FUNDESIN in the Amazon

We took the trip “The Amazon Basin & the Galápagos,” Nov. 2-12, ’05, with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/955-1925 or www.oattravel.com). It was a great trip, and I feel OAT is a very good company to travel with for adventure, but I wish to write about a different aspect, FUNDESIN, or Foundation for Integrated Education & Development (visit www.fundesin.org).

In the Ecuadorian jungle we stayed at the Yachana Lodge (Vicente Solano E1261 y Av. Oriental, Quito, Ecuador; phone/fax [593-2] 2523 777 or visit www.yachana.com) on the Napo River. We met Douglas McMeekin, the founder and executive director of FUNDESIN and Yachana Lodge, and were impressed with his work and that of the foundation. The lodge, where guests can participate in the local ways of life, was founded in 1995 to help the world better understand the rainforest and its inhabitants.
While protecting over 3,700 acres of rainforest, this nonprofit organization runs an environmental program for the Amazon inhabitants, generating income for the locals as an alternative to harmful or illicit means. Yachana Lodge, a world-renowned ectotourist destination, was built by the foundation and is the largest employer in the upper Napo River region.

FUNDESIN provides agricultural assistance and works with the Ministry of Health to promote better medical services and health training for people in the area. One crop which has worked very well is cacao; the Yachana Gourmet (a for-profit venture) pays locals about five times more for the cacao beans than the going rate because the profits don’t go to middlemen. We visited the local market and saw the huge sacks of cacao beans being weighed and sold. We also went to a presentation on the production of chocolate candy and sampled the tasty products.

We stopped at the Mondana medical clinic as well, where a doctor is available and modern antibiotics are given to patients. There was a dental office, an obstetrics clinic and other services — the only full-time health care for those living along the upper Napo River.

But the thing that impressed me most was the educational program. Twenty-one schools have been constructed in impoverished areas. We first visited a grade school, then a high school where the three main subjects are agriculture, communication and tourism (students work in the lodge to learn finances).

The students live in dormitories and attend school for three weeks, then they go back to their villages and help their families for three weeks before returning to the school. We were really impressed by how eager they were to learn. They even had satellite Internet.

We were very lucky to have Douglas as our guide for the schools and medical clinic. Our guides in the jungle were Juan, from a remote Amazon community, and Isabelle, from Quito. They were so knowledgeable and really added to the enjoyment of the trip.

Including all meals except two lunches, from San Francisco the total price of the OAT tour was $2,745. There was also $108 in airport taxes and fees. Our tour operator picked us up at the Quito airport, and after an overnight stay in Quito we flew to Coca and took a motorized canoe up the Napo River for 2½ hours to the lodge. We spent three nights at the lodge, four nights in Quito and three in the Galápagos. (I saw on the website that a 3-night stay at Yachana Lodge costs $336.)
This was a unique trip.

BARBARA RAGLAND
Oroville, CA