journey in Ecuador!
Discover Indian tribes in Ecuador, Monkeys, Sloths,
Dolphins. No other Amazon rainforest in any of the
Amazon-Andean countries can match the wildlife viewing
of Cuyabeno and it is far better than Yasuní!
The Cuyabeno Lake Program
explores all the wild places surrounding the Cuyabeno Lake.
Bonsai-shaped Macrolobia trees with the whispering of the
mysterious prehistoric Hoatzin birds and the noisy Blue and
Yellow Macaws. Our Cuyabeno Lodge is on the best location,
because we were the first and chose the best location on a
seasonal island in the Cuyabeno Lake itself.
Our Northern Andes Tour lets you get a
taste of some of the best Andean National Parks,
visiting the highest groves in the world: the Polylepis
trees, the highest mountain in the world calculated from
the center of the Earth, the Chimborazo with Vecuñas and
Lamas, the highest active volcano in the world, the
Cotopaxi.
Our National Parks Tours take you on a fantastic
journey along the best possible sample of Andean and coastal
parks. They have been designed to complement
Galapagos and/or Amazon cruises. They can start from different places, particularly Quito,
Guayaquil and Cuenca. While the full program lasts 9 days, it is possible to
make a limited selection of parks, like the 6 days' "Andes
and Coast" module.
We have a fabulous selection of Galapagos
programs, including cruises, island hopping, scuba
diving or relaxing on one of the many different hotels
varying from modest inns to deluxe resorts.
A fabulous program for visiting the most
famous cultural highlights Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu and the
Sacred Valley. At the same time it serves as the Lima hub
for the Peru National Parks Tour. This module is an
extension to our National Parks Tour Ecuador and/or Galapagos National Park
and/or Amazon Cruises.