THE HISTORY OF CUYABENO LODGE
Some of you might already know Cuyabeno Lodge, some of you might have already slept in the beautiful wooden cabins and relaxed in the colorful hammocks. Some of you might have already spent a couple of adventurous days there, but do you know how everything started? Which were the first steps, what was the first idea, what were the dreams and the beliefs of the founders?
Cuyabeno Lodge started operating in 1989 as the first eco-friendly Lodge in the Cuyabeno Reserve. But what exactly means eco-friendly? Well, we do everything possible to blend in with nature in order to minimize the human impact on the rainforest. And how do we achieve this? We provide, for example, biodegradable products like shampoos and soaps, and use natural building materials like palm leaves for the roofs of the cabins. In addition to this, our energy is provided by solar panels.
The rainforest is endangered: by climate change, by oil companies, by humans in general. That is why it is more important than ever to take care of this very special part of our planet. This was and still is another one of our main goals: to contribute in the prevention of oil exploration in the Cuyabeno Reserve, because it already took place too close to the protected National Park.
Cuyabeno Lodge started operating with just a few cabins, none of which included private bathrooms as it was these facilities were provided by the big shared bathrooms, still in use today. The cabins were designed according to traditional indigenous shelters using the same materials in order to avoid any lasting impact on the surrounding environment as well as insuring the durability of said cabins. Over the past decades the wooden cabins were reconstructed and new ones were built. Today we have several cabins with private bathrooms, a huge dining room and an observation tower which hosts the superior rooms.
Sustainable tourism and the protection of the rainforest are the values on which Cuyabeno Lodge was founded and is still operating today. Over the past years, the Lodge got constantly revised, renewed and improved. We want to provide an (adventurous rainforest) home far from home and a lifetime experience never to be forgotten.
