Gera - Saraguro Indigenous Community

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Gera montain and valley vista

Gera is an indigenous Saraguran community that retains the traditional architectural styles, dress, and their language, Kichwa. It boasts a phenomenal vista of the mountains and valleys.

In this community we will be served the traditional Wajango (typical drink) made from the pucara, a local type of cactus, and visit the ethnographic museum in the community, displaying some of the instruments which were and/or are used by this indigenous ethnic group in their daily lives as well as their clothing and costumes.

Tasting the fresh wajango

The liquid is a daily beverage for the family, it aids in the digestion process. If left to ferment for 3-5 days, it becomes a potent alcoholic beverage. It can also be boiled down into a sweet honey consistency substance and used as a natural sweetener, or, eggs are added, the liquid is spun with a stick into “espuma” or a substance similar to marshmallow fluff.

At Gera, there is a beautiful hike to the historic site of Pucara, an excellent viewpoint of the Yungilla Valley. Once there will be have an historical interpretation of the place, a snack is served and then we descend 500 meters along pre-Columbian agricultural terraces used for different agricultural crops of this community. On the return walk, we continue to observe a large number of archaeological remains and a rural landscape of the first order for its historic interest and the degree of conservation of its environment.
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Macas - Ecuadorean Jungle

Ranch Fatima Zoo

Rancho Fatima is an excellent alternative for tourism in the Amazon of Ecuador, it is a rescue zoo with a comprehensive organic farm, crop, farm, that develops programs for the recovery of native flora and fauna. It has a zoo of Amazonian species, it also offers lodging, restaurant and hiking trails. It is located in the Morona Santiago Province, 7 km from the city of Macas via La Parroquia San Isidro, which is reached by roads in excellent condition.

Tiara is the first jaguar born in captivity in Ecuador. This species is in serious danger of extinction, we can all help their preservation. Coming soon on this web site, Donate to the Friends of Ranch Fatima.

 Laberintos de Chiguaza

The nature resort the Laberintos de Chiguaza, on a small plateau see the evolution of our planet, over 50 million years of giant changes it has transformed.. Particularly in this place, where it has left its traces of the past, there are rock formations that form stone mazes up to 5 meters high and its rock walls clearly show the presence of marine fossils such as shells, snails, sea dollars or sanddabs, sea cucumbers, etc. Demonstrating the existence of the sea in this place at 800 feet above current sea level, million years in the past. Come visit this amazing place, Laberintos de Chiguaza, where the evolution of our planet unveils itself before your very eyes.

The Schuar - Buena Esperanza

While the Ecuadorian Amazon is vast, [the province of Morona Santiago is convenient by its strategic location in the South Eastern Regional Center], it holds countless attractions, tourism resources of cultural and natural beauty, the very richness of the soil which creates a rich and abundant environment and attracts adventurous visitors who wish to know and have contact with nature, this area as recommended for cavers, scientists, botanists, researchers and archaeologists natural medicine shamanism, as well as those just interested in a firsthand knowledge of the wonders of the Amazon. In addition it has the warmth of the people, this is what has earned it the title of "Temple of the Amazon."

The Shuar, whom we visit are a very large group of indigenous peoples that extend into Peru and Brazil. The Jivaro are a subset of the Shuar. Up until a hundred or so years ago, the Jivaro were experts at the processing of encogida calavera, or shrunken skulls.

In the Shuar language, Shuar means "people.” The people who speak the Shuar language live in tropical rainforest between the upper mountains of the Andes, and the tropical rainforests and savannas of the Amazonian lowlands, in Ecuador extending to Peru. Shuar live in various places — thus, the muraiya (hill) Shuar are people who live in the foothills of the Andes; the achu (swamp-palm) Shuar (or Achuar) are people who live in the wetter lowlands east of the Andes (Ecuador and Peru).

In our visit to Macas, we take ourselves to a Shuar community in the foothills of the Andes. The community is about 40 minutes from Macas. After arriving at the community center, where the local school is. We then are provided with calf length rubber boots for the two kilometer trek through the jungle to a particular family compound. Here we are given a view of family life in the jungle. There is no electricity, or telephone service. All cooking is done over an open fire. The housing is made of entirely natural products from the jungle.

We will take a hike along the river and gain knowledge of the vegetation, mostly used for healing purposes, but some, in the past, for weaponry. During the tour we will have the opportunity to swing on vines like Tarzan did, should you choose. We will then enjoy a lunch, made of entirely natural and local ingredients. It will also be possible to go tubing in the river.

The Shuar of the lowlands, where we do not go are also called Asuar. These Shuar are popularly depicted in a wide variety of travelogue and adventure literature because of Western fascination with their former practice of shrinking human heads (tsantsa). This practice was ended just over 100 years ago.