Imagine yourself in this great, never ending tropical jungle. You really want to see wildlife. But most wildlife moves about through the canopy of the trees. From where you are on the ground, your vision is limited, because the undergrowth and the leaves are in your way and from the relative darkness where you are on the ground you get blinded when you look up towards the canopy. That makes it difficult to distinguish the characteristics of birds and mammals. When you are on the water, your vision is much better, because you look at the vegetation's edge from the side which is directly illuminated by the sun. Also wildlife tends to concentrate along shores and aquatic wildlife is fully dependent on water. Another reason is logistical.

Moving on a Jungle trail requires much of your attention and it is difficult to observe wildlife and walk at the same time, while your radius of action is very limited. On the water one may move about conveniently to the best wildlife spotting sites, while watching birds as the scenery glides by quietly.

As wildlife observation must take place very early in the morning, it is paramount to be in the heart of the location of observation. The Cuyabeno lodge is right in the heart of the lake system, while visitors coming from other lodges must first travel at least two to three hours by motorized canoe to reach the lakes.

Several lodges in Ecuador are located on large rives or small oxbows along them. Particularly along the big rivers, like the Rio Napo and the Rio Aguarico, the jungle has been cut down long ago with the exception of a few patches of deteriorated jungle and secondary growth; some at the periphery of a national park, but others not even that. But even when the big rivers were still forest clad twenty years ago, they never had created the "jungle experience" because they are too wide and too open and as they are fairly straight, they lack the continuous change of landscape characteristic for small winding rivers.