Amazon Rainforest, Ecuador

The world's richest and most varied biological reservoir, containing several million species of insects, plants, birds, and other forms of life, many still unrecorded by science. The luxuriant vegetation and wide variety of trees include many species of myrtle, laurel, palm, and acacia, as well as rosewood, Brazil nut, and rubber tree. Excellent timber is furnished by the mahogany and the Amazonian cedar. The Amazon rainforest is home to a bewildering array of wildlife, including macaws, toucans, tyrant flycatchers, capybaras, tapir, sloths, manatees, red deer, squirrel monkeys, red howler monkeys, jaguars, caimans, anacondas, tarantulas, leaf-cutter ants, scarlet ibis, and black skimmers.    [- Encyclopedia Britannica, 2004]

El Oriente is the term used by Ecuadorians for all of the Amazon Basin lowlands east of the Andes. Although the Amazon River itself does not flow through Ecuador, every one of Ecuador's rivers east of the Andes runs into the Amazon, and hence, all of the Oriente is part of the upper Amazon Basin. This area is all rainforest [now steadily depleting], merging into cloud forest in the eastern Andean foothills.    [- From Lonely Planet Ecuador, 2001]

Rio Napo	Accommodation	Beaming traveler	Rio Napo
Flora			Evening
River bank			Rest stop on jungle hike
Capybara	Ocelot	Peccary	Trumpet bird
Termite nest			Primordial forest
Sunset			Vista point
Cooling off	Rafting down	Liana Lodge bus stop	Returning west to Tena