GRAND SELVA JUNGLE EXPEDITIONS - LODGE & TOURS — Hotel in Ahuano

Lets start with the positive: if you would like to experience the Amazone jungle but don't fancy the long journey to Cuyabeno, this is a good alternative and much easier to get to. With regards to Selva Lodge, I suppose you get what you pay for. Their all inclusive package is one of the cheaper ones in the area. Although, not really all inclusive as you have to pay a whopping usd 4,50 pp per day for them to put a waterkettle and horrible tasting instant coffee out in the lounge area. Food is okay, nothing special, and served luke warm. The rooms are very basic and a bit shabby. The whole property is a mismatch of buildings, with broken and dirty chairs by the pool and broken tiles (be careful going bare foot, a little boy got a nasty cut on his big toe when playing in the pool) The lounge area is messy with an old dirty sofa. The property could be nice if they maintain things better. Clean the chairs, fix what is broken. Also in the rooms: clean the shower head, make sure you can open the curtains in a normal way, provide hooks in the bathroom for towels. Their is a big dog that is overly friendly but very much in your face and jumps up at you (you may or may not like). Junior is a great guide, spots a lot and speaks clear and slow Spanish, so he is easy to understand. Especially the full day tour with tubbing, rescue centre, anaconda island etc is good, as is the nocturnal walk. Personally we felt the service could be a lot better with more attention to detail and interaction with the guest by Robert and Karen. If I would go again to the Tena jungle, I would pay a little more for a more comfortable and enjoyable stay.

Added after response owner: I am a little shocked and surprised by the response from the owner calling me malicious. I am far from a negative person and my comments are not negative but observations of actual facts. Certainly not malicious. I even recommend coming to the area of Tena and praise the jungle tour. We did not leave without paying. We agreed upon leaving with the owner that the charge for the couple of coffees we had was waivered as we missed lunch on day 1 and a lunch pack on the leaving day was forgotten. We paid for other drinks we consumed upon leaving. Shame the owner is not open for constructive feedback to improve the experience...

I honestly wasn’t expecting much out of this trip since it’s on the edge of the Amazon (instead of deeper into the jungle) but I booked it just to take my friend there since she’d never done any trip like it before. We ended up really enjoying our visit. The visit to the animal rescue center was much better than I expected, it really did feel like a rehabilitation center and not a zoo. The volunteers were super passionate about the animals and had tons of interesting facts for us. The chocolate class/demonstration was really fun and interesting. The hike to a waterfall where we swam at the base was beautiful, definitely worth the extra day. On the walk through the jungle we didn’t see anything but bugs and birds but I always just like to get out into nature so I enjoyed this as well. I thought the visit to the local native village was going to be super awkward but it was actually really interesting; only the dancing part was awkward. The night walk was informative and we saw lots of spiders. The only bigger wild animals of interest we saw were monkeys. (We saw them at Amazoonico bc they hang around the captive monkeys.) We didn’t go to Monkey Beach though so I could speak to that activity. Karin and Roberto were great hosts and very accommodating. The AC worked very well and we were comfortable on our stay. The only thing to keep in mind is that none of the guides we had spoke English. (Or at least not enough to make a difference for non-Spanish speakers.) Roberto and Karin speak both English and Spanish fluently though and Roberto did lead the night walk. Karin also speaks German fluently. The lodges around this area all do the same tours, so unless you’re fussy about having a fancy place to stay, this lodge is a great bang...

I wanted to write about my phenomenal experience at Grand Selva. Karin and Robert has built a great lodge. If an amazon excursion is what you are looking for, then this is the lodge for you. Please reach out to this lodge and they will guide you from the airport in Quito to the Amazon and back.

Getting from the airport to the lodge was easy. Karin offer to us many options from Quito Airport to arrive at the lodge. They were able to direct one of our friends to take public transportation from Quito to the lodge and arrange private transportation for the majority of us. The cost of private transportation was cheap in comparison to other options we found.

Arriving at the lodge, we were given a plethora of options to explore the amazon right away. We participated in a few adventures and took sometime off in the pool. On one of our trips, the rain went from drizzle to pouring, but Robert was able to direct our adventure to completion with great comfort.

Our room in the lodge was air conditioned and cleaned daily.

The food at the lodge was probably one of my favorite meals in Ecuador. I wish we could have stayed longer. I would love to have another drink with Junior.

I was not sure what to expect from this trip to the Amazon, but was pleasantly surprised. We would love to come back if I am able to have more...