Best stay during our 4 weeks trip in Ecuador, stayed 4 d/3n in a suite bungalow

After a 30’ flight from Quito, you arrive in Coca, where the guides... read more meet you
From there it is one hour by fast boat to the starting point of a canoe trip to the lodge

Canoe brings you through the forest and at the end you enter a lake where you see the first glimpse of the lodge, beautiful integrated in the surroundings, far more than Mashpi lodge

After a warm welcome you find your bungalow, the suite bungalows are quietly located near the water and have an outside jacuzzi. Rooms are authentic and cosy, you feel fine in the room from the start! Not so upscale and rather cool than Mashpi, but perfect for the location and concept of the place

Restaurant is an omen space, with lots of wood and there is ab amazing panorama in top of it!
Atmosphere is relaxed and guides join you at dinner . Food is very good

Excursions show you the surroundings and guides are competent and motivated

On the day you leave, the canoes brings your back very early in the morning through the
wakening forest, really a great experience

Amazing stay, will go there again ! More

  Our experience at Napo Wildlife Center was nothing short of incredible, on every axis - from the accommodations to the staff to the scenery to the most astounding piece: the... read more wildlife spotting tours. As a lodge, NWC is extremely well designed, beautiful, comfortable, and functional. Meals at NWC, served in a communal dining pavilion, are delicious and bountiful, and the chefs will happily accommodate any dietary restrictions. Whereas in most of Ecuador, it’s necessary to avoid raw foods washed in tap water, NWC’s kitchen uses fully purified water, so you can eat and drink without constantly worrying. There is also a bar open 24/7 with cocktails such as Pisco Sours, Mojitos, Blue Morphos, and Black Caymans, as well as beer and wine. Each thatch-roofed cabin is outfitted with a modern private bathroom, a ceiling fan, and a bed with mosquito netting. Showers in the cabins are modern - much nicer than our NYC shower! - with great pressure and temperature range. Towels, biodegradable shampoo and soap, and slippers are provided, along with a potable water jug that is replenished every day. The higher end cabins come with a jetted jacuzzi on the back patio from which you can watch butterflies, birds, and possibly caymans, as well as a glass floored living room area that sits above the lake, enabling further wildlife spotting. The only modern amenity lacking is air conditioning. Pack the lightest PJs you own for warmer nights. I... Our experience at Napo Wildlife Center was nothing short of incredible, on every axis - from the accommodations to the staff to the scenery to the most astounding piece: the wildlife spotting tours.

As a lodge, NWC is extremely well designed, beautiful, comfortable, and functional. Meals at NWC, served in a communal dining pavilion, are delicious and bountiful, and the chefs will happily accommodate any dietary restrictions. Whereas in most of Ecuador, it’s necessary to avoid raw foods washed in tap water, NWC’s kitchen uses fully purified water, so you can eat and drink without constantly worrying. There is also a bar open 24/7 with cocktails such as Pisco Sours, Mojitos, Blue Morphos, and Black Caymans, as well as beer and wine.
Each thatch-roofed cabin is outfitted with a modern private bathroom, a ceiling fan, and a bed with mosquito netting. Showers in the cabins are modern - much nicer than our NYC shower! - with great pressure and temperature range. Towels, biodegradable shampoo and soap, and slippers are provided, along with a potable water jug that is replenished every day. The higher end cabins come with a jetted jacuzzi on the back patio from which you can watch butterflies, birds, and possibly caymans, as well as a glass floored living room area that sits above the lake, enabling further wildlife spotting. The only modern amenity lacking is air conditioning. Pack the lightest PJs you own for warmer nights. I wound up wearing my short sleeve linen shirt intended for day time to bed.
The dining hall is the lowest floor of a very tall observation tower, upper floors of which feature couches, a small shop, tables, and observation platforms. The view is astounding.

But while the accommodations are luxurious, especially considering the utterly remote location of the lodge, it is the lodge staff and guides in particular who make a visit to Napo a bucket list experience. Guests are divided into groups of 5-6, and each group is assigned a guide and paddler for the week. Tours are available in English and Spanish; some guides may speak other languages too in addition to their native Kichwa. Napo Wildlife Center is owned and operated entirely by the Añagu Kichwa community, and the lodge and cultural center employ the entire working population of this community of 250 people. There are also a couple of guides and staff who are free lancers from neighboring Kichwa communities or other indigenous tribes of the area. This means that every guide grew up in and is intimately familiar with the rainforest - flora, fauna, weather patterns, how weather affects the likelihood of seeing specific animals, species interactions, and more. Standing at the top of an observation tower staring down at the rainforest canopy, we could only spot a handful of weavers, while our guide picked out rare eagles miles away with his ears and naked eye, and then showed them to us on his sporting scope.

Your guide will spot wildlife you would never in a million years find on your own. Our guide Remigio (Remi for short) could pick out and imitate hundreds of animal calls, ranging from howler monkey to trumpeter bird to peccary. We saw far more wildlife than I could enumerate in a few lines, but highlights included macaws, parrots and parakeets at a clay lick, a family of giant river otters swimming across the lake, a Harpy eagle and 2 crested eagles, a black cayman, and four (4) anacondas - 3 sleeping next to each other in the sun.

My husband and I will forever look back on this trip as one of the best of our lives. Thank you so much to everyone at Napo for an experience beyond our wildest dreams! More

  Napo Wildlife Center is an amazing way to experience the Amazon and support the local indigenous community and conservation. The lodge is ~4 hours via boat (motor canoe & man-powered... read more canoe), and every day was spent exploring the area via canoe, hike, or bird-watching tower. Shout out to our two incredible guides, Marcelo and Meliton, for making our trip so great and showing us so much amazing animal life.