CONTACT US
CALL 877.784.5400 TOLL FREE
(outside USA call +1.206.784.8111)
CONTACT US
CALL 877.784.5400 TOLL FREE
(outside USA call +1.206.784.8111)
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4D/3N - $890 double | $1155 single - Fri to Mon
5D/4N - $1125 double | $1460 single - Mon to Fri
Flight Quito/Kapawi/Quito Included
Kapawi is located near the Ecuador/Peru border in the Southern Ecuadorian Amazon Basin on the Pastaza River, a major tributary of the Amazon. Kapawi is one of the most pristine and isolated points in the Amazon Basin accessed only by air. The closest town is a ten day walk. Kapawi is located in an area with the highest biodiversity on Earth, home to 10,000 different species of plants and more than 540 species of birds, making it an exciting place to visit on Ecuador tours. Located 149 miles from Quito, the Achuar Territory covers over 1,900 square miles and has an Achuar indigenous population of 4,500 in fifty-six communities.
Kapawi was initiated in 1993 by Carlos Perez Perasso, founder of Canodros and leader of Ecuadorian journalism through El Universo, Ecuador's major newspaper. Through his vision and passion for nature, his goal was to start a new trend in ecotourism, in partnership with the Federation of Achuar Indigenous People in Ecuador (FINAE), to improve the Achuar standard of living and to provide an alternative to oil exploitation and other destructive practices. In 2011, all installations will be transferred to the Achuar people at no cost.
Accommodating up to fifty visitors per day with double and triple accommodations, the Kapawi Eco-lodge and Reserve is an ideal place to visit for people interested in Ecuador adventure travel. The lodge was built by the Achuar using traditional techniques combined with low-impact technologies, and stands as a beacon for conservation efforts across the Amazon. In 2000, Kapawi was awarded Conservation International's Ecotourism Excellence Award for their valiant efforts.
At the moment up to 70% percent of the lodge's employees are Achuar. Canodros also buys products and services for the lodge in the nearby communities. Tourists contribute US$10 as an entrance fee. For these communities, the main income is derived from ecotourism.
Kapawi has brought the area to the attention of many non-governmental organizations that have invested time and money to develop projects that reinforce the structure of FINAE and develop different projects parallel to Ecuador adventure travel ecotourism such as: health, communications, transportation and education for the entire Achuar territory.
The Amazon is one of the most diverse spots on the planet, demanding aggressive conservation efforts to protect its unique natural beauty. Kapawi is one of the last places in the world where you can interact with an ancient culture. Here, meet the proud Achuar, an indigenous group of the Amazon who managed to remain isolated until the 1970s. The Achuar have inhabited the Amazon basin for thousands of years, developing invaluable knowledge and respect for their environment that has allowed them to survive while preserving the ecosystem.
Small groups (no larger than ten) on Ecuador tours are accompanied by both an Achuar and a naturalist guide. Go on short walks through the rainforest, leisurely canoe and kayak rides down the Amazon, and challenging day hikes deep into the jungle.
Kapawi is a unique project. These activities, along with the expertise of a naturalist guide and the ancient wisdom of the Achuar, offer the most authentic Ecuador Amazon jungle adventure travel experience available.
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| The lagoon water level varies throughout the season and provides the scenic setting for your accommodations. | |
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The lodge offers twenty double and triple rooms with private bathrooms, sun-heated showers and electricity provided by a solar panel system. Each room has a wide terrace.
Please keep in mind during your stay here at Kapawi is that you are in the 'jungle.' The insect is by far the most numerous life form in this habitat, so even though the rooms are screened, you may have some unwanted guests in your cabin through the walls and floors. Back to Top |
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A day in Kapawi starts at 6 AM with hot drinks and a light snack before a short hike in the forest or an early morning canoe trip to watch birds on the banks of the Capahuari River or to visit the parrots' salt lick. Passengers will be back for breakfast at 8 AM. At approximately 9 AM, passengers depart for a morning activity, returning to the lodge at 1 PM, or you can take lunch along with you, enjoy a beautiful picnic in the forest and be back to the lodge at approximately 5 PM. Passengers who decide to have lunch at the lodge will start the afternoon activity at 3 PM. A 7 PM briefing with your guides is scheduled every day. Dinner is served at 7:30 PM followed by an opportunity for a night hike, caiman watching or a lecture about the rainforest or Achuar life. Overnight in the community or camping is also available upon request.
The Lodge provides multiple activities on these Ecuador tours, all characterized by their flexibility: With the rest of your group and your guide, you may design your own itinerary day by day. According to your interests and physical condition (but not your age!), three alternative Ecuador adventure travel programs are offered: easy, moderate, and difficult. These programs depend mainly on the distance and time you would like to spend on the trails. Back to Top |
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| Bird watching | |
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Kapawi is a great place for birding. In ten days, some guests on these Ecuador tours have observed almost 400 species. The river islands often have horned screamers and orinoco geese. Muscovy ducks are more prevalent here than at any other place. The pavonine quetzals nest on the Kapawi-Montalvo trail. Also found here are the rufous potoo, black-necked red cotinga, pearly antshrike and pheasant cuckoo. The brown jacamar, Ecuadorian cacique and olive oronpendola are more numerous in Kapawi than any other place you have been. There are many blue-throated piping-guans, herons and egrets. A black bushbird often perches near the cabañas, and red fan parrots are seen on the Capahuari River. You can see and hear plumbeous antbird, dusky-throated antbird, dot-backed antbird or buff-breasted wren.
Other bird of exceptional interest featured in Kapawi are Salvin's curassow, Buckley's forest-falcon, sapphire quail-dove, blue-winged parrotlet, scarlet-shouldered parrotlet, black-billed cuckoo, white-chested puffbird, spotted puffbird, tawny-throated leaftosser, Amazonian umbrellabird, orange-eyed flycatcher and Moriche oriole. You yourself can see and record new species on the islands, adding to your memorable Ecuador adventure travel. Back to Top |
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| Rainforest Plants | |
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A tropical rainforest is characterized by its lack of grasses and sedges between the trees. The denser the forest, the cleaner the forest floor, with the reduction of shrub-like plants, herbaceous plants and vines because of the lack of light. A mild irony of nature in the tropics is that though there are more tree species than anywhere else, many are sufficiently similar, that one can meaningfully describe a 'typical tropical tree.' Leaves of tropical plants are characteristically oval and un-lobed, often possessing sharply pointed ends, called drip tips, which help to facilitate the runoff of rainwater.
Red, orange and yellow flowers are associated with bird-pollinated plants (particularly by hummingbirds), while blue and lavender flowers are commonly bee-pollinated. Some trees produce conspicuous fragrant white flowers that attract bats or moths at night. On these Ecuador tours, you'll see that small white and yellow flowers are mostly pollinated by bees, beetles, flies and butterflies. Of course, while various insects are more attracted to particular colors and odors, any flower could be visited by any insect if it has nectar. Back to Top |
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| Rainforest Mammals | |
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As you walk through the rainforest, you may be overwhelmed by the silence that belies the existence of around 200 species of mammals. Understand that most rainforest mammals are difficult to find because they are mostly shy, nocturnal and well camouflaged. When you're searching for these animals, some patience, luck and a good guide will allow you to see quite a few on these Ecuador tours, including monkeys, giant otters and fresh-water dolphins.
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| Rainforest Reptiles | |
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Reptiles are relatively abundant but difficult to see as they often hold perfectly still when aware of your presence or silently retreat into the leafy forest floor in order to avoid a confrontation. They have relatively dry scaly skin and waterproof eggs that enable them to live in many different habitats and take in all the water they need from their food. Their slow metabolism allows them to have reduced water and food requirements. Distribution and activity are limited because reptiles are 'cold-blooded.' When they need to warm up, they bask in the sun and to cool down they seek shade. On Ecuador tours around Kapawi, you will find land reptiles such as snakes, lizards and tortoises as well as aquatic reptiles such as caimans (of the alligator family) and river turtles.
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| Rainforest Amphibians | |
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Some people find amphibians sluggish and slimy while others find them active, beautiful and harmless. However you feel about them personally, frogs and salamanders provide a fascinating glimpse into our evolutionary past. Amphibians were the first vertebrates to live on land and still need water to reproduce. To adapt to life on land with this limitation, they filled a myriad of ecological niches such as stream banks, lagoons, temporary ponds and even the wet forest floor or the water-filled leaves of both arboreal and terrestrial bromeliads. Today, amphibians are diverse and abundant terrestrial vertebrates and are at peak biodiversity in the lowland tropical rainforests. Walks at night, a special treat in an Ecuador adventure travel experience, will increase the likelihood of locating these animals.
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| Rainforest Insects and other Invertebrates | |
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If, like most people, you find insects and spiders repulsive, scary, or simply uninteresting, your Ecuador adventure travel experience in the rainforest will change your point of view. You can appreciate the exquisite color and form of butterflies and moths along with the beauty of invertebrates and the interrelationship of insects and other rainforest organisms, especially plants. Recent studies of rainforest canopies indicate that there may be as many as thirty million insect species. More than half of all living things that exist on the planet are insects (compared to mammals, at a mere four percent). Insects recycle nutrients, maintain soil structure and fertility, pollinate plants, disperse seeds, control populations of other organisms and are a major food source for birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, other insects and even carnivorous plants. However, more is known about rocks on the moon than about forest insects. Even though we may sometimes wish that there were no mosquitoes and the like, without them and other insects, life on earth would quickly collapse to simple plants and microbes, and the rainforest would not exist.
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| Kapawi Lodge / Social responsibility | |
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In the year 2011, the lodge will be given entirely to the Achuar people. The amount paid in rent by operators to FINAE for the use of their land will total over US$600,000 by the end of the fifteen-year period. There will also be a US$10 fee charged every visitor, generating an estimated additional $150,000 for the support of the project.
Before Kapawi, most of the Achuar based their external economy on cattle ranching. Today, the Achuar communities generate a significant percentage of their revenues from Ecuador adventure travel and ecotourism. Up to 45% of their total income comes from direct employment and supplying products to the ecotourism project. Handicraft sales represent 21%. Back to Top |
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| Environmental Policies | |
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The lodge was built on the edge of the Kapawi Lagoon. The houses were built on stilts in order to minimize the impact caused to the surrounding vegetation. Sewage goes through a three-step drainage process and is pumped onto the forest floor. The sewage drains into a cesspool and the excess water runs into a second cesspool and then into the last from which it is pumped onto the forest floor. Yeast is spread on the ground to accelerate decomposition.
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