We invite you on a voyage, an excursion to a beautiful place that`s thousands of years old, to the secrets of life and its originins. Lets dive into the tropical rainforest whose impenetrable vegetation covers the eastern slopes of the Andes and its foothills. Here in direct vicinity of the equator, you are kissed by the tropical air. And the rich, vital humidity of 90 %. Smell the powerful essence of the orchids taste the purity of the diverse jungle foods and feed your strength with the plant medicines of the rainforest. Let`s listen to the song of the jungle, the swinging trees over 100 metres high, embraced by lianas, iguanas and mushrooms. Nourished by the River Napo, with its wild and ancient dephts. Let`s enjoy the colour-spectrum of butterflies as big as your hand, of the glistening insects and of the play of the sunlight with wild parrots. All of this is united in the roar of the jaguar.

Here is where the creatures speak one language, live together in one world and respectfully protect and need one another in mutual understanding. The Amazon basin is known for the cultural variety of its unique bio-diversity with tens of thousands of different species of animals and plants. Their beauty and the rich resources there are a living testimony to the natural health of its region, but also to its fragility, where every single specimen is an elementary part of a huge complex whole and every loss means irrevocable changes in the entire ecological system. Let`s remember our connectedness to this unity and also the threat of its demise from the growing pressure from global economic forces.

We are in the province of Napo, located in eastern Ecuador and known as the Oriente in Spanish. The province is named after the River Napo, that originates in this region and flows all the way into Peru, eventually joining the big waters of the Amazon. The capital of the Napo Region is Tena, a small city of 22.000 people. About 500m above sealevel, the Napo Region covers an area of 12426 km² and is the home of roughly 100.000 inhabitants. For the most part the residents are mestizos and mestizas, that immigrated in the framework of colonization programs and because of the oil-extraction and the cattle ranching industries.

comunidad Mariposa

About 30-40% of the population belong to indigenous groups. Most of them are Amazonians, -Quichuas, -Cofan, -Shuars and -Huaroani , practicing up to today their traditional ways of living, cultural identity and customs, thus allowing for the continued use and protection of the resources and knowlegde of the rainforest. This often results in confrontation with western culture and the economic drive to turn the living rainforest into a profit margin. The Amazonian Indigenous people of the Napo also get excluded from the political, economic and social processes in the country. Althought the reigning elites have given up the attempt to subjugate the Indigenas to western culture (more or less) since the transition to democracy in 1979, there still exists a relative tension between the democracy principal of equal treatment of all the citizens and the social reality in Ecuador. The economic and cultural war to disenfranchise the Napo Runa is still going on.

The Finca Ethno-Botanik "Nukanchi Kausay" is near to the Comunidad Lushian Mariposa Situated in the east of Canton Archidona, the Province Napo, Ecuador Climate humid, tropical rainforest, until 606 msnm Longitude: 189.974 m Latitude: 9 899.846 m Annual rainfall: 5800mm Temperature: 25°C, relative humidity of 90% Charakteristically hot, humid, tropical climate

map of the area