Tena

The upper Napo was the land of the Quijos people, who kept their independence when the Inca conquered the highlands. Spanish colonisation began in the late 1550s under Gil Ramírez Dávalos, who founded Baeza in 1559, and towns such as Archidona and Ávila followed. Abuses by the colonists provoked a great revolt in 1578 led by Jumandy, a Quijos leader chosen by the chiefs; it was defeated at Baeza, and Jumandy and the other leaders were captured and executed in Quito. His statue now marks the entrance to Tena.

Tena itself grew out of the Jesuit missions, which from 1638 were based in Archidona and spread down the rivers, giving rise to settlements such as Tena, Puerto Napo and Misahuallí. The city celebrates its founding on 15 November 1560 and credits Ramírez Dávalos, but historians point out that he had already left the region by then and that the date was fixed by the town council in the 20th century. A mission census of 1892 counted 200 families in Tena, behind Archidona and Loreto.

The 20th century made Tena a capital. A cathedral was inaugurated in 1945, and in 1947 the Colegio San José became the first secondary school in the Ecuadorian Amazon. By 2001 Tena, with about 16,600 people, had fallen to fourth place among Amazon towns behind Lago Agrio, Coca and Puyo. From 2014 a programme of urban renewal built the malecón and new sewers, and a linear park opened in 2017.

Tena is officially San Juan de los Dos Ríos de Tena — the town of two rivers — and its life is tied to the water. The rivers on the Amazon side of the Andes are bigger and more reliable than those to the west, and Tena has become a popular launching point for rafting, kayaking and forest tours; guides, both Indigenous and foreign, are part of the town's population.

The Kichwa of Napo are the dominant Indigenous presence. Tena is home to their federation and to an association of Indigenous shamans, and Ecuador's Indigenous peoples are among the most politically organised in Latin America. Around the town, community tourism, reforestation and volunteer projects bring visitors into Kichwa villages, where guayusa tea, chicha de yuca and the chakra forest garden are part of daily life. In nearby Archidona, Kichwa pageants several times a year crown a Queen of the Kichwa, with songs and dances in the language.

At weekends the town loosens up: on Friday and Saturday nights guides, volunteers and local young people fill the bars and discos, which play reggaeton, salsa and pop.

At the 2022 census Tena had about 29,700 people, with more than 40,000 in the wider urban area that includes nearby parishes. It is the capital and largest city of Napo province and the seat of its canton, with the provincial offices and a regional hospital.

The economy rests on commerce, agriculture and tourism. Timber and farming, including fish farming and poultry, are the main productive activities, and formal and informal trade employs many people. Tourism shapes the centre, with its agencies, hostels and restaurants. Oil prospecting in the Pungarayacu heavy oil field has been a point of contention, and illegal mining of sand and gold in and near the rivers is a major concern for residents.

Days start early and are punctuated by rain; much of life happens outdoors along the rivers, in the market and on the malecón, and the town is generally regarded as calm and orderly.

Tena eats from the forest and the river. Maito is the signature dish of the Amazon: fish, or sometimes chicken, wrapped in bijao leaves and grilled over coals, served with boiled cassava. Ayampaco is another cassava-based dish of the region, and caldo de carachama is a soup of armoured catfish. Chontacuros, the fat larvae of the palm weevil, are a traditional food.

Drinks come from the chakra. Chicha de yuca, a thick fermented cassava drink prepared by women, is offered to visitors in Kichwa homes, and guayusa, the leaf of a caffeinated holly, is brewed like tea. Chicha de chonta is made from the fruit of the peach palm when it ripens. Naranjilla juice is everywhere, and the tart arazá is another Amazon fruit. Fine-aroma cacao is grown in the area, and several community cooperatives make chocolate.

Restaurants in the centre serve comidas típicas cooked in the traditional ways of the local peoples alongside the usual almuerzo set lunch, river fish and chicken.