The capital of Sucumbíos, the country's second youngest province, LAGO AGRIO has yet to reach its thirtieth birthday. Originally founded by Lojans looking for a new life in the east (its official name is Nueva Loja), it was used by Texaco in the late 1960s as a base for oil exploration, and took its nickname from Sour Lake in Texas, the company's original headquarters.

 

Lago, as it is often called by its 30,000 or so locals, has a hot and bustling centre along its main street, Avenida Quito , where its high-fronted buildings seem a little grandiose for a hard-edged frontier town. A couple of blocks to the north, the Lago's park, fronted by a simple church, is about the only gesture to greenery you'll find. At 250km from Quito, and only 21km from the Colombian border, the town is not the jungle outpost it once was, however. Colonization and oil exploitation in the area has been rapid, and only scraps of forest remain for many miles around, particularly to the south, where oil pipelines crisscross the landscape down to Coca and beyond.

Around 15,000 Cofán lived in this area when Texaco moved into the area but, through disease and displacement, the Cofán were among the worst hit by the industry and now number only a few hundred, squeezed into five small communities, three of them in the forests on the Río Aguarico. At Lago's Sunday market , between Avenida Quito and Avenida Amazonas, some Cofán come wearing traditional dress - a long tunic and sometimes a headdress for the men, and colourful blouses, skirts and jewellery for the women - to trade their produce and craftwork, including hammocks, bags and occasionally necklaces made from animal teeth, colourful insects or birds' beaks. Artesanías Huarmi Huankurina ("United Women"), 12 de Febrero 267 and 10 de Agosto (Tues-Sun), also sells crafts from the region's indigenous communities, including hammocks, bags, ceramics and blowpipes.

Oil remains Lago Agrio's raison d'être , but the basic infrastructure of hotels, paved roads and transport links that arrived with the industry have given tourism a foothold here, though the town itself is of very little interest. Nevertheless, just 40km west of the Reserva Faunística Cuyabeno , Lago Agrio has become the main access point to vast expanses of forest, encouraging new tour agencies to open every year.