Detailed itinerary for the 5 days - 4 nights package

Day 1

Arrival in the afternoon anytime after 15:00 pm (if you want to arrive earlier ask us for our early check in upgrade).

Welcome by our operation’s manager, Cecilia. Before we take you to your bungalow, let us invite you for an Amazon cocktail and give you a short briefing on Huasquila and its surroundings. When you are ready we will take you to your bungalow. Relax, refresh yourself or just enjoy the view of the Amazon from your hammock. If you feel like going for a walk, we suggest you enjoy our gardens or take the Herradura path, the ancient horse road that once connected the Amazon with Quito and which is used now by local people to walk to their houses and communities (this is a not guided activity).

Dinner will be served at 19:00 pm.

After dinner you can enjoy our bar or just wind down by the fire place and spend some fun time with your friends or family playing one of our games or relaxing on a hammock.

Day 2

We will serve our special breakfast experience at 8:00 am. We invite you to try out the best of Ecuadorian cuisine for breakfast, from plantain and cheese balls to maniok (yuca) tortillas. If you prefer the conservative breakfast we can help you with pancakes or French toast. Every breakfast choice will be accompanied with eggs of your choice, tropical fruits, 100% natural fresh juices and a tasty and strong cup of Amazon coffee.

After breakfast we will start our first activity. We will put on our rubber boots and start a 3 hour hike in the jungle. We will start walking through open areas until we reach the forest and meet our first sight: a 15 meters high waterfall where we can refresh ourselves. Then we keep on hiking through the jungle to learn more about this special habitat for animals and plants. We will need to be very quiet and always aware of the environment to have the possibility to see most animals, from tropical colourful birds to small monkeys called chichickos, which are also called pocket monkeys due to their size. During the walk you will continue trying local specialities such as the famous lemon aunts (yes, you read right, we will try some aunts) and be delighted by the refreshing taste of the sour cane, similar to the sugar cane but juicy refreshing and very interesting. Our guide will also give you an introduction to medicinal plants and its uses, which will impress you for sure (we are still impressed by the huge knowledge of our guides on plants and their uses). During the whole walk we will be making stops to rest and show you how to weave a shigra (typical bag) from cutting the leave of a plant to finishing the bag or how to make tramps for fishing out of a single plant. The walk gives us the possibility to enter a cave and enjoy a medicinal mud bath. You will love to feel the effect it has on your skin and will never forget that you took a 100% natural spa treatment in a cave in the middle of the jungle. Leave the mud on your face and keep on walking towards the end of our walk at a small natural pond surrounded by rocks, you can wash all the mud down and start feeling your new soft skin. Walk back to the lodge through open areas, refreshing cold tea out of Amazon plants and lunch.

For lunch we will enjoy our cook’s creations and then go for a well deserved rest time of an hour (our siesta time).

Meet back at the social area to start the afternoon activity. Here you can choose between a visit to the Animal Rescue Center or the Jumandy Caves. In both cases we will drive about 10 minutes and our guide will join you.

The Animal Rescue Center is the best option to see most of the animals from the Amazon. In our jungle walk we won’t see big mammals or macaws, which you can see for certain when visiting the Animal Center. It is a 2 hours very relaxing walk where you don’t need rubber boots, regular shoes are enough. This is recommended for people feeling tired after the morning hike.

The Jumandy Caves are very famous and offer you the possibility to venture into the world of stalagmites and stalactites, as well as the possibility to bathe inside the cave in a pond, an experience you will always remember. You need rubber boots and it demands energy and some nerves to swim through the 100% dark pond. This is more recommended for adventurous people in good physical shape (because of the morning hike).

In both cases drive back to the lodge in time to shower, change or just relax.

Dinner will be ready at 19:00 with the most famous specialty from the Amazon: the Maito. It is an ancient plate cooked in special long leaves from a plant you will know in the hike and accompanied with cooked maniok. After dinner free time to share the experiences of the day, collect some information you missed during the day or just enjoy the lodge and its facilities.

Day 3

On the third day you can chose from a more physically challenging activity and a less challenging one.

More physically challenging option

It is an all day hike to the Canyon, one the most incredible spots in the region. We will leave after breakfast and drive for ten minutes to the starting point of our hike. We will walk along a path used by local people to go to their villages and leave it after aprox. 1 hour walk. We will hike through secondary forest and over some creeks before arriving to the first stop: an impressive pond in the middle of the jungle with crystal clear water to swim in. In this spot we can also enter a cave and walk our way up to a 12 meter high waterfall, from where you can jump down to the pond and let your spirit free in this outgorgeaus setting. We will have our picnic here and then we will keep on hiking to the canyon, which is filled with water and we will admire its incredible beauty. Drive back to the lodge, relax and dinner at 19:00 pm

Less physically challenging option

We will leave after breakfast to make the activity you didn’t do the day before, either animal center or caving. For the detailed description please refer to the 3 day/2 night package info. Then return to the lodge and lunch.

After lunch (of course with one hour siesta time) we will leave and visit the petroglyphs, which are stone carvings figures that are still a mystery for our culture. This carvings are thousands of years old and we find a high number of them close to Huasquila. This is why now they know this region as the Sacred Valley of Cotundo, home of the petroglyphs with its mystery. It is also important to mention that you are supporting sustainable responsible tourism by doing this, since the archaeological side is run by the ecotourism school of Cotundo, young local people searching for new alternative models of development.

Return to the lodge and dinner at 19:00 pm.

Day 4

This day is meant to fully enjoy the lodge and its surroundings as well as taking part in all the activities we offer. On this day you can either take part in one of the activities you didn’t do in the days before or you can chose out of the following activities:

• Walk to the river with bath option (half day)
• Visit of local communities (kichwa indian villages) (half day)
• City tour to Tena including Misahualli (all day)
• Handicraft course with seeds from the jungle and finishing a neckless or similar, the course is hold with local women from closed by communities (half day)
• Culinary course where you can learn to prepare one of the dishes you have eaten in Huasquila (half day)

Day 5

Everything good comes to an end…and sadly so is it here too. We want to spoil you one last time with our breakfast experience and wish you all the best for your trip. Don’t forget: free travel advice is also included in our services. If you wish to stay longer than 10:00 am ask us for our late check out.

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