Gender Development :: essays research papers

The Amazon is the "Mother Jungle" (Sachamama). It's home to the last free-roaming animals and to the vegetable universe in its greatest splendor. It's the great temple of Nature as a proof to God's original ideas, without human manipulation. When we travel in the interior of the forest, our body recognizes this hallowed place, and each of our cells awakens from its urban lethargy. Our inner biology readjusts to the rhythm of the pure air offered to us by the sacred garden. Our minds are slowly cleansed and we begin to hear the voices of the birds, the fish, the boa, the crocodile and the wind. For the first time we hear the powerful voice of the storm before it breaks into passionate rain. The mighty music of the concert of Life on planet Earth. After the water, the sun comes with its live-giving embrace. All the animals perform: Life, Love, and Death in the Forest. At dusk, infinite heartbeats become one and an ancient and immense peace fills our bodies and minds. Biodiversity and anthropology are the fundamental characteristics of the Ecuadorian Amazon. A haven to ornithology, entomology and orchidology; to unique land mammals --primates, felines, tapirs and many others; to Pink Dolphins; to countless reptiles, insects and amphibians, the Amazon jungle is also the home to some of the last and most ancestrally unique human groups: the Huaorani and Quechua cultures. Along with those main interests, visitors can get a taste of Shamanism (spiritual cleansing rituals), jungle gastronomy, natural cosmetics, traditional medicine, and Amazon handicrafts. Regularly scheduled programs invite visitors to stay in beautiful Jungle Lodges that blend perfectly into the forest and offer a full range of activities to introduce them into the reality of the Amazon basin, including boat rides in rivers walled by the most luxuriant vegetation on earth, and walks under an endless canopy of giant trees. The "Sachamama" trips take visitors to one of the last areas of totally virgin forest in the Ecuadorian Amazon. There are no roads in this part of the jungle. Travel is done exclusively by river and by air, entering the jungle by specially chartered airplane and travelling by indigenous methods: by dugout canoe. The group then stops along the river to penetrate the interior of the forest and camp every night on the beaches of the river or in the forest at the water's edge, the native's way... The program allows small and selected groups of visitors to participate in the life of the Amazon and its people, sharing their ways, their nomad lodgings, their jungle.