Huaorani Ecolodge Renovated for Sustainability

Our part­ners in the Ecuado­ri­an Ama­zon have recent­ly com­plet­ed some ren­o­va­tions to the Huao­rani jun­gle lodge that are not only going to make your stay extreme­ly enjoy­able, but have also con­tributed to the sta­bi­liza­tion of the eco­log­i­cal­ly threat­ened region and bring pos­i­tive changes to the area.

Guests will be able to observe the sus­tain­able man­ner in which recent ren­o­va­tions were accom­plished. The din­ing room roof, for exam­ple, was recon­struct­ed using durable mate­ri­als that replaced the for­mer thatched roof that had a short shelf life. The new roofs that will last for around 20 years were built with wood cov­ered with a water­proof­ing mate­r­i­al called Cho­va, a mate­r­i­al made in Ecuador that is meant to repel moisture.

“Using Cho­va dimin­ish­es pres­sure on the for­est by pre­lud­ing the need to cut down palm trees from which thatch orig­i­nates,” said Jas­ci­van Car­val­ho, our part­ner in Ecuador. Pre­vi­ous­ly the roof required using up to nine palm trees from two dif­fer­ent species: Paja Toquil­la (Car­lu­dovi­ca palma­ta) and Ungu­rahua (Oeno­car­pus bataua). 

Kitchen, staff din­ing and stor­age room roofs were replaced using a metal­lic fab­ri­ca­tion called ​“durat­e­cho” that also makes using palm fronds redundant.

Guests may now enjoy a new gift shop and book store and the assort­ment of hand­i­crafts avail­able that are used as dec­o­ra­tive motifs in the din­ing room. Suf­fi­cient con­struc­tion mate­r­i­al was left over to build cov­ers for trash cans in the kitchen. Oth­er projects planned for late fall are refur­bish­ing kitchen and din­ing room wood sur­faces, replac­ing in-room mos­qui­to nets in the cab­ins and sand­ing and var­nish­ing tables and din­ing chairs. 

The near­by Huao­rani-oper­at­ed Nen­que­pare Camp (includ­ed in all Huao­rani Jun­gle Adven­ture pack­ages) also received improve­ments: a new bath­room with two toi­lets, spa­cious show­ers and sinks over­look­ing the Shiripuno Riv­er. The local com­mu­ni­ty of Nen­que­pare is involved in this devel­op­ment and will be trained to man­age the site. The kitchen was upgrad­ed with new ceram­ic walls and floor and in ear­ly win­ter a solar and refrig­er­a­tor and solar ener­gy for light will be installed. New walk­ing paths also con­nect the din­ing room with cab­ins and bathrooms.

A pop­u­lar fea­ture, a near­by jun­gle water­fall, also has eas­i­er access thanks to stair­way main­te­nance. A new bridge is being con­struct­ed over a creek that leads to a self-guid­ed trail.

We are very excit­ed about these new changes to the lodge and the Ama­zon. As Car­val­ho points out, the conservation/​tourism part­ner­ship with the Huao­rani has been pos­i­tive. ​“The canopy is re-appear­ing over sec­tions that were slashed and burned and along the rivers,” he notes. ​“The region is show­ing signs of regen­er­a­tion with more sight­ings of giant riv­er otter, jaguars, giant armadil­los and the very rare short-eared dog.”

Add this or anoth­er jun­gle adven­ture on to any of our climbs or treks in Ecuador and expe­ri­ence life in the Ama­zon while help­ing to con­tribut­ing to the con­ser­va­tion of this great region!