★ 5.0 Google · 750+ reviews | 3 days, 2 nights | Departs Tuesday & Friday | From $330 per person
Explore at a Glance
Who Explore Is For
Explore is for travelers who only have a few days but still want the real thing. The days stay full and move at a good pace, with most of your time going to the river, the forest, and looking for animals, so you see a lot in a short stay and leave with stories worth telling.
Explore is the shortest of our three tours, and the day with the Siona community comes with the four and five-day trips. If you’d rather slow things down, have more room between activities, and spend a day in the community, Experience (4 days) gives you that space while keeping the heart of the trip the same.
Your Three Days, Day by Day
Every day bends to the wildlife, the weather, and the group, so think of this as the shape of things rather than a fixed schedule.
Day 1 — Into the Reserve
Your trip begins at the Cuyabeno River Bridge around 11:30 in the morning, where you meet your guide and climb into the canoe for the ride to the lodge. The journey takes about three hours along the river, and you’re already watching for monkeys and birds long before you arrive.
After lunch and time to settle in, you head back out to explore the river and the lagoon, swim if you feel like it, and watch the sun go down. Once it’s dark, you go out again by canoe to look for caimans along the banks, and after dinner your guide shares the stories behind the place, the culture, the wildlife, and the work of keeping the reserve the way it is.
Day 2 — Forest, River, and the Things You Make
After breakfast you set out on a walk of around four hours through the primary forest, where your guide reads the jungle for you, the medicinal plants, the frogs and insects, the birds you would never spot on your own. You come back for lunch and a little downtime, then learn to roast and grind cacao and coffee the way the local families do, and you make your own.
In the afternoon you take a traditional rowing canoe into the quieter creeks, drift toward the sunset, and if the river is kind, watch for pink dolphins. After dark there’s a night walk, and later, over dinner, a tasting of traditional Amazonian drinks.
Day 3 — Sunrise, and the Way Out
You head out early one last time to look for birds and watch the sunrise come up over the river, then return to the lodge for breakfast and to pack.
The way out is the way you came in, by canoe down the Cuyabeno, with a couple more hours to spot whatever the forest feels like showing you, until you reach the reserve entrance late morning and your transport on toward home.
What Every Tucán Tour Shares
Whichever tour you choose, some things stay the same. The guides grew up on this river. The chef is, by common agreement, undefeated. The evenings run long over a cold Happy Gringo, our own homebrewed beer, and there’s no wifi to pull you out of the conversation. You can read more about the moments guests tend to remember on our Tours page.
If three days is what you have
Head to Plan Your Trip to pick your room, see the full price, and check the dates, and we’ll be here whenever you’re ready to make it real.
→ Plan Your Trip