Lago Agrio Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

The drive from the jungle up into the Andes (and vice versa) is beautiful, and it’s worth doing in daylight. Night buses have had occasional robberies.

The bus terminal, about 2km northwest of the center, has a wide selection of routes and options. Buses depart for Quito ($8, eight hours) almost every hour until 11:45pm. Cooperativo Loja and Cooperativo Esmeraldas have better ejecutivo buses. Putumayo goes to Tulcán via a new route ($7, seven hours). If you want to cross the border, this is the best option. Ruta Costa has seven departures daily for Guayaquil ($14, 14 hours) There are one or two daily departures, mainly overnight, to Tena, Puyo, Ambato, Riobamba, Cuenca and Machala.

Buses to Coca aren’t usually found in the bus terminal; catch a Petroleras Rancheras ($3, 2½ hours) open-air bus on Avenida Quito in the center. They leave every 20 minutes until 6pm. Transportes Putumayo buses go through the jungle towns of Dureno and Tarapoa and have access to the Cuyabeno reserve.

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Air

Flying isn’t that expensive and it avoids a trying bus trip on a corkscrew mountain road. Reservations fill up fast with jungle-lodge guests and oil workers traveling home for the weekend; so make reservations early. If you can’t, it is worth getting on the waiting list and going to the airport in the hope of cancellations. Tour companies sometimes book up more seats than they can use.

TAME (283 0113; Orellana near 9 de Octubre) has flights from Quito at 10:30am Monday to Saturday. Flights return to Quito at 11:30am on the same days. On Mondays and Fridays flights leave Quito at 4:30pm and return from Lago Agrio at 5:30pm ($43, 30 minutes).

Icaro (283 2370/1, 288 0546; www.icaro.com.ec ; airport) flies from Quito Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:25am and returns at 11:20am.

The airport is about 3km east of town (a 10-minute trip), and taxis (yellow or white pickup trucks) cost about $2.

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