Safari to Yasuni Amazon

richer wildlife in the upper Amazon

Yasuni is a large national park which lies in the east of Ecuador, a substantial part of a vast conservation area here in the Upper Amazon Basin, which crosses over into neighbouring Colombia, Brazil and Peru.

This particular corner of the Amazon Basin contains some of the highest biodiversity on the planet, with an absolutely mind-boggling array of flora and fauna.

It’s the area of tropical rainforest that is most commonly combined with the other popular locations in Ecuador and Galapagos.

Wildlife viewing in tropical forests is notoriously difficult and none of the lodges in this area have the knowledge or expertise to deliver a particularly intense animal experience, even if we send our own expert naturalist-guide along with you, since it depends on constant monitoring of the fruiting trees in each area.

However the forests and their easier-to-view creatures are enchanting and the area is particularly strong for cultural interaction with the local indigenous tribespeople.

Incidentally, if you are looking for a more intense wildlife experience, with decent chances of seeing creatures such as jaguars, then you may like to look at the Tambopata Amazon area of Peru.

The vast majority of people visiting this area fly into the frontier down of Puerto Francisco de Orellana (El Coca) and take a motorboat down the Rio Napo, to stay at a single lodge for 3 or 4 nights.

There are also a couple of live-aboard cruise options here, but they are not generally considered to be up to the standard of those in the Iquitos area of Peru or the Manaus area of Brazil, so we recommend that you look in those areas if a cruise is what you have in mind.

The best time to visit the Yasuni Amazon area is generally considered to be the Apr-Oct dry season.

Although this area is dominated by tropical rainforest (which is usually indicative of a pretty stable year round climate), Yasuni actually experiences quite a considerable seasonal range.

Temperatures are quite stable year round, with peak daytime temperatures typically rising to around 31C/88F (peaking around 37C/98F), with nighttime temperatures dropping to 17C/63F. Given the high year-round humidities, these night conditions can be quite sticky and uncomfortable (yet none of the lodges offer air-conditioning). During the Nov-Mar rainy season those nighttime temperatures can be a few degrees higher, which doesn’t help.

If you don’t enjoy high temperatures, then Jun-Jul is the best bet, since southerly winds can bring in slightly cooler fronts.

But the biggest seasonal difference is rainfall. During the Nov-Mar rainy season the precipitation rises to around 300mm (6”) per month, which is pretty high.

Downpours can be torrential and enduring. Whilst there’s still a lot of sunny weather around, it is possible to have consecutive days of overcast weather.

During the converse dry season rainfall drops to around 75mm (3”) per month, which means there are still regular showers, but they tend to be light and intermittent, with sunny weather prevailing.

Getting there

The Yasuni Amazon area can be easily accessed by regular internal flights from the capital Quito into Francisco de Orellana Airport in Puerto Francisco de Orellana (El Coca).

It’s also often possible to connect same day from Lima in Peru. But connections in from most other locations (including Galapagos) typically require a stopover in the Quito area.

On rare occasions we undertake the journey from Quito the Yasuni Amazon by road, which is a wonderful journey, but which does necessitate a night at each of Antisana and El Coca.

From Puerto Francisco de Orellana (El Coca) we head to the river port of La Misión and then travel by motorboat down the Rio Napo for 50-100 km (30-60 miles), a journey of 2-4 hours, to reach the various lodges.

Most of the lodges are located around remote ox-box lakes, set deep within the forest, so the last leg usually involves a hike or a canoe ride of a few kilometres.

Where to stay

The vast majority of visitors to this area choose to stay at one of the handful of decent lodges, usually for 3-4 nights.

Although there are two pretty decent live-aboard boats offering 3, 4 and 7 night itineraries along the Rio Napo, we rarely tend to recommend them, mainly because we prefer to spend more time around the hidden black-water lagoons than the busy main channel, but also because we feel that they are a bit on the large side and the experience that they offer is rather half-baked.

easily accessed by air from Quito into El Coca