Papallacta, Tena and a boat trip into the Amazon

The hot pools get their heat from an ancient caldera (a huge volcanic crater) called Chacana. It has been active for more than three million years. It heats rainwater that sinks deep into the volcanic ground.

The open land around the pools is páramo, the high zone between the last trees and the snow. Its low plants take in rain and mist like a sponge. This water feeds both Quito and the Amazon river system.

This is the eastern side of the Andes, where the mountains drop steeply into the Amazon basin. From the pass down to Tena, the road goes down about 2,800 m in a single day. Every few hundred meters you enter a completely new natural zone, with different plants and animals.

Tena was founded in 1560 as a Spanish trading post. Since the 1960s, oil has brought both fast economic growth and damage to nature. In 2023 a public vote approved a ban on more extraction in the nearby Yasuní National Park.

As an answer to the oil industry, many Kichwa communities have started ecotourism, tourism that helps nature. It gives them a reason to protect the forest. Our village visit tomorrow is exactly this kind of tourism.

A large river that flows into the Amazon. Its length is estimated at 1,075 to 1,130 km. It starts on the eastern slopes of Antisana, Sincholagua and Cotopaxi.

The water is golden brown because the river carries mud and sand from the Andes. For hundreds of years goods and people have traveled along the river. Even today, many communities can be reached only by river.