Experience life in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, and examine how ancestral practices of sustainability are being protected and reinvented by indigenous peoples from different parts of the region. As the climate crisis ravages, we will visit "the lungs of the planet" to explore how the Amazon is being impacted, and how the indigenous peoples here are preserving their lands and cultures for future generations.
Over the course of this program, we will meet with Sápara, Shuar and Kichwa land defenders, artists, activists, NGOs and film collectives to hear about the actions they have taken to protect the lands they love. We will learn how solar-powered boats are revitalizing the waterways, how rural communities defend their territories against various forms of extraction, and how indigenous peoples participate in global conversations about the climate crisis. We will make artisan crafts and learn how chocolate is grown and harvested. At the heart of the trip, we'll spend five days in the Amazon rainforest at the Little School of Wisdom, where we'll be immersed in Shuar culture and participate in a cultural exchange-sharing our own art skills with the students there.
Throughout the course, participants will keep detailed journals about their experiences. At the end of the program, each participant will contribute a page or spread to a class zine.
Tuition includes: Hotel accommodations in the mountains of Baños de Agua Santa and Puyo; four nights in rustic accommodations at a school in the Amazon jungle; most meals; travel to/from Quito to Amazonia; a ride on a solar-powered boat; trips to waterfalls, caves and the Piatua River.
Activity Level: 3-6 on the RPE Scale (RPE Scale)