The Canoe and the Mountain – Chilcabamba Mountain Lodge Cotopaxi

FROM THE AMAZON TO A MOUNTAIN LODGE

The story of a canoe that never made it to the water, but found a home in the shadow of a mighty volcano.

The journey begins in the nineteen nineties, with a ground breaking sustainable tourism project on the waters of the Upper Shiripuno River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The goal. To help sustain the thousandyear old forest culture of the Huaorani, a people only contacted some 50 years earlier, and whose rainforest way of life was under threat from oil exploration. Responsible tourism. A new and not totally accepted way to provide income and alternatives for the communities that formed part of the project, and to offer their young people the possibility of staying with their families and living traditional lives while planning the future at their own pace. And more. All this while preserving unique ecosystems by valuing nature instead of destroying it.

Over the years, many were the trips made down the Shiripuno river in canoe

Much to the delight of explorers who enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the surrounding rainforest, but though the traditional vessels were beautiful, made of a single tree trunk, they were heavy and not designed to be rowed with passengers and cargo. Meanwhile the numbers of visitors were increasing. Now, some years later, there was Huaorani Ecolodge, a community built and owned project that was managed by us, that had become a success and an example of sustainable tourism development for others. What to do? The canoes were heavy and the tourists many. So building a less traditional craft that was both lightweight and more convenient for both tourists and the local guides became the order of the day. The canoe was studied, designed, and built. The river and the passengers were ready.

But destiny intervened. The growing number of visitors to the Lodge, eager to make their own personal contact with the river, the Amazon, and a remote indigenous culture, were not the only people interested in what went on in the surrounding area. The government and the oil companies had their own plans, and one of them involved exploring for oil in what was known as Block 21, the area where our Amazon venture had started, and had been growing for twenty years.

The problem, evidently, was that the basic tenet of the Lodge was the preservation of the land, the rainforest and, as far as possible, the traditional way of life of the Huaorani communities. What made things worse, was that exploring for oil is a seismic exercise. It involves felling trees and clearing pathways, along which a series of small, but definite, explosions would be made in order to measure the composition of the lower layers of the earth. And the noise frightens the wildlife. So some flee the area, while others are hunted by oil workers, all of which is totally contradictory to the idea of preservation and responsible tourism. The Lodge eventually shut down. In the circumstances it was unsustainable; continuing to operate would have been unethical.

For more information visit: www.huaorani.com

In the meantime, we had moved on to the Galapagos, the enchanted isles with their spectacular wildlife. We developed land based projects together with the local communities of Isabela and Floreana Islands. An alternative that not only involved the islanders, but also benefitted the local economies, something conspicuously lacking with traditional boat tours. And we’re still there, involved and happily sharing a side of the Galapagos rarely seen.

As for the canoe, built and paid for, it finally made its appearance.

It was beautiful but had no river to navigate on, so what to do with a canoe with no water? Storage seemed the only answer, so the craft was packed up, locked down and… forgotten. A sad destiny for what had been an optimistic venture.

From the Galapagos, the next stop was the Andes.

Lodge to lodge treks. Visitors had the chance to marvel at some of the world’s most spectacular mountain scenery, or climb to the peak of the majestic snowcapped Cotopaxi. They could meet and get to know local people while staying in top class accommodation and wondering at the spectacular night sky of the Andes.

The next chapter.

Chilcabamaba Mountain Lodge. A cozy, luxurious mountain lodge in the foothills of Cotopaxi volcano, only six kilometers from Cotopaxi National Park, and owned and operated by our family. Over the years the Lodge became famous for its comfort and cuisine, and for its commitment to preserving the local flora and fauna, not to mention the local Pita River and its environment. But there was something missing. Where was the connection to the journey we had made over the years, the reminder of the people that had come and gone, the many projects that had worked and the few that had not? Where was the symbol of the commitment to the environment and local communities.

And during all this time, the canoe was there, somewhere, stored, forgotten, waiting, a part of our beginnings that was now lost and unwanted.

It’s hard to know how these things work, how the connections are made, but it seemed like destiny when someone, for some reason, mentioned a canoe, a lost Amazon canoe, stored far from its origins. A canoe, or ‘Wipo’ in Huaorani language, that might now fulfill its destiny in a way no one had imagined: as a symbol of the almost unimaginable journey we had made over twenty years, from the Amazon and its rivers to the Avenue of the Volcanos, from the enchanted Galapagos Islands and the forest dwelling Huaorani people to the majestic snow capped Cotopaxi volcano. The ‘Wipo’ had finally found its home.

Are here it stands, in the grounds of Chilcabamba Mountain Lodge where you can see it in all its glory when you visit us.

For us, as we move around the Lodge and its environs, the ‘Wipo’ is a lasting symbol of the path we took, of our adventures, of the resilience we needed, of the dreams we had that were realized, and of some that were not, but that taught us the lessons we needed in order to get to where we are today. For us the canoe is also a reminder that projects parked and supposedly forgotten, are never really forgotten, but just waiting to be realized with time, maybe not as initially imagined, but in another perhaps more creative way. And failure they say, is just the first stage of success. So we hope the ‘Wipo’ will also inspire you to explore, to adventure, and to connect with other places and people on the way to realizing your own dreams.

la historia de una canoa que nunca llegó al agua, pero encontró un hogar a la sombra de un poderoso volcán.

And we’ll be here, waiting to welcome you to the comfort of the Lodge with this and many other fascinating stories that we’ve gathered along the way: from the Amazon to the Galapagos and the Andes, and now the sacred valley of the Incas in Peru and the remoteness of the Chilean Patagonia. So come and join us, and say hello to the Wipo; there’s a lot to discover here at Chilcabamba Mountain Lodge.

Con cariño,

Titi & Jasci