Ecuadorian Amazon

I work in the Ecuadorian Amazon and get a lot of questions from people about visiting the Amazon. In case anyone here is interested, I wanted to add a post about how easy and cheap it is to visit the Ecuadorian part of the Amazon! From the capital (Quito) it's 7.50 USD for a bus to Tena, the Amazonian capital of the Napo province. Tena is a town/verrry small city in the Amazon with a lot of great hostels, restaurants, nightlife, and within easy distance of a lot of jungle experiences you can do or organize on your own. Some places you can hike by yourself in the Amazon that are a short local bus ride away from Tena are cascadas de las latas, gran cañon, and laguna azul. You can also do a guided tour of the Jumandy caves or a guided river raft tour down the Napo river. I also recommend renting a boat from Misahuallí for about $20 per person for the day that will take you tubing, to a cacao plantation, and to Amazoonico animal refuge (which you can also visit on your own by local bus, but call them ahead of time so they can have a boat waiting for you because it's only accessible by water and there's no cell service out there - this is not a zoo but a place that rescues and rehabilitates wild animals).

The best hostels there are Hostal Limoncocha and Hostal Pakay. There's also a Selina hostel outside of town!

So if anyone tells you that the Amazon is too difficult or expensive to visit, I assure you it is not! Also, if you only want to visit the Amazon for the day while traveling around Ecuador, you can get to the Amazonian town of Puyo via a 1.5 hour bus from the backpacker hub of Baños. There they have a sendero turistico and the Omaere ethnobotanical park so if you only have a little bit of time you can get a quick taste of the Amazon that way as well.