Tena is the capital of Napo Province, but its footprint is modest. A taxi across town runs $1. You can cross on foot in twenty or thirty minutes. The pedestrian bridge called el Puente Peatonal arcs over the river where the Tena and Pano meet, and almost everything worth visiting in the center sits within a few blocks of that confluence. Restaurants cluster on Avenida 15 de Noviembre, the main drag. A regional hospital anchors the north side. The bus terminal is small enough to read every sign at once. Super Tia, the local supermarket, handles most shopping needs daily from 08:00 to 23:00. After dark, the discotecas fill with a mix of volunteers, local twenty-somethings, and the indigenous and foreign guides who lead jungle trips during the week, and the soundtrack runs reggaeton into salsa into pop.

The entrance to the city holds a bronze statue of Jumandy, the indigenous leader who organized an uprising against Spanish colonizers in 1578. The Spanish caught and executed him, but the memory of resistance did not die. Tena today houses Fenakin, the Kichwa federation of Napo Province, and Ashin, the association of Napo's indigenous shamans. During the 2001 indigenous uprising across Ecuador, one of the major standoffs happened in Tena. That political energy runs through the volunteer economy too. Reforestation projects, ecotourism initiatives, community capacity-building, all operate out of and around Tena with support from Kichwa communities in the surrounding hills. The jungle here is not just scenery. It is actively defended territory.

The rivers draining the Amazon side of the Andes carry more water and run cleaner than their Pacific-side counterparts, and Tena has built a whitewater culture around that advantage. Rios Ecuador, formerly Yacu Amu, pioneered commercial rafting here and hosted the 2005 World Rafting Championships. The Jatunyacu River offers a Class III run suitable for first-timers who still want big waves. More advanced rivers run Class IV and above. River People also runs trips. Safety is not universally enforced, though; accidents have happened when operators overloaded boats, cut corners on guides, or skipped safety kayakers. Choose carefully. The cheapest raft is rarely the best one.

North of Tena in Archidona, the Cuevas de Jumandy form a labyrinth of natural caves and tunnels running several kilometers underground. Formal tours pass through a kitschy pool-and-music complex at the main entrance, but the caving itself, the swimming through narrow passages, climbing over wet stone, pays off. Further out, the Jatun Sacha Biological Station serves as one of Ecuador's major conservation centers, running research and sustainable-development projects along the Napo River south of Puerto Napo. And to the north of Tena rises Sumaco Volcano, 3,990 meters of ash and jungle so isolated that precipitous ravines and trail-less forest have kept most climbers out. The flora and fauna there remain largely undisturbed. Guides come from the villages along the Loreto Road.

Misahualli sits an hour east at the junction of the Napo and Misahualli rivers, the original jungle tourism outpost of the Ecuadorian Amazon. A few dozen capuchin monkeys live in the central plaza and will work handbags out of the unwary. Craft shops, cafes, and canoe operators line the main street. For dinner back in Tena, Chuquitos serves fish and chicken with river views from an open-air dining room. Araña Bar below Chuquitos handles the late evening. The Marquis Grille, across the footbridge, runs the best steak in town. Pizzeria Bella Selva does solid pies by the river. The backpacker base layer is Hostal Brisa del Rio on Orellana near the footbridge, open rooms for around $7 a night, and the staff know where every guide and every tour operator lives.