PROTECTORS OF THE FOREST

The project began in 1995, under the drive of the Maquipucuna Foundation and the Swiss Fund. “They talked to us about protecting the forest and taking advantage of its resources without destroying them,” he recalls. “We were cutting down the forest, and they immediately told us not to cut the trees, not to kill the birds, and we learned to take care of the forest and its resources, and formed the Agriforest Committee that initially involved only 18 of the 50 families. . .” he says.

And they learned to love the forest, and parrots and hummingbirds; they bought a property, got into debt, and in this way involved the rest of the community, 43 in total. Then, everyone.

THE BEGINNINGS

In 1997 they presented to the ONU a Community Ecoturism project that considered infrastructure, training, and promotion, and a group of native guides was formed. They learned to cook and better mix foodstuffs to improve their diet, they learned administration, breeding of laying hens, chickens, cuyes, etc.

“In 1967 the first group arrived, about 40 tourists from Holland came and we didn’t know where to receive them or what to give them. They asked for continental breakfast—what a shock—but we had everything: eggs, milk, bread, jams, fruits…” he says between laughs.

THE ACTUAL STATE OF THE PROJECT

The entire community is integrated into the Ecoturism project. They can accommodate and feed tourists on the communal property or in family houses, and offer adventure programs and participation in daily life.

They receive volunteer groups, institutional tourism groups, student tourism: graduates of primary schools, high schools, or universities in order to do experiments, study the language, or observe the workshops for dairy, recycled paper, jams, in the communal vegetable gardens, in the forest nurseries, care of the forest, etc.

They offer walks through the [culunculus yumbos], deep paths in the earth covered in vegetation and between 2,750 and 1,300 msnm deep.

They produce everything that they consume and sell the rest in Santo Domingo.

Ecotourism in route Two Hemisphers: We said in a former delivery, that the Two Hemisphers Tourist Route that follows the Equinoctial line we carry from Quito, for towns and Andean landscapes, cloud forest and tropical humidity, offers biodiversity, ethnocultures, large farms, hostels, ecological reserves, complex archeology as/how Tulipe and Ecotourism Community.