We began operating before the word ecotourism came into existence and some chroniclers of the history of the green movement in tourism point to us as being the first Ecolodge. We began our work with a vision of how to nestle into a virgin forest, show others the majesty of the Amazon and leave as small a footprint on the jungle and all its inhabitants as we could. We have been constantly reinventing what we do but our vision and corporate culture has not wavered. The entire team embraces the same vision and we all strive for the same goals.
Our Amazon jungle lodge in Ecuador is an ecotourism venture in every sense of the word. We work, employ and offer financial help to our indigenous neighbours amounting to a monthly percentage of our profits to feed, clothe , take care of the children, see to their social benefit.
We have been operating for more than 20 years. The lodge is proud to have 10 second-generation employees, sons of our current staff, now working alongside their parents. This is but one indication of the strong bonds the lodge has made with the Kichwa-speaking Indians who live around us. The majority of our staff are from all over Ecuador, and we count 40 permanent employees at the lodge and approximately 10 additional workers who are regularly recruited for special projects; especially constructions. We have administrative staff in Quito, the Capital of Ecuador, of approximately 10 that do everything from booking our guests and their further travels throughout Ecuador (especially the Galapagos Islands) to finding the freshest asparagus on the market.
We virtually use no canned or plastic goods and those few that we use are exported weekly. We composted kitchen waste until recently, however we now have a pilot project whereby uneaten tourist food and other waste will go to a pig farm – a project for which we won a prize in a competition.
The bungalows are made entirely of secondary rainforest materials and are designed to blend with Ecuador's jungle.
All the potable water is transported over the Andes by lorry then in a boat down the Napo river. Don’t you think for that reason alone water conservation would be a priority to us.
We could have tried a well but we never liked the idea of boring into the earth, and the guests, when they hear that the water comes from a far away big city, are much more relaxed about drinking it. So we conserve drinking water as much as possible but make it as plentiful as necessary.
Every guest receives a souvenir hiking style water flask in their room when they arrive, filled with drinking water and there are “filling stations” strategically placed around the lodge. The water for bathing is pumped from our lake with waste water filtered through six separate three chamber septic systems that end in leach fields. Power is provided by a diesel generator which is turned off at 10 pm and started again at 7 am. For the volume of guests that we have and the type of cooking that we do there is no industrial kitchen equipment that can be managed by alternative energy. We do use solar lighting everywhere around the complex.
When we say the bungalows are made of secondary rainforest materials we only need to add that they are from forests no closer than 50 miles upriver from us near the population center of Coca which is 60 miles from us. We pay a fortune for cana guadua (a kind of bamboo) very fast growing and actually from the grass family, and Chonta, a kind of palm. And for certain projects we source machined lumber that comes from Coca or even Quito, 175 miles away, which we bring in our supply truck. We have encouraged our local neighbours to grow some of the thatched materials and we buy it from them as needed.
So in short, our structures look like native buildings from the outside but have indoor plumbing and hot water showers inside but instead of hacking up our local forest we go to already ruined forest and pay a small fortune for the materials that have no commercial use to anyone but us for our bungalows and other buildings.
In addition to work and the monthly stipend we give our neighbours we are finishing up work on the creation of a foundation which we hope will raise even greater funds to provide incentives to micro-industries among the adults as a path towards self-sufficiency. This will provide a hot lunch program for the children and to intensively instruct and create reliable sanitation facilities.
Community service to our neighbours, which consist of loosely knit groups of hut dwelling Kichwa speaking natives, accounts for a significant portion of our profits. It is our belief that the luxury which we share with our indigenous friends, stewardship of their pristine rainforest, should be generously rewarded. We have built schools, infirmaries and sewing centers.
We have many ongoing programs of assistance such as a canoe "school bus" service and other motorized canoe transportation services. Additionally, you will see that many of our neighbours work for us in the lodge. Finally, our friends see to it that outsiders do not settle in the region. The forest can not support population growth as its resources for humans are extremely limited.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
