Holidays to Ecuador
So far we have only one tour planned for Ecuador which is to an uncharted area of the Amazon rainforest, close to the Peruvian border.
A flight to Quito , the highest capital city in Latin America , is followed by a bus journey of several hours to the frontier town of Puyo . Here you will be transported by light aircraft from the Andes down into the rainforest of the Amazon basin. The ‘airport’ is simply a clearing in the jungle and after landing, members of the local community will escort you by canoe along the mighty Curaray river to their reserve at Pavacachi.
Here they are creating an ecotourist project so that they can share their unique way of life. The project should be up and running by the end of 2006. They are currently constructing wooden huts which will accommodate no more than a dozen visitors at a time to their environment. This is not a trip for the faint-hearted! It is by no means five star accommodation and visitors will need to be prepared for primitive facilities. At the moment there is no electricity but they are planning to obtain a generator very soon.
However what the project lacks in facilities it more than makes up for in offering an astounding, never-to-forget, life experience. The community will cook simple food grown and reared in the forest and their experienced guides will take visitors on trips into the surrounding forest which is teeming with wildlife. You must tread very carefully and quietly, though, because this wildlife is unused to the sight, sound and smell of humans.
If you follow your guide’s instructions, you will be rewarded by the sight of monkeys swinging from branch to branch or maybe by a giant anteater ambling through the undergrowth. Hear the squawking of a flock of macaws flying overhead or the distinctive cry of the Tinamou. Nor is the jungle quiet at night when you’ll hear a whole host of cries from frogs and other night creatures.
The trip will include an overnight visit to a nearby oxbow lake where you can fish for Piranha to eat for supper and sleep in hammocks under the stars. At night you can take torches to spot caiman in the water and by day, if you’re really lucky, you might be privileged to see the majestic, giant anaconda which inhabits this lake!
If you have an adventurous spirit, whatever your age and want to experience a disappearing way of life, then click on the icon for the Ipanli project.
