Exploring the Amazon Forest in Ecuador - Our Itinerary in Cuyabeno

Whenever someone asks me what the best place I have visited is, the answer is always the Amazon Forest. At the end of January, we went on our 4 day trip to the Cuyabeno reserve and it has been the best experience of my life.

In this post, I’ll go through our day by day itinerary. Click here, instead, for all the practical details, including what company we used and how to get there. Keep reading to see what we were up to during our four days in the jungle!

Watch the Cuyabeno’s video diary

Day 1

There was a lot of travelling on the first day. From Baños, we got a night bus to Coca, and then another one to Lago Agrio. Here, after finding out we forgot our bag of sweets on the bus, we got another 3-hour bus and later a 3-hour motorboat, that brought us straight to the heart of the Amazon forest.

The trip was amazing and it really felt like being in a wildlife documentary. After leaving our bags in the lodge, we went paddling on the river, looking for monkeys and birds. While we were out exploring, we came across an abandoned lodge, so we decided to get off the boat and walk through it.

Day 2

A lot of what you can and can’t do in the Amazon depends on the weather. On our second day there, the rain was so strong that we decided to postpone our jungle trek and just spent the day with the local community. Finding out how the indigenous people live was very interesting. We made some cinnamon chocolate and we also picked yucca and made bread with it.

Finding out how the indigenous people live was very interesting. We made some cinnamon chocolate and we also picked yucca and made bread with it.

Finally we visited Delio, the village’s Shaman, who gave Eoghan a special ceremony that was supposed to make his back better. In fact, not only his back didn’t get any better, but because the Shaman hit him with nettle sticks, it even hurt to put his t-shirt back on!

But this wasn’t the only adventure we had on the day. On the way back to our lodge, our motorboat broke down and we had to wait for several hours in the river, under the rain, until a local family went by with their boat and gave us a lift back to the lodge.

Day 3

The third day was my favourite of this trip. After paddling through several plants and trees, we got off the boat and started our jungle trek, looking for edible plants and leaves, medicinal plants and animals. We saw several kinds of monkeys and birds – even lots of hoatzins, which according to our guide are prehistoric birds. We also saw pink dolphins and a huge anaconda, sunbathing on a brunch. During the walk, we tried some leaves and flowers, some of which are used by the local community as an anti-inflammatory medicine.

In the afternoon, we went to the main lagoon to swim and watch the sunset. The colours of the sky were amazing and it really was one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. Take a look at the pictures…doesn’t it look magical?

After it got dark, the day ended with a night walk through the jungle. We finally went for a night walk, looking for spiders and frogs and other creatures living here.

Day 4

On our last day in the jungle, we got up very early to go and see the sunrise and some species of birds and monkeys that only come out at this time of the day.