This program is designed for adventurous travelers who love to experience nature. Delve into jungle life with our four-day, three-night Yasuni Amazon Adventure. Forest walks, caiman-spotting and the one-of-a-kind Canopy Walk are essentials of the expedition. Enjoy the Sacha lodge with its 5,000-acre (2,000-hectare) ecological reserve in the Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. This tour departs every day of the week except for Sunday.
ACTIVITIES
Note: There is no fixed itinerary for the Amazon Yasuni Adventure tour. You can choose the daily activities that you want to do in consultation with the management of the lodge.
Canopy Walk
Imagine crossing the rainforest across a bridge 94 feet (36 meters) high over the treetops. This 940-foot (275-meter) sturdy walkway is fixed to the ground by three metal towers and offers an astounding opportunity to spot dozens of animals and epiphytes seldom seen from the ground, immersed in the canopy. You might even follow along with troops of monkeys as they forage through the forest. And if you don’t see them, you’ll almost certainly hear them: howler monkeys roaring through the sunset like true kings of the jungle.
Kapok Tower
You’ll feel like you’re on the very top of the world on our 135-foot (43-meter) observation tower, a platform built on the highest branches of a giant kapok tree. From here, magnificent, panoramic views of the forest unfold all around while the 500 species of birds registered in the area, including rainbow-colored toucans and parrots, become easy to spot. Climb onto the crows’ nest for the 360-degree experience, and feel like the captain of the Amazon.
Yasuni Parrot Lick
At a short distance from Sacha Lodge is Ecuador’s most accessible parrot lick, an exposed clay riverbank where multi-colored parrots of several different species gather in the early morning. In ideal conditions (sunny and dry), hundreds of parrots will perch on and eat the exposed clay in a spectacular show of sound and color! The lick is located on the edge of Yasuní National Park, which is accessible from Sacha by a short canoe trip down the Napo River.
Butterfly House
Sacha Lodge is home to one of the largest butterfly farms in Ecuador. Designed as a live exhibition conservatory, the Butterfly House is now successfully breeding nearly 40 local butterfly species. Guests will be shown how these beautiful insects are bred and raised and may roam through “the flying room” where hundreds of colorful butterflies flutter from flower to flower. Transparent glass-wing butterflies, spectacular blue morphs, striking tiger long wings, bright yellow swallowtails, and giant nocturnal owl butterflies are only a few of the species you’ll encounter here, up close and personal.
Forest Walks
Creeping along the jungle paths through the spotlights of sun filtering down through the canopy, and careful not to tread on an army of marching ants, your nature guide will point out plants and insects and the fascinating symbiosis between them. He might take you through the territory of the crested owls or spider monkeys, expertly mimicking the creatures’ call to win their trust and coax them out of hiding. When darkness falls, have your flashlight ready to spot creatures of the night, from tarantulas and boas to stick insects and frogs.
Creek Paddling
Besides being your means of transport between expeditions, creek paddling in dug-out canoes is a fabulous adventure by itself, with the bonus that it requires little physical exertion. Paddling down the streams is like entering into a tunnel leading to a lost world. Birds call in surround sound, and vast families of monkeys leap from branches overhead, a show that sometimes coincides with the setting of the sun.
Caiman Spotting by Night
A night-time expedition to look for caimans on the lake is perhaps the most magical experience of an adventure already filled with wonder. Under the cover of darkness, you will take a canoe out onto the water, and get your way lit by glittering stars. The eyes of the caiman glow ghoulishly red in the torchlight, as the amphibious creatures float along the swampy shallows.
Bird Watching
Of the incredible 1,600 bird species registered in Ecuador, 600 (37 percent) have been seen at Sacha Lodge. That’s almost 7 percent of the species found in the entire world, and you may see some of them in this Amazon Yasuni Adventure tour!
Visit the Providencia Community of Yasuni
This visit takes you to Shipati Warmi project, an initiative run by and benefiting the women of the Providencia community of Yasuní. Through an unobtrusive dialogue, you will learn about their day-to-day lives: how they dry clothes in the jungle and the challenges of getting to school, before helping to prepare and trying traditional food. It’s an intimate, unique experience, in which we discover both the differences and similarities between our own and another culture. The Shipati Warmi project asks that each guest donates $5.