Gaia Amazon Eco-Lodge

Built from local timber and construction methods passed down in Napo province, Gaia Amazon Eco Lodge sits on the southern bank of the Upper Napo River, 400 metres above sea level. Its cabins rose as a joint effort between Kichwa builders and the lodge's own design, aiming for airy, screened rooms rather than sealed, air-conditioned ones. Each cabin has a veranda facing the river and forest canopy, a private bathroom with hot water, a mini-fridge and ceiling fan, and windows screened against insects rather than glazed shut. The four-day programme built around it draws on generations of local knowledge: a motorised canoe trip past riverbank monkeys, a hike through primary forest to a giant ceiba tree, and a visit to a Kichwa family on Anaconda Island, where hoatzin birds and caimans work the swamp margins. A stop at the Amazoonico rescue centre supports animals bred back for release, among them ocelots and macaws. Guides are bilingual in Spanish and Kichwa. Evenings run to a lantern-lit night walk through frog and insect calls, and mornings can end at Rio Blanco's waterfalls, where petrified wood turns up in the riverbed. It gets cool at night. Steps lead down to the canoe landing, a stretch some guests find tiring on the way back up.