Ecuador is home to one of the most diverse and easily accessible corners of the Amazon Rainforest. The wildlife viewing here is quite simply spectacular and makes for a wonderful addition to a Galapagos cruise. Accounting for 40% of Ecuador’s land mass, the vast majority of species found in Ecuador live in the Amazonian Rainforest. The lodges we work with are in and around Yasuni National Park, spanning 2.5 million acres of lush Amazonian rainforest, it is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and has been recently found in some studies to be the most biodiverse place on earth.
“Ecuador and Galapagos was for me one of the most exciting holidays I have ever experienced.”
Margaret Tindale
Each trip we create for our guests is unique. We tailor each holiday to match our guests individual interests, time scale and budget, however these holidays show some ways of how you could incorporate the Amazon into your Galapagos and Ecuador holiday. The great thing about Ecuador’s corner of the Amazon is that it is relatively easily accessible. A short 35 minute flight over the Andes from Quito takes you to Coca, the gateway to the Amazon, and from there you board a speedboat down the Napo River and the adventure begins…..
Although you can drive down from Quito through the cloud forests on the eastern slopes of Ecuador’s Andes, it is a long journey and the scenic portion is relatively short, so most journeys to Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest start as a flight from Quito. It is a short 35 minute flight which literally takes you up and over the Andes, and then down to the Amazon basin to the town of Coca. Coca has grown up out of tourism, though principally through the oil exploitation in the area. It has something of a frontier feel and isn’t the most attractive of towns!
From Coca, the rainforest lodge teams meet you at the airport and take you down to the dock, around a 10 minute bus journey where you board a speedboat. The first part by speedboat takes around 2 hours. From here you board dug out canoes and begin paddling through the creeks towards your lodge and it is from this point you will start spotting some of the amazing wildlife to be found here.
The seasons in the Rainforest should be described as ‘wet’ and ‘wetter’! Usually however the rain falls at predictable times in the afternoon and so daily activities can be planned around this. The annual rainfall in the Napo Basin, which is where all the lodges we work with are based, can reach 3800 mm with an average monthly rain of 260 mm. The wettest month is usually July, with 400 mm and the driest is December with 130 mm. The rainfall seasonality in the Napo is bimodal. In other words, there are two wet seasons, one between March and July, and the other between October and November.
The mean annual temperature is 25.5 °C with a mean maximum temperature of 30°C and a minimum of 23°C . November, December and January are the warmest months whereas July is the coolest. The relative humidity is high during the whole year. In the dry season, the annual mean humidity is about 83% while in the rainy season is almost 90%.
| Month | Min ℃ | Max ℃ | Rain (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
January |
4 |
17 |
153 |
|
February |
4 |
17 |
136 |
|
March |
4 |
17 |
120 |
|
April |
3 |
18 |
46 |
|
May |
0 |
18 |
8 |
|
June |
-2 |
18 |
2 |
|
July |
-2 |
17 |
4 |
|
August |
-1 |
18 |
8 |
|
September |
1 |
18 |
23 |
|
October |
3 |
19 |
40 |
|
November |
3 |
19 |
68 |
|
December |
4 |
18 |
116 |
| Month | Min ℉ | Max ℉ | Rain (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
January |
39.2 |
62.6 |
153 |
|
February |
39.2 |
62.6 |
136 |
|
March |
39.2 |
62.6 |
120 |
|
April |
37.4 |
64.4 |
46 |
|
May |
32 |
64.4 |
8 |
|
June |
28.4 |
64.4 |
2 |
|
July |
28.4 |
62.6 |
4 |
|
August |
30.2 |
64.4 |
8 |
|
September |
33.8 |
64.4 |
23 |
|
October |
37.4 |
66.2 |
40 |
|
November |
37.4 |
66.2 |
68 |
|
December |
39.2 |
64.4 |
116 |
This is very much a suggested list and much is down to personal preference, but here are some suggestions of what to pack:
The “Oriente” as Ecuador’s Amazon region is locally known, is bounded on the west by the eastern Andean range also known as Cordillera Real (Royal Mountain Range). The eastern side of Ecuadorian Amazon Region is boundless because it expands toward the Amazon plains. The oriental flank of the Cordillera Real has an abrupt terrain that go down from an altitude of 6000 – 4000 m to 500 m in less than 100 Km.
For this reason, most waterways of the Ecuador’s Amazon system initiate along the slopes of the Cordillera Real where torrential, high gradient streams with changeable courses flow southeastward to generate three main hydrographic basins: the Napo, the Pastaza and the Santiago basins. The Ecuadorian Amazon basin lies on deep tertiary alluvial deposits above
Cretaceous marine sandstones with Pliocene and Miocene formations and recent alluvial deposits from the Quaternary. The topography of the lowland region is characterized by the presence of irregular and round hills, terraces and alluvial plains. The soils are red – brown lateritic (oxisols) in well drained areas closest to the Andes, while in poorly drained areas away from the Andes the soils are red -yellowish podzols (ultisols).
The Napo Basin originates east of the Ecuadorian Andes and expands southeast to the convergence of the Napo and the Marañon rivers in Peru. The area of the funnel – shaped basin is 98445 Km2. The Ecuadorian part is about 31400 K m2 that is 30% of the total basin
area. Additionally, the Napo basin is the largest in Ecuador covering about 20% of the entire Oriente.
The Napo with only 1,300km is a small Amazon affluent that has a discharge rate of less than 1% compared to other major Amazonian watercourses like the Rio Negro in Brazil. The upper Napo River, almost 460 Km long, is entirely situated in Ecuadorian territory while the rest (840 Km) goes across northeast Peru. The Napo would be classified as a white water river because its appearance is turbid, the predominant color of water is pale -brown and the suspended sediment load is high. In the lowlands, the Napo riverbanks are continuously being changed by lateral erosion associated with meanders. That leads to the formation of temporary channels locally known as ‘chictas*, sand beaches (quartz), islands, oxbow lakes and floodplains. The water level in these types of rivers is constantly changing due to local rains and precipitation in the Andes. Sometimes during the rainy season, variations in water depth can be as much as 4 m in less than 8 hours.
We listen to you. We take the time to understand what you want your Galapagos trip of a lifetime to be. We then we use our decades of experience and unrivalled network of local contacts and team of top guides to make it happen.
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