Steel and Glass in the Jungle

Who They Are

The newly opened Mashpi Lodge is set within a 3,200-acre private reserve that is part of the Tumbez-Choco-Darien bio-region that stretches from Panama, through Colombia and Ecuador, to northern Peru – all along the Pacific slopes of the Andes. The reserve is located three hours by road to the northwest of the capital, Quito. After crossing the Equator you leave dry valleys to be enveloped in a world of tumbling mountains and roiling rivers, until the road winds down into a profusion of trees, plants, and animals.

A Forest Cocoon

Within all this, Mashpi is a contemporary cocoon. The glass-and-steel lodge, co-owned by former Quito mayor Roque Sevilla and owner of Casa Cangotena, is set on a hillside that takes in the dramatic views, providing guests with a constant reminder of their unique setting. The 22 rooms include three expansive suites, and in the high-ceilinged dining room the menu features touches of the Pacific and Andean cultures.

Guests can explore the bio-diverse world of the reserve by climbing the observation tower, pedaling through the forest on an aerial bicycle, bathing in rivers and waterfalls, discovering the Life Centre with its butterfly farm and terrariums, and hiking along trails through the forest in the company of expert naturalist and local guides. By September Mashpi’s 2-km.-long ‘canopy gondola,’ or aerial tram, will be ready to take guests on extended explorations of the forest.

The World is Green

What They Are Doing

From its inception Mashpi sought to work with local communities to ensure they were aware of, and became involved in, the lodge and the decisions affecting the establishment and management of the reserve. Through Ecuador’s Ministry of Production, Mashpi has implemented a program whereby the locals and lodge employees can become shareholders, playing a pivotal role in conserving the highly bio-diverse – but endangered – forests to the northwest of Quito.

Mashpi will also provide an alternative job source, and the plan is for eighty percent of staff to come from surrounding communities. It will also build and finance a local school focused on biodiversity and ecology, for pupils up to the age of 11 (at least to start with). Close to the nearby village of Mashpi, and within the reserve, the lodge will cultivate a farm to supply it with fresh fruit, vegetables, spices, and legumes.

The creation of Mashpi, it is believed, played an important part in the recent decision by Quito municipality to declare 42,000 acres adjacent to the reserve a “natural protected area.” Called ‘Mashpi, Guaycuyacu y Sahuangal,’ it is the largest of its kind in Ecuador and constitutes a strong signal by Quito to protect its highly diverse surrounding ecosystems.

A senior biologist and his team have been on Mashpi’s staff since July 2010, and six volunteers from the biology department at the Quito San Francisco University are working on projects in the reserve, where there have already been studies of butterflies (with 80 species cataloged so far), birds, frogs and reptiles, and various animal species, including pumas.

The reserve is part of the biodiversity hotspot known as the Chocó-Darien, globally recognized as one of a dozen locations with the highest concentration of plant and animal species on the planet. It is thought that the reserve is home to some 500 species of birds, with 250 spotted to date. (By comparison, there are around 1,000 bird species across all of Europe.) There are also dozens of species of amphibians and reptiles and hundreds of kinds of insects.

The only difficulty is actually seeing all these creatures, especially in the dense forest. But the design of the trails, night walks in the forest with naturalists, and the lodge’s upcoming ‘canopy gondola’ are aimed to make things a lot easier.

Who They Are

Since opening several years ago Misool Eco Resort in Raja Ampat has fast become one of the world’s diving hot spots and has excelled in conserving an area widely known for its marine biodiversity – more than 1400 species of reef fish have been recorded.

A Water Cottage View

Created and owned by a group of passionate divers, conservationists, and adventurers, their aim was to demonstrate to their local hosts, their guests, and themselves that responsible tourism can be an integral part of environmental protection and the welfare of the local community.

The 8 spacious Water Cottages are built, Balinese-style, on stilts over the lagoon, and for extra seclusion there are three deluxe villas. A walkway connects them with the restaurant and dive center.

What They Are Doing

The cottages were built from salvaged driftwood bought from the local community and milled by the resort’s own portable sawmill. Aside from compostible food waste, nothing is thrown away on the island, either in landfills or into the sea. Black and gray water is cleaned and recycled using a chemical-free waste water garden system. Packaging is minimized, and what cannot be avoided is returned to the mainland for recycling.

A Wobbegong Shark

In 2006 Misool formed a 168-square-mile No-Take Zone. Now islands, reefs, and surrounding waters are protected. The resort raised funds to buy a patrol vessel and trained locals as rangers to prevent fishing, long-lining, shark finning, turtle harvesting, or removal of any marine creatures. By 2011, the No-Take-Zone had been extended to 465 square miles, and there are two patrol vessels.

Diving on the Doorstep

The zone includes four green turtle nesting sites, fish spawning and aggregation sites, manta cleaning stations as well as islands that are home to protected species of sea eagles, cockatoos, coconut crabs, saltwater crocodiles, and mambruk birds. In addition, Misool organizes beach cleanups.

Misool is developing a second No-Take Zone to include a nearby archipelago of significant ecological value, after it was approached by a neighboring community that saw the economic and social benefits of the zoning.  This agreement will expand Misool’s NTZ to 468 square miles, roughly twice the size of Singapore. The resort also has a reef restoration project in areas that were damaged by blast fishing.

Misool by Night

Approximately eighty percent of staff are local.  Misool provides them with English lessons and job training. In addition, it created a successful apprenticeship program in which local workers were paired with highly skilled artisans from Java and taught their craft.  It also offers its staff dive certifications and safety training, with the hope that one day its dive guides will all be drawn from the local community.

In the Kitchen at Misool

All of the rangers are local, which has empowered the community “to regain ownership and stewardship of their natural heritage. ” Misool also encourages locals to make traditional handicrafts to sell at the resort, and together with Conservation International has started a rattan-weaving project to make high-return furniture.

In Their Own Words

“We seek to provide exceptional and enriching experiences in a sustainable environment. We aim to protect and revitalize both our natural surroundings and the community in which we operate. We are committed to demonstrating that tourism can support a local economy with much more favorable terms than mining, logging, overfishing, or shark finning.”

Misool MD Andrew Miners with Local Children

(Shark photo by Will Postlethwaite)

In the remote village of Tracosco on the lush southeastern coast of Bahia, you’ll find the unique UXUA Casa Hotel. Conceived by Dutch-born Wilbert Das (fashion designer and longtime creative director for Diesel, the hip clothing line), the gorgeously bright and airy hotel took over two years to build using recycled materials in this tribute to the area Das loves so much.

Casa Seu Pedrinho do Quadrado

Six of the nine 1- to 3-bedroom casas or cottages (three are restored fishermen homes) are scattered around beautiful gardens, while the remaining three face the town square. Some are equipped with plunge pools, some with a Jacuzzi, and others nestle in the gardens and on terraces. Each casa has an open living room and a full kitchen where local chefs will help the culinary-adventurous create local Bahian feasts in their own casa. Meals are also served in the restaurant, at the pool, are delivered to your casa or can be taken at the beach just five minutes away. On the sand there’s a scenic lounge whose bar and kitchen were created out of an abandoned fishing boat that washed up on shore.

The Aventurine Quartz Pool

The swimming pool was made by a local, self-taught “mosaicist,” who used over 40,000 unique green aventurine quartz pebbles, well known in this part of the world to be especially healing. There’s also a spa where, in addition to acupuncture, massages, yoga, and Pilates, you can take private classes in capoeira and forro dancing, which is extremely popular at most of the social activities in the village.

There’s plenty to do if lying on endless beaches is not your thing: trek, horseback ride, snorkel, dive, canoe, play tennis, visit the nearby Indian reserve Barra Velha, a national park that 500 Pataxo tribe families call home … or join a local soccer team in the square!

What They Are Doing

To build the lodge, Das recruited local craftsmen to construct eight individual, traditional casas and one treehouse using recycled and organic materials wherever possible, while applying the local building customs to create a lodge that fits into its surroundings. Almost everything was carved by hand, which includes some unique touches in the bathrooms that are made out of fallen trees. Hardwood roof tiles were restored from old farmhouses, local ceramics cover the floors, and recycled woods and irons make up the bathrooms to create the rustic ambiance.

Casa Quintal da Gloria

UXUA has also roped in an area containing native vegetation and mangroves. The lodge owners have partnered up with the local administration and have taken responsibility for keeping the mangroves and the beach clean.

The Spa

Bahia has high levels of illiteracy, and training for luxury hospitality services is uncommon.  Das wanted to employ locals so, two years before the hotel opened, he began a ‘hotel school’ on the property, where locals were given hospitality training by professionals from international hotel schools. In addition, all personnel who had not finished high school were put into classes to complete their diplomas, and those staff who lacked basic literacy skills were given one-on-one instruction.  Every one of the present staff of 45 has either finished high school or is in the hotel’s program to get a diploma. Three of those who got diplomas are now taking university courses in a neighboring town, with tuition and transportation provided by UXUA.

Medical benefits are provided to all staff, something extremely unusual for Bahia. They are also guaranteed employment year-round, also rare in this part of the world, where staff are hired seasonally. The hotel pays the salary of the local professor of capoeira, which guarantees that the town’s children and teenagers can practice this sport even if they can’t afford to pay for the classes.

Produce for the magnificent Brazilian fare served in the hotel is sourced locally.

Safari, North American-Style

Who They Are

Inspired by late 19th century Great Camps, Clayoquot Wilderness Resort is located at the mouth of the Bedwell River, where it spills into a 9-mile-long fjord, an area teeming with birds and wildlife. Just a 45-minute boat ride from the town of Tofino on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, the area is reachable only by boat or seaplane.

Luxury Amidst the Canvas

The enclave, well concealed by the bush under the rainforest canopy, consists of 20 great white canvas safari-like guest tents – which are done, Great Camps-style, in Adirondack-type beds, down duvets, woodstoves, antique dressers, opulent rugs, and oil lamps – as well as massage and treatment tents, dining tents, lounge and library tents, and a massive timber cookhouse area. They are linked by cedar boardwalks. The Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve contains a very rare temperate rainforest with towering cedars and Douglas fir trees, some over a thousand years old.

A Summer Night

Spa...aaahhh

The resort is open only from May through September, All activities and adventures are planned to make the most of the region’s history, people, natural environment, and wildlife. Upon arrival guests receive an orientation about the activities, which range from taking a spa to hiking (along trails such as the Wild Side First Nations Interpretive Trail, which include Flores Island), from horseback riding to whale and bear watching, from river and sea kayaking to numerous other sports. There is even yoga. Do as much or as little as you want – but always in the serene isolation.

A Black Bear and Cubs

What They Are Doing

When developing the resort the owners set out to be as mindful as possible of the surroundings. It built the resort with an emphasis on making a limited environmental impact while repairing past damage from logging and mining. It purchases and emphasizes local foods and wines, and it employs local First Nations people.

At a First Nations Ceremony

The Ahoushat First Nations Community, numbering about 1500, is based on Flores Island. Clayoquot has signed a tourism protocol agreement with them on matters regarding operating in their traditional territories, and is working with them to create a holistic healing center and on building a first-ever First Nations adventure park, which would include canopy walkways, zip-trekking, storytelling, dance, carvings, canoe building, and traditional cooking.

Your Playground

The resort donates its staff housing and some public spaces during the off season to the Ahoushat to use in drug- and alcohol-substance-abuse and family-issues programs. It also provides the participants with food.

The fish population in the Bedwell Watershed has declined significantly over the past 20 years and Chinook salmon are at critically low levels. In 2003, the resort began restoring more than six kilometers of crucial spawning habitats in the Bedwell River basin. This restoration work represents the only privately funded initiative of its kind in North America. To date, and with the assistance of corporate sponsors and resort guests, about 20,000 cubic meters of overburden  (gravel and debris jams) have been excavated to restore the pond channel, and additional excavation work is  being done upriver. Already, chum salmon have been seen digging egg nests in the new habitats, and this spring, young adults found their way back to the ocean.

Great Camps Style Bedroom

The resort has committed $3 million over five years to research, conservation, and rehabilitation. A 3-percent sustainability fee is included in every guest’s fees, one-third of which goes towards the nonprofit British Columbia Wilderness Tourism Association to assist in environmental stewardship activities. The remaining money goes to the Environmental Legacy Program that includes habitat restoration, First Nations programs, and wildlife studies. The resort is testing compostable plastics made from corn and potato to replace standard plastic items used in packed lunches. It is also its carbon footprint and intends to reduce the amount of carbon the resort expends by five percent a year. It is about to install hydropower by building a generator on the river.

Guests can be involved as much or as little as possible in Clayoquot’s raptor rehabilitation, salmon habitat restoration, black bear mapping, whale acoustics, and program working with the Roosevelt elk.

In Their Own Words

“We try to teach our guests as much as possible about sustainability and the environment to take a proactive step towards a better future for us all.”

Nimmo on the Water

Who They Are

Nimmo Bay Resort is a high-end, helicopter fly-fishing and helicopter-adventure destination at the foot of Mt. Stephens along the Great Bear Rainforest coastline in British Columbia – the largest intact, coastal temperate rainforest in the world. It offers luxury wilderness adventure tours that include heli-fishing, whale watching, wildlife viewing, rafting, beachcombing, heli-hiking, kayaking, glacier trekking, and First Nations adventure tours.

The Top of the World

Cedar and Pine

All this takes place across 50,000 square miles of wilderness, going from sea level to 13,000 feet – and the helicopters stay with you all day. The wild salmon and Steelhead that guests fly- and spin-fish for have been here a long time, and the catch-and-release system hopes to guarantee they will be here for a long time to come.

Coastal Kaleidoscope

Six intertidal chalets and three streamside ones (each with two bedrooms, bathroom, and a lounge area) are set in a wilderness panorama.  The floating main lodge – where meals and drinks are served – is done in pine and cedar, custom walnut dining tables, leather couches, and artwork featuring al artists that is for sale. Attached to the lodge is a fully operational floating bakery.

What They Are Doing

The Murray family has been operating Nimmo for 30 years, all but one of which have been while using a small hydropowered electric system. The drinking water comes from the snow fields and natural springs of Mt. Stephens, and the use of plastic bottles has been eliminated by providing guests with stainless steel bottles to refill each day on their tours. The resort uses fresh, local foods and hires from the local communities.

Adventure on the Glacier

Nimmo is especially proud of its relationship with the local First Nations, and has a program where guests can visit the local communities to learn about their lifestyle, art, culture, and beliefs. The 2004 tourism accord with the First Nations, called the Wi’la’mola Accord , focuses on tourism as an economic generator, with the environment as its cornerstone. The resort tries to marry the adventure of wildlife with the adventure of the indigenous culture.

A Local

In addition, Nimmo has been working on ways to preserve and save the wild salmon from the fate of nearby salmon farms, where sea lice and chemical spillages cause havoc. Although this is a common problem wherever there are fish farms, the First Nations’ Alexandra Morton and Nimmo’s Craig Murray have been collaborating on this project for many years, battling governments and foreign corporations averse to doing anything to help protect this unique environment.

In Their Own Words

“We adhere to the truism that we don’t own the land – the land owns us.  Our economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of our environment.  We are meant to be here to act as stewards of this miraculous setting that we live and work in – the Great Bear Rainforest. We take our stewardship responsibilities seriously.”

Who They Are

Step back in time at Elephant Pepper Camp, a glorious tented camp hidden in a grove of giant ebony and elephant pepper trees overlooking the Masai Mara Plains. Modern comforts are set amidst hurricane lamps, and sumptuous meals served under a ceiling of stars.

The View Out

The camp is situated in the heart of the protected Mara North Conservancy, a spectacular wilderness area on the northeastern border of the Mara National Reserve. Here now for 20 years, it is one of the original, very small and exclusive tented camps, and is located away from other lodges. With only 9 en-suite tents, this magical camp maintains the atmosphere that is usually felt only on a traditional, mobile luxury safari.

The View In

What They Are Doing

Elephant Pepper Camp was built with sustainability in mind. There are no generators, cement, or any permanent structures, making the camp completely movable. Nestling almost out of sight under its canopy of trees, it closes for two months a year to allow the ecosystem to regenerate.

The Masai Mara

Elephant Pepper was instrumental in the formation of the Mara North Conservancy, a spectacular 28,000 hectares on the northeast border of the Mara National Reserve, a core parcel within the Masai Mara ecosystem. For the exclusive use of its 12 member camps, it provides some of the Mara’s prime game viewing in complete privacy. At the same time it guarantees the more than 700 Masai landowners stable revenue, with the camps paying $112,000 a month in fixed lease payments, or $1.3 million annually. Almost twenty percent goes to conservation management with employment of rangers, vehicle surveillance, and maintenance of infrastructure.

Zebra on the Mara North Conservancy

The camp has worked with the local Masai community for nearly 20 years, with the creation of the conservancy being the latest development in preserving this vital wilderness.

Among the initiatives the camp has spearheaded and participated in: Water from Wildlife, bringing water to schools without damaging the ecosystem; it has also introduced water-catchment and -collection systems, as well as the concept of shallow wells to support the local communities.

Place of Rest

When the area surrounding the camp was designated a wildlife conservation area by the Masai, Elephant Pepper was instrumental in helping the local Masai relocate to their new homesteads. The camp also transported their building materials for them, in order to reduce the need for tree felling. It supports the Aitong Primary School, which has, since 2007, added a new classroom, kitchen, and new desks and chairs.

Guests are encouraged, whenever possible, to go on game walks instead of drives. This experience is unrivaled, especially as all of the guides have the prestigious SilverLevel qualification, making them some of the best in the country. Over eighty percent of the staff are employed from the surrounding communities.

The camp relies on solar power, ecofriendly toilets, and traditional bucket showers. Food is sourced locally as much as possible; glass is separated and sold to a recycling plant in Nairobi, all of whose funds are donated to the East African Women’s League to support a family planning program managed by the North Lake Branch in Naivasha.

A Luxury Suite at Casa Gangotena

A Detail of the Staircase

Who They Are

Opened in late 2011 in Old Town Quito, the newly restored historic mansion Casa Gangotena overlooks the Plaza San Francisco, a cobbled square rich in history dating back to the days of the Inca.  Casa Gangotena is one of the grand old homes built on the southern edge of the plaza in the late 19^th century, and was home to several presidents before it was rebuilt after a fire in 1926 by its last owners, the Gangotenas. It’s just feet away from the imposing, almost 500-year-old Church and Convent of San Francisco.

Casona de San Miguel, Quito

Now owned by Roque Sevilla, the three-story boutique hotel offers 31 large luxurious rooms with state-of-the-art technology and large marble bathrooms. Great efforts have been made to restore the original detail, such as the hand-painted tin ceilings. Its third-floor terrace is the perfect place to put your feet up and enjoy everyday life passing by. with the bell towers and spires of the Old Town as well as the Panecillo hillside serving as the backdrop.  A better seat in town for the Easter procession is unthinkable.

A Hotel Lounge Bathed in Quito Sun

What They Are Doing

Sevilla is renowned in these parts for his long record of involvement in local and environmental affairs. He has served as Quito’s mayor as well as being a past president of WWF Ecuador. He is also known to be humble about his efforts to help the community and the environment (which you can read about – albeit briefly – on the hotel’s website).

Casa Gangotena

Since 2008, while it was still just an idea, the hotel has been involved in several neighborhood projects, such as the award-winning Heritage Guardians, which focuses on community initiatives like neighborhood integration, the value of heritage and tradition, and offers ‘routes’ for visitors to take in order to meet locals and experience their lives and ways. (The hotel can arrange this for you).

Singita Lebombo

Is it possible for a travel destination to be luxurious, hot (as in magazine-worthy), and sustainable? If anyone proves it, Singita does.

This African-based company has properties that go a long way to show that their hearts and minds are in the right place – they care about where they are and what they are doing. Travel is their business, but a business that has to last and in a country that has to last. Singita Grumeti, in Tanzania, has virtually turned what used to be a virtual wasteland (after years of illegal hunting and poaching) into an Eden. Bordering on the Serengeti, the 350,000 acres now have as good as you’ll get animal-wise (and probably even better than) in the iconic park next-door.

Sabora Tented Camp, Grumeti

Working with the community surrounding Grumeti is as much a part of the day-to-day as it is in Pamushana,  in Zimbabwe. For years now the property, which lies adjacent to the stunning and barely visited Gonarezhou park, has served thousands of meals daily to local children. Singita’s community work dates back to 1998 already. Whether it is buying products locally, supporting a cooking academy for staff (watch the video), or contributing to local schools, the company is doing it.

At the ever-popular Lebombo and Sweni lodges in Kruger Park, South Africa, Singita has tried to emphasize low-impact design, creating stunning rooms made of glass, steel, and reeds, perched singly on a ridge. An ongoing program of monitoring the wildlife and land around Singita’s first lodges, Ebony and Boulders lodges, in Sabi Sand, South Africa, endeavors to keep the much-used park seemingly untouched.

Children at Pamushana

At each of these properties, the work with low-impact design, the community, and the wildlife goes on daily and never ends. And that Singita doesn’t forget.

U-Bikers Outside Hotel Unique

It is an audacious plan for any country, let alone Brazil and indeed São Paulo. Lincoln Paiva wants to put U-Bike, or Urban Bike, in 200 of the city’s hotels.

Some U-Bike Routes

Unlike Velib and similar schemes in Europe and other parts of the world, where you rent a two-wheeler for 30 minutes or so before you have to return it to a nearby station, U-Bike is an organized way to get visitors around green-ly. And along the way, you learn something about where you are.

With U-Bike you don’t rent bicycles separately but as part of a group of anywhere from one rider ($100) to 10 or so ($30 per person). The more participants in your group, as you can see, the less it costs. For your money you get a bicycle, a helmet, a padlock, a guide – who could even be the CEO of a business who is giving up his time to partake in this green scheme – as well as an assistant and breakfast. There are four routes to choose from. Any income is plowed back into bike maintenance and other sustainability programs.

Atop Hotel Unique, the Crimson Pool

Paiva is president of the Green Mobility, which has launched U-Bike as part of a green initiative leading up to the 2014 World Soccer and 2016 Olympics. The U-Bike project in São Paulo is a collaboration between the city, bike manufacturer Caloi, and, for the first time, a hotel.

Hotel Unique is a boutique property in the garden district of Moema that boasted innovation before taking on the U-Bike program. From its copper façade to its porthole windows, it rises like a modern ocean liner, with the wood floors in its stern and bow rooms taking the shape of the ‘ship.’ Topped by the Skye restaurant overlooking the city, it has a crimson pool above, a stunning statue of St. George slaying the dragon in the lobby. There are 85 modern rooms and ten suites.

Me and the Mountain

Who They Are

Shakti is a company operating in the Himalayan region of India.  In 2004 it  introduced what it calls – and not without good reason – ‘the village experience.’ To reach out-of-the-way monasteries and villages, you trek, river raft, or go by vehicle through breathtaking landscape. The ‘experience’ takes you to various regions, whether it is the Kumaon Village Experience, the Sikkim Village Experience, both 3-4 days, or the 6-7 night Ladakh Village Experience, where the accommodations are comfortable yet still authentic. (Dates for each of these differ.)

At 360º Leti

In 2007, the company added an intimate luxury lodge, Shakti 360º Leti, which is situated on a stunning mountain spur close to where Nepal, Tibet, and India meet, with mind-blowing views of the Himalayas.  In addition to the above, but separately, in August and September the company offers a spectacular 3-day trip along the Shakti Shayok River Journey, part of the old Silk Road, as an option after the Ladakh trip.

River Views

What They Are Doing

Most of Shakti’s staff are hired locally and are trained in various fields of hospitality. Visitors are encouraged to join the locals in their everyday activities, thereby helping to generate income for them without compromising their lifestyle. As a result, they do not need to resort to high-volume, high-impact tourism.

Depending on the location, Shakti commissions new buildings that leave only the lightest footprint on their setting or breathe new life into existing, traditional architecture.  For 360º Leti it incorporated local building techniques and styles – the dry-stack stone wall is the traditional method of construction.  Other than in its offices, Shakti uses sustainable sources of electricity, mostly solar.

The company has set up a rainwater-harvesting project for a widow in one of the villages that is being replicated in the other

Downtime

areas it operates in.  Shakti works with the villagers, some of whom learn from working on these projects and then take the initiative elsewhere.

Shakti has helped set up and supports a local group of traditional Kumaoni dancers. By performing for visitors they have been allowed to sustain their skill, as well as to train younger members.

Shakti Sikkim

In Their Own Words

“Minimizing our negative impact on the culturally and ecologically sensitive areas where we work is a central tenet of Shakti’s philosophy.  As well as making a direct contribution ourselves, we encourage our guests to adhere to our written Code of Conduct.  We believe that, in this way, we can all support each other in securing the future of these sublime regions and their inhabitants.”