Yasuni National Park – Sep 2025

We had a few days in Quito between the Huayhuash Circuit and heading into “the Amazon”. The Amazon basin is obviously a huge area and there are many different places you can visit it. As we were trying to fill some time between Northern Peru and the Galapagos we’d chosen to go to Yasuni National Park in the East of Ecuador. Specifically to a community-run lodge situated on the Tiputini River – one of the many tributaries of the Amazon River.

Our trip didn’t start so well when there was no one to meet us at Coca airport. Eventually someone turned up – who didn’t have much English and had no official signage – but at least he said the name of the lodge. We were taken to a local restaurant in Coca where breakfast was a whole fish with plantain patties. Eventually Bill, our guide, who was meant to have met us at the airport, turned up – looking very much like he’d just rolled out of bed.

Once we’d had breakfast we were offered grilled grubs (chontacuro) on a skewer – a local delicacy apparently. Like contestants on Survivor we dutifully ate them, but I wasn’t likely to be going back for more. Then it was time for a 2 hour drive to a nondescript put-in point on the River Tiputini.

Us, our luggage, food and water were all loaded on the river boat. Then we were in the hands of our boat driver to guide us around the obstacles and to our lodge an hour or so downstream. Home for the next six nights was a canvas style safari tent with a big thatch roof over the top. The bathroom was out the back of the tent – open to the bugs but the thatch covered it from any rain.

We’d notionally signed up to 7 day tour involving hiking, kayaking and camping. Of course, everything was subject to the weather and the program that we’d seen on the website was more of a guideline. As it turned out, the program probably hadn’t been updated for some time. For example, it had included some cultural experiences (which we were quite happy to miss out on), which were no longer possible because the house we were meant to visit hadn’t been occupied for several years.

We had our first hike in the late afternoon of our first day. We were kitted out with gumboots and headed off with Bill into the jungle (as it turned out we were the only guests for the first 5 days so had Bill to ourselves). We learnt pretty quickly that 1) it was very humid, 2) it’s pretty hard to spot wildlife in the jungle. Good thing that Bill knew lots of stuff about the plants and trees since there’s not always much else to talk about!

There was a fair bit of rain while we where there, some of which slightly delayed our longest hike the next morning. We ended up heading out in the drizzle – but we remained surprisingly dry due to the thickness of the canopy.

Post lunch was always rest time, and then we would generally have a late afternoon activity. On day 2 it was a boat trip down the river – the skies opened up just after we left – fortunately the boat had a roof! The rain didn’t last long and we saw, what was probably the highlight of the trip (though we didn’t realise it at the time), two capybaras running into the river. On most outings we saw a few monkeys and of course plenty of birds – my favourite being a yellow-headed vulture. I left the animal photography to Tom as they were generally a fair distance away.

Unfortunately I’d come in with the remains of a cold and as is often the way I had a cough which lingered on. I’d hoped the moist, sea-level air would help settle it down but no luck. So, my overall enjoyment of the trip was definitely impacted by my poor sleep due to coughing… and the large amount of insect bites we acquired on day 3. The packing list for the trip had listed “repellent (no spray)” so we’d brought along gel-based repellent. I’m still not clear why spray wasn’t recommended as it became clear we really needed to have covered our bodies, including under our clothes, with repellent.

The morning of day 3 had us visiting a parrot clay lick. We waited in the hide for a couple of hours and the parrots very slowly started making their way down. Just as it felt like they were getting a bit of confidence to move in larger numbers a hawk arrived and they all scattered. So that was the end of that. But, we suspect, while we’d been sitting there not moving for 2 hours, some other things had been moving. We ended up covered in mite bites – in some pretty unpleasant places – all underneath our clothing.

The afternoon of day 3 we went looking for anacondas in the lagoon across the river from the lodge. It was very peaceful, but no anacondas spotted.

Our morning hike on day 4 had us stalking a tapir for a long time – plenty of footprints, but we never found it. The plan had been to go camping on night 4 but a huge thunderstorm broke mid-afternoon and continual rain into the evening nixed that plan.

Instead we convinced Bill that we wanted to go kayaking (since that had been on the program!), and so we agreed we would kayak to the intended campsite the next morning. Tom & I had a double-inflatable and Bill was in a single – which perhaps had a leak which might have explained Bill’s reluctance? There was enough current in the river that we didn’t have to do much paddling.

Before we knew it we were at “camp”. It was a pretty sorry sight (& site!). The river had been dropping over the time we’d been at the lodge and all the banks were very muddy. Our crew chopped a camp into the vegetation and got palm leaves to put down as a natural groundsheet to avoid the tent area getting (more) muddy. I almost told them not to worry about it and we’d just head back to the lodge it was that unappealing (since all the gear had come down on the river boat, so it was all entirely contrived as a camping experience). But, Tom reckoned we should roll with it, so we did.

Fortunately rather than spending much time at camp we spent most of the day fishing. Before lunch we headed a bit upstream and Bill and the other crew managed to catch 4 catfish in pretty quick succession. Tom & I didn’t have much luck though my bait did get taken – apparently by a piraña (piranha) – based on the state of the bait. I don’t know that I’ve ever had fresher fish for lunch? We were saddened to learn that the Napo River, which is the larger river to the north, is now basically dead. Our guide said that the local people no longer fish from it, as there has been so much pollution from the oil industry.

Unfortunately the afternoon’s fishing was far less productive – despite trying 5 different spots. The only thing that got caught was a stingray. The local people who run the lodge no longer take stingray from the river, so it was quite the effort to get the hook out of the ray and throw it back in, while avoiding the stinger.

Our camping mattress had a slow leak – fortunately sufficiently slow that we got through the night without getting to the ground. I think the crew were as keen as us to get out of the mudfest, so we were on our way pretty efficiently after breakfast the next morning. Bill, Tom & I got dropped off at a track which followed the ridges back to the lodge. This was a nice change from walking on the valley floors as we got some views and it was less stifling. The highlights from that walk were a jaguar footprint and a poison tree frog.

Some other guests arrived that afternoon so we had a shared boat trip with a Polish couple & Bill as our final activity. Then at dinner another Aussie guy, who I’m guessing had paid for a private guide, also appeared (with his guide). Tom & I were pretty happy to be having dinner with a few other people as we’d just been dining with Bill every night to that point. Though we had to work for it – initially we’d been set up as a table for 2 and everyone else was on another table!

The guests that arrived that day had been taken a long way round as there were protests blocking the road to/from the airport. There was some concern that these would still be in place in the morning when we headed back – that meant getting up an hour earlier than expected. It had started pouring during the night, and it was still pouring as we scurried to the boat in the dark at 5am. The skill of our boat driver was pretty incredible – we were going upstream in the dark with pouring rain. He must just know the river so well to have been able to avoid all the snags – the river had dropped over 2m in the time we’d been there so there were even more snags than when we’d arrived. Fortunately (or not given our early wake up?) the protests were not a factor and we had a straightforward run back to Coca airport, so we could get on our way to the Galapagos.