Hotel la Cascada — Hotel in Nueva Loja

Arrived here to stay one night before going to Cuyabeno Reserve, early in the morning after breakfast. You will not find a wide offer of good service places to sleep in Lago Agrio city, but for one night, hotel facilities were good enough. This is a quite dangerous and inhospitable city for a traveller, so just skip the city if you don't know where you're going.||||My group arrived at around 20h to the hotel, as we just travelled from outskirts Tena city to stay the night before our main destination, Cuyabeno. We were given our room keys and told that our dinner will be done in 30 minutes. We went to the restaurant and it was closed. A man in the restaurant told us that front desk never told them about our group, so we noticed there was no communication between front desk and food & beverage section.||||We were waiting for our food to come, as it seemed they were just making it from scratch. I wanted to ask for a black coffee, and went myself to the kitchen for it, as there was no waiter. I noticed there was only one woman and a young boy there, very busy and looked too stressed. At that moment, our arrival was a complete disaster for them, but as a hospitality student knowing how conflictive might service be, I wanted to help them. They accepted my help with no complains. They were almost lost and didn't know how to manage the situation. I just gave them directions about my group and the number of dishes they should be serving, while commensals waited for a long time. I helped the waiter sending the food to the dining room, while kitchen was still busy. While having served everything and completed the service, I just told the cook: "Food was awesome, they all enjoyed it!", drawing her a huge smile on her face I still remember.||||At the end, a friend of mine, very surprised, asked me: "Why did you do so? Why to help them? You're paying for a service you aren't being received". I could only answer: "We are hospitality students. I've worked in restaurants before, and service conflicts like this are just terrifying".||||We spent bloddy much part of the night at the pool, which was very lovely for the very hot climate Lago Agrio has. My room had air conditioner, giving me a good rest. Good enough faciities for a city, whose hospitality and tourism services are...

La Cascada is an ok hotel in an oil town near the border or Ecuador and Peru. 20 or 30 years ago, La Cascada was probably in its heyday considerably more plush. It's now in a bit of disrepair and in need of freshening. It was a bit of a shock to see the front of the hotel scrunched into the main street of Lago Agrio, a 10 minute, $4 ride from the airport.||||Fear not! The hotel is better than it looks from the street.||||The good: the staff is wonderful! Very, very helpful and courteous though speaking not too much English. The A/C is good although our friends remote control did not work for lack of batteries and they froze all night. We turned ours off after running the temp down to 65. The shower had hot water and as much as needed. The TV worked in Spanish only AFAIK and the bed had a single sheet on it, all one needs in the tropics.||||The hotel sits off the street so the rooms are pretty quiet - AC and refrigerator noise.||||The food and drinks were good - we only had dessert and beer and margaritas for dinner and breakfast, included, was basic eggs with bits of ham and toast or bread with juice and coffee or tea.||||The bad: really a bit run down but for Lago Agrio, probably the pearl of the hotel world. Paint missing, tiles cracked, a shower that worked but was unlovely. Towels, soap and shampoo - provided and fine. Toilet worked although someone's did not just down the hall. Furniture - bed fine though hard as a rock. Not much else there. View was to the cascade which was a water feature of note 20 years ago. Today, sad.||||The bloody cotton ball on the floor when we first arrived was a unique touch.||||The pretty good: the pool in back was a great hit with the kids, but like the rest of the place a bit of paint and some repairs would be good.||||Don't know but the De Mario next door looked like it might be a step up....

We stayed here one night after coming out of Cuyabeno lodge. The staff were extremely welcoming and helpful. My wife lost her luggage on the trip back from Cuyabeno. The receptionist took my wife out shopping and helped her pick out emergency clothes. They called the driver and arranged for our suitcase to be delivered to the hotel since we speak little Spanish. They let us stay past checkout to get it. ||The rooms are clean, comfortable and had a full wall window. As is often the case in Ecuador, the bed is firm. The air conditioner takes a while to cool the room down but it's really quiet. There is a small pool with some fountains and a waterfall. It is a little cloudy but it is pretty. It is open to the public so in the late afternoon, there are a few more people but the rest of the time, we had the pool to ourselves. The food was great and the service fast. It is right on the main street but back a bit so it's...