Where No Trail Leads: A Pioneering Expedition Into the Wildest Ecuadorian Amazon

In September 2026 we set off deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon, to one of the most inaccessible areas of Yasuní National Park. Starting from the village of Bameno, led by the Waorani people and their chief Pentim, we spent several days hacking our way through the jungle with all our gear on our backs, to reach the upper course of the Río Nashiño, called Gabaro by the Waorani. Then we began what is probably the first packraft descent of its upper section: past fallen trees, log jams, shallows, and stretches where we had to clear a path with machetes. The expedition passed through the ZITT closed zone, established to protect peoples living in voluntary isolation. Along the way we encountered wild animals and endless stretches of untouched jungle, as well as poachers. We saw Yasuní from a side almost no outsider gets to see, and one that tourist brochures certainly don't show. This will be about survival, the Waorani, the jungle, packrafting, the conflict between wildlife and the pressures of civilization, but also about... real exploration.