Puyo to Macas: No Amazon Tour for Me

Rio Pastaza at mid-point between Puyo and Macas from seldom used mini-resort. Rio Pastaza empties into the Amazon.

As I was leaving Baños, the scenery began to change. Baños has a cool dry wind. As I approached Puyo, the wind seemed to gain warmth and moisture. There were a lot more broad-leaf tropical plants. I stayed the night in Puyo. I had intended to reach a small town outside Puyo called Veracruz where there is a nice hosteria, but I was not sure I would arrive before sundown.

No Tour for Me

I had hoped to do a jungle tour. How often am I in the Amazon? I found a place on-line which seemed like a good possibility. It was midway between Puyo and Macas, which was good as I was not sure I could do the entire distance to Macas (130km) in one day. According to the web site, they offered a number of different tours; from caving to jungle tours.

As I rode, I realized it would be very difficult for me to make it the entire distance. The road between Puyo and Macas is all hills. They are small hills with low grade inclines, but hills nonetheless. When I arrived at the midway point, however, I found the place to be somewhat rundown. Apparently, it is too far off the beaten path to get the visitors to keep it well maintained.

There was no one there. I just happened to talk to the grounds keeper on the way to the lodge as he was working at a nearby farm. He showed me to a musty room, swept the room as it was pretty dusty and got me bed clothes. It is pretty weird being the only person in a rundown mini-resort.

The place has a lot of potential. I can see why the owners tried to do what they did. The resort sits at a juncture between two rivers. It has pools that are fed from one of the rivers, so there is constantly fresh water. There are lots of birds. It is surrounded by jungle scenery. I do not think there are any other hotels in the area. There just aren't people here.

Pond with fish. It has a balance rope thing that you can walk across. I think it would be good training for slacklining.

Empty bar area, I presume

River fed pools with some changing rooms.

Rio Pastaza from the resort.

Continuing on to Macas

I continued the next morning on to Macas. I was glad I stayed at the rundown resort as I certainly would have had difficulty making the distance. The part from Rio Pastaza to Macas was the same with low hills, but more of an uphill than downhill. Additionally there were virtually no other places to stay until I got pretty close to Macas.

Once in Macas, I found a cheap, but pretty nice hotel not too far from the bus station. I decided I would check in Macas to see if I could find any jungle tours. I walked around and talked to a few tour operators. It seemed it would be a bigger deal than I thought to get to the jungle areas. Since getting back across the Andes would not be so easy without backtracking, I decided to catch the bus the next day to Cuenca.

I am not certain this was the wisest decision. How often do I get this close to the Amazon? I have to balance that with the thought, "I cannot climb every mountain."