5 – DAY – SACHA LODGE

After making your reservation, Sacha Lodge will book your flight from Quito to Coca. From the moment you set foot at Quito airport you will be in the safe hands of one of our bilingual team members, and will be guided all the way to the Lodge.
After arriving at Sacha Lodge around lunchtime and meeting your guide – who stays with you for the entirety of your trip – you will take your first excursion into the forest. Once you have returned and had dinner, you will set out for your first nighttime adventure: snake spotting in the jungle, or canoeing among caimans on the lake.
A typical day at Sacha begins at sunrise or earlier, in order to take advantage of the cool morning hours when the rainforest’s animals are most active.
Each group agrees on a wake-up time, when their guide will knock on their door for a rude awakening! Breakfast will begin half an hour after that.
Wherever the destination, our excursions proceed slowly in order to appreciate the fascinating details that our guides point out around you.

You might begin the day paddling dugout canoes along tannin-rich black-water creeks and lakes, where luxuriant lianas, orchids, bromeliads and palm trees thrive, always with the possibility of spotting animals, from the tiny pygmy marmoset to the feared ocelot or puma. Then, you could board the motorized canoe for a short ride along the Napo River to visit the Providencia Community of Yasuní, learning about their jungle way of life and testing out their cooking techniques, stopping to watch the parrot disco of the clay lick along the way.
You will return to the Lodge in the late morning, in time for a 1PM lunch. In the time between lunch and your afternoon adventure, you are free to enjoy the Lodge, lounging on sun chairs with a book on the Balsa, or cooling off in the Lake Pool. Activities begin again between 3:00PM and 4:30PM and often continue into the evening, when the nocturnal insect and frog chorus begins. An afternoon excursion might see you trekking through pristine Terra Firme forest, where 150-foot kapok trees tower above and roots form huge buttresses to give trees support, your guide pointing out the crest owl territory and calling to the howler monkeys. You could then climb 94 feet (30 meters) up to the Canopy Walk, a 940-foot (275-meter) bridge across the treetops from where you can spot dozens of animals and birds.
Days at Sacha Lodge do not end with the fading of the light, or even with dinner. Night walks and canoe trips, with the aid of flashlights, often reveal creatures seldom seen during daylight. Caimans (of the alligator family) and giant insects rule the jungle after sunset. Do you dare search for them?
*Please note: activities are subject to weather, though Forest Walks, the Kapok Tower, and Canopy Walk are the keystones of the Sacha Lodge experience.

Explore the rainforest canopy along a 94-foot high (36 m) bridge above the treetops! This 94-foot long (275 m) sturdy walkway offers an astounding opportunity to spot dozens of animals.

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.

A short distance from Sacha Lodge is Ecuador’s most accessible parrot lick, an exposed clay riverbank where technicoloured 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 colour! 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.
*on Wednesdays and Sundays only*

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 longwings, bright yellow swallowtails and giant nocturnal owl butterflies are only a few of the species you’ll encounter here, up close and personal.

Creeping along the jungle paths through the spotlights of sun filtering down through the canopy, 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.

Besides being your means of transport between expeditions, creek paddling in dug-out canoes is a fabulous adventure in 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 to coincide with the setting of the sun.

A night-time expedition to look for caiman on the lake is perhaps the most magical experience of an adventure already filled with wonder. Under cover of darkness, you will take a canoe out onto the water, 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.

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!
For avid birdwatchers, we can provide specialist bird guides, who know the best spots for the hard-to-find species, and can easily identify species by both sight and sound. Oscar Tapuy, our local expert who has been with at Sacha since 1995, estimates that he spots 60 species per day on average. Your guide will lead you through a variety of habitats where mixed flocks are common, and generally begin before sunrise to take full advantage of the morning peak. Our guides carry telescopes, and have become dab-hands at taking photos with your camera or phone through the lense!

Our visit takes us to Shipati Warmi project, an initiative run by and benefiting the women of the Providencia community of Yasuní. Through an unobtrusive dialogue, we 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 $10.
*on Wednesdays and Sundays only*

Ideal for families, the Lake Pool is the only one of its kind in the Amazon region. The plunge pool, protected by a mesh cage, allows you to cool off and relax in the black shallows of the Pilchicocha Lake, without the fear of encountering the unknown. You could even spot caiman and giant otters swim by the other side of the net.