Grounded with our initial meetings in country, we began traveling to see Sani Isla.  We woke up early to leave Quito and fly to the Lago Agrio region.  We met a CyD team in Sacha and drove towards Pompeya for our final leg on boats.  We passed significant portions of secondary rainforest; vegetation that has grown back after being cut down in the past.  Pipelines are nearly ubiquitous in the scenery alongside roads and are routed directly through towns.  They originate from depots of international companies that make camps right on the banks of the river.  RP is continuing to explore what impacts these companies have on environmental degradation and how they change employment patterns in indigenous communities.

We are spending 2 days very full days in Sani Isla with the community.   In the early mornings, we are taking advantage of light and temperature for walks through primary rainforest- a first for our Board member Hazel Barbour!  Jom guided us through new terrain and proved to be an excellent source of knowledge; he pointed out countless variations of flowers and fungi, trees and plants, and distinguished the useful from the poisonous along the way.

We visited fincas of a few families and were introduced many wonderful new faces.  One of our first priorities was to meet with community women about the ongoing artisan projects.  As we saw, the women are already are making copious beaded jewelry and bags woven from recycled plastics and fibers from the forest displayed at Sani Lodge.  The president of their association is very keen to develop the business.  They discussed ways collaboratively to build organizational structure, create larger working spaces, and the ability to sell to wider markets.  We are all pushing for the project to get started this September!

Sunday is the most important day for the community when everyone gathers in el centro where soccer teams from other communities come to play.  Everyone brings food and drink and supports the competing teams.  It was a great opportunity for us to interview many of the members of the community who came by boat for the day.  The team is having very interesting and amazing experiences.  We just arrived to  Sani Lodge- located by a beautiful, tranquil lake.   Sani Lodge is the only Ecolodge in Ecuador entirely owned and operated by an indigenous community.  The community is very proud of the lodge and tell us it will be a fantastic visit, stay tuned for more soon!

The Rainforest Partnership team all arrived in Quito safely, and have loads of stories to share! The city’s 9,350 feet above sea level was a significant leap from Austin and Stockholm, but didn’t stop our group from ascending even higher up one of the surrounding volcanoes. The views were stunning!

After long correspondence with Swedish photographers Martin Edstrom and Alfred Runow abroad, it is great to finally see them in person. They carry young, vibrant personalities giving wonderful energy to RP’s projects. Their presence should produce an interesting contrast in composition to Michel’s video coverage. With only minor bouts of altitude sickness, we set out straightaway to meet with our partners Conservacion y Desarollo (CyD).

We have been collaborating with CyD  in anticipation of our upcoming visit to the Sani Isla community, and it is wonderful to share progress. Alfredo Duenas has been instrumental in filling in the gaps of information. He has provided crucial data for our project proposal and worked with the community over the past few months.

We all had wonderful meetings with CyD at their offices discussing the Sani Isla project.

We have been immersed in numerous other meetings in Quito with potential partners and other NGOs. They are doing amazing work independently, and the ideas we are generating together are providing important connections and potential projects. We are looking forward to arriving in Sani Isla and see how the community is doing!