Amazon Headwaters with the Huaorani

The Huaorani Eco-lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon is where you will learn about the Huaorani people and their culture, their close relationship with the forest and have the opportunity to observe Amazon wildlife. Your stay of either 3, 4 or 5 nights will be a unique experience taking you to one of the most ecologically important areas on earth, in the company of a unique rainforest culture.  Up to ten people can be accommodated at the eco lodge.

The Huaorani people have inhabited the headwaters of the Amazon for millennia and have lived as hunters and gatherers, entirely without contact from outsiders until the end of the 1950s. At least one Huaorani clan continues to shun all contact from the outside world, though missionaries and oil companies have had some influence.

Numbering approximately 2,400 individuals, the Huaorani maintain a largely traditional lifestyle living directly in and from the rainforest. Nowadays, their territory - approximately 680,000 ha/1.7 million acres - is about one third of the size of their traditional land and they have no oil or mineral rights.

Our partners, Tropic Journeys in Nature, have enjoyed a close relationship with the Huaorani since 1994 and under their complete control and Tropic's guidance this programme has been developed to bring visitors into the territory of one of the Huaorani’s communities located on the upper Shiripuno river.

The Huaorani speak a language unrelated to any other; their name means "the people", while everyone else is cowore, or "non-human" (that's you).

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