Taking a motorized canoe about 1 hour 30 minutes downstream from Coca will bring you to POMPEYA , 33km away. The houses of this tiny settlement on the north bank of the Napo are barely visible from the river, but a heap of unsightly, rusting containers left by the oil industry announces a human presence. At the eastern edge of the settlement are the sparkling whitewashed buildings of the Misión Capuchina, where there's a good collection of ceramics and pre-Columbian objects from the Oriente in their Museo de Cicame ($0.5). It doesn't get many visitors, so if you want to see it, ask your tour guide for a quick stop there on your way to or from your destination. Walking west from the mission brings you to Pompeya's market area, active on Saturday mornings, when communities from along the Napo bring their home produce up for sale. It's an intimate affair, with traders' first names daubed onto their stalls.

 

About thirty minutes north on the bumpy road from Pompeya is the pleasant village of LIMONCOCHA , where neat cabins are set at regular intervals, some bordered by trimmed hedges and carefully tended lawns. Just a short walk from the village is the Reserva Biológica Limoncocha , conserving 46 square kilometres of rainforest and swamps around the light-green waters of Laguna Limoncocha . The lake used to be a good place for spotting caiman, but when Occidental Petroleum developed five oil fields near here in 1992, the blasting and drilling within spitting distance badly disturbed wildlife populations. Pressure from local groups, particularly the Secoya, has tempered oil exploitation here, allowing a formidable diversity of bird species to re-establish themselves - over 460 species have been recorded, including several endemics such as the Martín kingfisher. The reserve's other lake, the black-water Laguna Yanacocha , lying to the east enveloped in vegetation, is steeped in local myth and is rumoured to be home to especially large anacondas.

Following the oil disruptions, Metropolitan Touring left their tourist cabañas to the local Quichua community when they moved their operations to the Aguarico area in 1991. You can arrange to stay at the cabañas and visit the reserve through the Asociación Indígena de Limoncocha (CONFENIAE), 6 de Diciembre 159, Quito (tel 02/220326, fax 543973), though drop-ins at the village will usually be accommodated. Several buses and rancheras service Limoncocha from Shushufindi about 1 hour 30 minutes away , which itself is easily accessible from either Lago Agrio or Coca. Only three rancheras continue on to Pompeya, returning immediately, roughly corresponding to the working day at 6am, noon and 4pm, though timetables are liable to change. From Coca it's much faster to get to Pompeya by motorized canoe (around $5), but availability can be a problem.