Napo Wildlife Center

Napo Wildlife Center is superbly situated overlooking Lake Anangu and is the only lodge within the protected Yasuni National Park, thereby offering an exclusive rainforest experience. The lodge is run with the full participation of the native Añangu community and is 100% community owned, setting it apart from most other rainforest lodges and ensuring the protection of the local population and environment.

Accommodation at Napo Wildlife Center is in 20 comfortable wooden cabañas, including 8 spacious suites, 4 of which have a jacuzzi. Each cabaña has a private terrace with hammocks and overlooks either the lake or rainforest. The thatched roof building of the lodge includes a dining hall where a superb standard of food is served, with a small library and well stocked bar. The lodge even offers WiFi weather permitting. There is also a 50ft observation tower perfect for wildlife watching and taking in the views of the lake at dawn or dusk.

Within the rainforest the lodge has another 20ft observation tower built in a giant Caypoch tree. The towers give guests the chance to view the forest canopy from an entirely different perspective and is great for wildlife viewing, with the opportunity to see monkeys, toucans, parrots and other wildlife that cannot be seen from the forest floor.

Yasuni National Park was declared a UNESCO reserve in 1989 and is home to an incredible variety of flora and fauna, including 200 mammals, 565 species of birds and over 40,000 insects. Several trails lead through pristine terra firme forest, where 150-foot trees tower above and huge buttress roots crisscross the paths. Days are spent on paddle dugout canoes along tannin-rich black water creeks and lakes in search of wildlife from river otters to water-loving birds, and by night walk in the forest to observe nocturnal wildlife and canoe on the river in search of caiman and night bats with the aid of torches. Always accompanied by a local guide with incredible eyes for spotting wildlife and an English-speaking naturalist guide, the experience is an educational adventure. Unique to the lodge, there are also two clay licks within easy reach, where guests can watch hundreds of brightly coloured parrots and macaws congregate in huge flocks to feed on the clay, a truly incredible spectacle.