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.