Less than 1km north of the city center, this ethnobotanical park offers one- to two-hour guided tours (included in admission fee) of rainforest plants, indigenous dwellings and ecological waste disposal, by mostly indigenous guides. The park is run by biologist Chris Canaday, a font of knowledge about everything from jungle plants to ecological dry toilets, and the region's indigenous groups, the Shuar and Waorani.
The park was originally established in 1993 by a Shuar woman and two French women.
Get here by following Loja north of town for about 300m until you reach Tungurahua. Turn right and follow the road round to arrive at the park entrance, across a footbridge over the river and past the El JardÃn hotel. To return, a beautiful trail (called the paseo turÃstico) continues past Omaere for 1.7km along the river to the Puyo–Tena road, where you can flag down a bus back to town every 20 minutes, or return along the trail.
