Amazon Rainforest eco lodge accommodation, Ecuador
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
The Sani Isla community respects and understands the Amazon Rainforest and are incredibly proud to be able to teach visitors about the wildlife and the importance of protecting and conserving it. Sani is home to many vulnerable and endangered species including the White Bellied Spider Monkey, Giant Armadillo, Giant Anteater as well as some very rare species of birds such as the Rufous Potoo and Paradise Jacamar. Although sightings are incredibly rare, Sani is also home to the infamous and near threatened Jaguar. The network of streams and lagoons within Sani territory contain healthy populations of the mysterious Black Caiman and now that there is a new means of getting to Sani Lodge via a rainforest walk, the community hope that the discontinued use of motorised canoes on the Challuayacu River will encourage the increasingly rare Manitee to return to the lagoon. With just paddle canoes being used within the rainforest, the journey to the lodge is even more serene and the wildlife almost completely undisturbed.
The Sani Isla community is also working with volunteer biologists in the collation of valuable information and data about the Sani land, the variety of the flora and fauna and discovering un-listed species with the ongoing goal being to protect the land and the pristine rainforest it contains.
Since there are no roads to the Sani Isla Community, all supplies are brought in by river transport and products are sent out by the same means. Having no road access to the land is especially important since the community is trying to reduce hunting in all areas of their property.
At the Lodge itself, ecofriendly solar panels are used to generate electricity. Although there is a generator for back-up, this reduces the effect and disturbance on the environment and wildlife around the lodge as well as creating a peaceful atomosphere where the sounds of the rainforest can be heard 24/7.
Although one would imagine water to be plentiful within a rainforest, water is valuable. Rainwater is collected and specially designed filters provide guests with clean drinking water. Plastic and glass bottles are reused in the lodge or returned to Coca to be recyled and food waste is composted when possible.
All the buildings at Sani Lodge are made from local materials (mostly from within the community) and were constructed by members of the Sani Isla community. Not only does this maintain traditional structures and styles typical for the area, but also creates jobs for both construction and maintenance.
Community
The Sani Isla community wants to step into and meet the modern world whilst maintaining their traditions of the past. There are limited opportunities for children within the community and this is something the people are working to create and develop. The lodge and subsequent funding provides education for the children within or outside the community so that they want to come back or remain within the commune and utilise what they have learnt for the benefit of the community itself. Whether it be as one of the many vital roles in the lodge, or the office in Quito, or developing schemes that involve some of the Kichwa traditions like arts, music and craft, farming the land in a sustainable way.
Funded and supported greatly by the Lodge, the Sani Isla community already has three viable projects that are running and developing more and more as people are becoming more involved and learning how to run them.
Education is viewed as the future of the community and Sani Lodge helps to sponsor English teachers in the school, fund education, and facilitate scholarships for its members to study in Coca, Quito or abroad. There is a viable teaching project at Sani where two qualified volunteers English teachers are living within the community and teaching the children in the school, guides in the lodge as well as any other members of the community who wish to learn. The community provides housing and food to the volunteers in return for their teaching skills.
The women’s project brings together the women of the community who make artisans and sell them. This started small and the artisans were sold only in the lodge to tourists, but this has since developed and they are now sold in various places in Quito, a few women of the community have visited fairs and done talks about the forest and materials they use and we are hoping to bring some to the UK in the future. The women are also responsible for organising afternoons of traditional Kichwa culture for guests of Sani Lodge, so that tourists can meet members of the community and learn about their way of life including food, traditional dancing, traditional medicine and shamanism.
Another project that the Sani Isla community is running is the Cacao project. This sees many of the families within the community growing and harvesting Cacao which is then pressed and dried in a small warehouse in the community centre before being sold to make fabulous Ecuadorian chocolate which they sell in the lodge. Many members of the community have the skills required to make this chocolate themselves so this is a project that they hope to develop further, providing a sustainable income for the community and a fantastic opportunity for tourists.
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