For many years Misahualli was the place in the Oriente from which to organise a jungle tour. A bustling little port at the confluence of the rivers Misahualli and Napo, it was the perfect starting point for an adventure. Wooden houses with corrugated-iron rooves clinging to the riverbanks, local Quichua communities and tracts of rainforest accessible by a quick boat ride gave Misahualli all the excitement and remoteness of a frontier outpost. However, the road linking Tena to Coca, completed in the late 1980s, slashed the port's commercial trade, while the surrounding forest was cleared or severely disturbed by settlers and oil prospecting. The primary forest that remains in the upper Napo has shrunk to such an extent that larger animals, particularly mammals, have all but disappeared from the region. Meanwhile the oil industry has probed ever deeper into the east, opening up far remoter regions to visitors, where the big reserves protect thousands of hectares of pristine rainforest and its wildlife.

 

Last updated 27th June 2006