Andes and Amazon Ecuador 8-Day Tour

Welcome to Quito! Meet with your English-speaking guide/driver at the airport and transfer to the
hotel.
Accommodation: Dann Carlton Quito 
Meals included: None

Visit the Basilica Church, where we will make a brief stop to visit it. After walking through the colonial streets, we will then stop at the Independence Plaza to admire the Cathedraland the Government’s Palace. We will also visit the Company Church, The Sagrario´s Church, and San Francisco´s Church, you will also have the chance to taste Ecuadorian chocolate. After visiting the historical sights, we will go to Teleferico. From a point of more than 13,000 feet (4000 m), you will enjoy magnificent views of the city. After lunch, you will head to the Middle of the World monument, where you can stand right in the middle of the equatorial line and straddle the two hemispheres. You will also enjoy the amazing landscape inPululahua inhabited crater just 5 minutes from the Equatorial line.

Accommodation: Dann Carlton Quito 
Meals included: Breakfast

Meet your guide and board a vehicle heading North of Quito and towards Imbabura Province. Stop at San Pablo´s Lake Viewpoint to take some pictures where we will try some delicious biscochos. Visit the Peguche village where artisan workshops, an Andean musical instrument workshop and to complement our tour we will enjoy a short walk inside the Protected Forest Cascada de Peguche. Then, we arrived at the community to visit an organization of women who are dedicated to preparing typical food and also demonstrating typical dishes. We will enjoy a delicious lunch prepared with organic products and the kindness of the people.
After lunch, we will walk 15 minutes to a sacred site called TUNDUN, where our shaman will be waiting for us to demonstrate our ritual using medicinal plants and the energy of the water that we have on the slopes of this sacred site. A volunteer will participate in the demonstration andthen an energy cleanse will be given.

Accommodation: Dann Carlton Quito
Meals included: Breakfast, menu lunch.

You will enjoy the gorgeous natural scenery of the Cotopaxi volcano. You will visit the Limpiopungo Lagoon. Take a short hike in the surroundings of Limpiopungo Valley before driving ever higher into this sky-high region, stopping at the 15,800-foot (4830-meter) Padre Rivas Refuge. Depending on your physical condition, you will get the Glacier (5050-meter)

Accommodation: Dann Carlton Quito
Meals included: Breakfast, menu lunch.

Pick up from Coca City where the staff will pick you up and transfer to a local hotel located on the banks of Napo River. There, your bilingual guides will explain safety before embarking on a 2 ½ boat trip on the largest Ecuadorian affluent of the Amazon, the Napo River. During the journey you get a taste of the Amazon; ancestral communities, and birds such as herons, egrets, and vultures, while enjoying a delicious, packed lunch. A 15-minute walk follows the canoe ride through a flooded forest and a 20-minute paddle canoe across the Challuacocha Lake.
Later in the afternoon, take a short walk on nearby trails or take a canoe ride with the chance to observe primates, Amazonian birds, and black caimans in their primitive setting. Closely encounter the amazing flora represented by cedar trees, orchids, and bromeliads.
After dinner explore our black water, Oxbow Lake, a haven for one of the increasingly endangered species, the black caiman.

Accommodation: Sani Lodge
Meals included: Breakfast, Box lunch, Dinner

Experience the life on the treetops from the 36-meter (118 ft.) observation tower. To get there your leaders will paddle on the Challuacocha Lake for 30 minutes followed by a 10-minute walk. Over 565 species of birds have been registered so far, including colorful birds such as macaws, toucans, honeycreepers, tanagers, flycatchers, and hummingbirds, and with a bit of luck a close view of howlers, squirrel monkeys, and sloths resting in the canopy. The tower gives you a unique perspective, opening up a whole new world of Amazon biodiversity that is often difficult, if not impossible to see from the understory.
After lunch, there are many alternative activities; bird-watching from the dining hall or simply relaxing on the hammocks. In the afternoon, hike the Chorongo or Coto trails for 3 hours, a fantastic terra-firme forest to discover the relationships among the different living creatures and the role they play in this complex ecosystem. After dinner, take a night walk to see how myriads of insects, spiders, and frogs.

Accommodation: Sani Lodge
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We’ll depart to the Napo River to board a boat and visit the Butterfly Garden at Yasuní National Park for a wonderful view of hundreds of butterflies in this area. Continue with a hike on the south of the Napo inside Yasuní National Park considered by scientists to be the most biodiverse area in the world. Here are some species that cannot be found in the north like the golden-mantled tamarins, spider monkeys, blue and yellow macaws, and with a bit of luck a close encounter with white-lipped or collared peccaries. Head back to Sani Community Center to visit a native house to get a taste of how a typical Kichwa family lives. Enjoy the food, drinks, customs, and culture of the Sani community and learn how the lifestyle of the locals is environmentally sustainable.
Optional Activity: You can visit the parrot-clay lick very early in the morning with a lot of parrots searching for a gap to land and eat the earth. There you can see the Mealy Amazon, Yellow-crowned, Orange-winged, and Blue-headed parrots. This activity has an extra cost of USD35.00 per person.

Accommodation: Sani Lodge
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

After breakfast head back to the Napo River to board the boat and visit the parrots’ wall at Yasuní National Park for a wonderful view of hundreds of parrots searching for a gap to land and eat the earth. There you will see Mealy Amazon, Yellow-crowned, Orange-winged, and Blue-headed parrots. Then return to Coca on time to get your flight back to Quito at 11:50 am.

Meals included: Breakfast