Yoi EcoLodge — Hotel in Leticia

My sister, her husband and I completed a 3 day tour with YOI Ecotours in the Amazon in March and can’t recommend it more highly! It was a truly incredible cultural experience, providing us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a glimpse into the world of the indigenous people of the area. ||YOI provided us with an English interpreter, Juanita, who met us in Leticia and escorted us on the public boat that transports locals up and down the Amazon River to various communities. About two hours up the river we connected with a local guide, Grande, from the community of San Martin de Amacayacu, which is located along the Amacayacu tributary of the Amazon. ||Both Juanita and Grande were friendly and helped us feel so very welcome. They allowed us to choose our adventures for the next 3 days so that our experience was tailored to our interests. They also assured that we were comfortable and had what we needed to stay safe and be comfortable. ||Our adventures included a night walk in the jungle, a hike to see sloths, one to an ancient tree, and another to see monkeys. On our hikes we saw sloths, monkeys; tarantulas; scorpions, a zombie cricket, butterflies, a pink dolphin, a chupacabra and the real Amazon Jungle (including the ancient tree Ojhi) and people who live there. ||Our hike to see the sloths and Ojhi was across the Amazon in Peru at the community of Mocagua. YOI collaborates with the community to have local guides show us around. We were escorted by Giancarlo who, though only 15, was knowledgeable and took excellent care of us, including helping me repair and then replace my boots. We also visited a museum run by and about the indigenous people of the community of Mocagua. ||Walking through the villages in both Colombia and Peru we had the opportunity for genuine interactions with the locals, who smiled readily and welcomed us graciously into their homes and their lives. We felt truly honored by their kind and caring ways. Our meals were all prepared by the locals so we were introduced to the foods and flavors of their world as well. ||We stayed in a cabin at the YOI EcoLodge, just up the river from San Martin de Amacayacu. The cabin, completely constructed by hand by the locals, was clean and comfortable. The beds were covered by mosquito netting and the bathroom was tiled and included a cold water shower, which was welcome after a day of trekking in the jungle. ||I highly recommend a tour with YOI Ecotours for anyone who wants a truly immersive experience...

My sister, her husband and I completed a 3 day tour with YOI Ecotours in the Amazon in March and can’t recommend it more highly! It was a truly incredible cultural experience, providing us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a glimpse into the world of the indigenous people of the area.

YOI provided us with an English interpreter, Juanita, who met us in Leticia and escorted us on the public boat that transports locals up and down the Amazon River to various communities. About two hours up the river we connected with a local guide, Grande, from the community of San Martin de Amacayacu, which is located along the Amacayacu tributary of the Amazon.

Both Juanita and Grande were friendly and helped us feel so very welcome. They allowed us to choose our adventures for the next 3 days so that our experience was tailored to our interests. They also assured that we were comfortable and had what we needed to stay safe and be comfortable.

Our adventures included a night walk in the jungle, a hike to see sloths, one to an ancient tree, and another to see monkeys. On our hikes we saw sloths, monkeys; tarantulas; scorpions, a zombie cricket, butterflies, a pink dolphin, a chupacabra and the real Amazon Jungle (including the ancient tree Ojhi) and people who live there.

Our hike to see the sloths and Ojhi was across the Amazon in Peru at the community of Mocagua. YOI collaborates with the community to have local guides show us around. We were escorted by Giancarlo who, though only 15, was knowledgeable and took excellent care of us, including helping me repair and then replace my boots. We also visited a museum run by and about the indigenous people of the community of Mocagua.

Walking through the villages in both Colombia and Peru we had the opportunity for genuine interactions with the locals, who smiled readily and welcomed us graciously into their homes and their lives. We felt truly honored by their kind and caring ways. Our meals were all prepared by the locals so we were introduced to the foods and flavors of their world as well.

We stayed in a cabin at the YOI EcoLodge, just up the river from San Martin de Amacayacu. The cabin, completely constructed by hand by the locals, was clean and comfortable. The beds were covered by mosquito netting and the bathroom was tiled and included a cold water shower, which was welcome after a day of trekking in the jungle.

I highly recommend a tour with YOI Ecotours for anyone who wants a truly immersive experience...

Me and my friend were after a wildlife and Amazon experience, and we definitely got that with Yoi Eco. Our translator and guides were amazing, and really looked after us and made our stay, Juanita, Ray, and Ramon, Thank you! ||Juanita met us at our accomodation in Leticia and took care of everything from there, and was super friendly. We then met our guides, and we had lunch at Ray's house and met his family as well as some of the other community members which was great.||We had spoken to the organiser, Julien, before hand and mentioned that we wanted to focus on activities that maximised our chances of seeing wild animals. Even from the base lodge there were good walks around 2-3 hours long that could be done easily, we had sightings of tamarins, and monkeys during the day, with lots of tarantulas, spiders, lizards, insects, and caiman at night. We then moved from the base camp and went camping for two nights further down river. Here we did morning and evening hikes, including a 6 hour hike, the highlight for me was Ramon our guide finding a baby anaconda, which was top of my list to see. One of the evenings we floated down the river at night and spotted a swimming capybara. Next we went to San Antonio to spend a night in Peru and spotted lots of sloths, before a night walk with plenty of wildlife including a scorpion sighting. The following morning we headed to the lake for dolphin spotting which was amazing to see them jumping, followed by caiman spotting at night and another night in a great cabin.||The food everywhere we stayed was really good, even when camping, and all the accommodation was nice, but of course you have to remember where you are, for staying in remote jungle places, I was very impressed. ||The wildlife sightings were great, if you've been to places like Tambopata in Peru or the pantanal in Brazil, you will need to lower your expectations, the wildlife here is more scarce and sightings particularly of the larger animals are rarer and fleeting. We had several primate sightings for example, but they were very quick glimpses. However we still saw plenty to keep us happy and really appreciated the efforts our guides went to, to ensure we saw animals.||A big thank you to the team and everyone we met on...