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| Ecotourism |  |
| Cuyabeno | |
In the spring of 1997 I was fortunate to be part of a trip sponsored by RAN (Rainforest Action Network) to the flooded rainforest of the Cuyabeno Reserve, home to the Siona Indians, located in northeastern Ecuador. The trip originated in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, located at the 9,350 foot elevation in the Andes. During the eight-hour bus ride down thru the Andes to the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, we saw the vegetation change from small trees with lots of ground cover to the large trees of the Amazon at an elevation of seven hundred feet. Shortly before arriving in Lago Agrio, a frontier oil town, we started seeing what we would see for many miles to come, an oil pipeline and the rainforest being cut down all along the road by the colonists. The road was put in by the oil company to access the oil in the region and the colonists followed. The colonists, people from the Andes, and cities like Quito, are trying to find a better way of life. Unfortunately what they usually find is poverty. I was told that as many as 95 percent of children of Ecuador suffer from malnutrition. Ecuador, by the way, is the most highly populated country in Latin America.
From here we boarded an Ecuadoran public bus that we had rented and proceeded on for approximately another three hours to the Cuyabeno River where we were met at the river bank by several Siona Indians with their motorized dugout canoes. After a fair amount of slipping and sliding up and down the bank loading the canoes, we were on our way once again. The Cuyabeno river at this point is only about two hundred feet across, and during this time of year was running at several knots. During January and February the river drops to such a low level that the only way into Puerto Bolivar (the Siona community )is by overland trail. We were to spend several more hours heading down the Cuyabeno River to our destination thru what has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Macaws flying overhead, noisy Hoatzin (a bird) in the trees along the river, just a few of the more than 400 species of birds found in Cuyabeno, and then of course the sounds of the Red Howler Monkeys way off in the distant forest announcing to the other groups of Howlers where they are feeding.
After a visit with the Siona Indians in the community we were off on hiking and canoeing trips under the leadership of Aurora, an Indian guide or Victoriono, the chief of the Siona's. Sixty-three and eighty-three respectively, they told us, but I'm not really sure they really know their actual age. Don't let their ages fool you, both seemed to have unlimited energy.
Sleeping accommodations are cabanas as they are called, platforms built about three to four feet off the ground, with thatched palm roof and no walls. Three inches thick foam sleeping pads, covered overhead by mosquito nets are provided for comfort and safety. Both were purchased by RAN with money paid form the proceeds of our trip. The new cooking gear we took in was also left for use for cooking food for future tourists at the facility. Jason, our group leader, who lives in Quito, gave a cooking lesson to the local Indian women on how to prepare food for tourists.
WHAT
YOU CAN DO
Visit the Cuyabeno Reserve. On your trip you will be taking canoe rides
to the Conchas (lakes) to see river dolphins, manatee, piranhas, and of
course lot of beautiful birds. This also is a great place to cool off
by jumping overboard for a quick dip with the piranhas and caimans. Groups
of Spider monkeys are likely to come thru the tree tops at the encampments,
and most mornings you will be awakened by the Red Howler Monkeys screaming.
Your Indian guide, while on your hikes will show you many different kinds
of plants and how the Indians use them for medicine. You will see the
most furious vegetarian in the rainforest, the leaf cutter ant. You will
be able to eat Lemon ants right from the trees they live on, try them,
they really do taste just like lemons.
WHY
IT IS IMPORTANT TO THE SIONAS
The choices they have are OIL or TOURISM. Oil pollutes the environment
(Texaco
is being sued by the indigenous Indians of Ecuador, as well as by the
government of Ecuador at the present time in New York, in an effort to
get them to come back and clean up approximately seventeen million gallons
of raw crude oil they left in the rainforest of Ecuador from 1972 thru
1992, see Judith Kimerling's book, Amazon Crude). Because of oil
exploration there are now only 450 Siona Indians left in the world. Diseases
introduced by western civilization have taken a very heavy toll of the
Siona population over the past twenty years, and their culture has been
almost completely destroyed. At the present time they receive very little
benefit from the tourist trade in their territory, but you can change
all this by contacting Jason Halberstadt in Quito Ecuador to set up your
visit to the beautiful Cuyabeno Reserve.
Jason
can be contacted by mail at:
SAEC/Conservation Travel Apartado
17-21-431, Elroy Alfaro, Quito Ecuador.
By phone at 011-593-2-453-814 x.36 or at 011-593-2-456-515x.36.
By E-mail at explorer@accessinter.net
Website: http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com
WHAT
TO EXPECT
Expect to live a rustic lifestyle.
Expect food and accommodation to be very basic.
Expect bathing in rivers, sleeping on a foam pad on the floor of the cabana.
Expect to sweat and get wet, the trip is not physically challenging, but
be prepared for hikes of a few hours each.
Expect a lot of rain, after all you are in the rainforest.
Expect to eat some foods new to you.
Expect bugs, snakes and spiders.
MOST OF ALL Expect to have an absolutely amazing time exploring one of
the most magnificent places on earth, the flooded rainforest of the Cuyabeno
Reserve.
TO SAVE THE MACAWS, WE MUST SAVE THE RAINFOREST, TO SAVE THE RAINFOREST WE MUST SAVE THE INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS!
To book this trip, contact Tropical Nature Travel
Click here to see related photos.
