From Quito, it's a quick 25-minute flight to Coca, where we head to Rio Napo and into a motorized canoe. After four hours - ­including one stop at an oil drilling station to replace a part - the driver takes the motor down to a slight purr, and, up front, our guide pulls out a paddle to help steer the long boat around the twists of the tributary. The tall trees, big sky, and boat spray from the wide river are replaced by massive leaves bending toward the water, vines, calls from birds hiding among the plants, and humidity. And then more humidity. I keep reminding myself that this is no theme-park version of the Amazon rain forest - there won't be any animatronic hippos shooting water into the boat. This water is home to real black caimans, anacondas, and Amazonian manatees.

A short while later, we make one final turn onto Challuacocha lake. The simple yet elegant thatched-roof buildings of Sani Lodge, owned and operated by the local Quichua Indians, are just ahead. One hundred percent of the profit from Sani is used to develop social programs and infrastructure for the community.

The lodge is our opportunity to eat, clean up, and sleep before our next-morning hike through the rain forest. It's during this trek that I am given a one-word piece of advice: "confidence."

That's the tip one of our guides offers up for crossing the logs that serve as a bridge across the swamp we're facing. It's the tail end of the rainy season, so two hours into the hike (having already seen a vibrant green-and-yellow wild parrot that wanted nothing to do with a cracker and a plum-throated cotinga, with feathers a brilliant aqua-blue that has yet to be replicated by any paint manufacturer), we are already well acquainted with the harsh grip of the mud on the rain forest floor. Rubber boots are a must when hiking around Sani. There used to be handrails along the bridge, but they've long since fallen into the water, so the only aid I get is verbal, rather than physical.