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Travellers and Shuar hosts walking together in the Amazon rainforest
SHUAR COMMUNITY · 3 DAYS · 2 NIGHTS

Shuar Community Experience from Quito.

Come in. Stay a while.

Leave the city behind and spend three days sharing food, forest, stories and everyday life with a Shuar community in Ecuador's Amazonian foothills.

BOOK YOUR EXPERIENCE SEE THE JOURNEY
FROM US$199 per person · 5+ travellers
DURATION 3 Days 2 nights
FROM QUITO 5–6 hrs approx. each way
THE POINT Participate don't just observe
THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT

You don't come here just to see the Amazon.

You come to spend time with the people who call it home.

About five to six hours from Quito, the road reaches Ecuador's Amazonian foothills and a very different rhythm of life.

This three day community experience is built around participation rather than observation. Cook together. Walk together. Learn how food is grown. Explore the forest. Share stories. Spend enough time in one place for the experience to become more than another stop on an itinerary.

Accommodation is basic. Meals are local. Activities may move with weather, community life and conditions in the forest.

That's not a bug in the itinerary.
That's part of the experience.
Amazon rainforest during the Shuar community experience in Ecuador
ARRIVAL

The road ends.
The relationship begins.

THE SLOW FLOW

Three days. Four verbs.

01 ARRIVE

Trade the city clock for community time.

02 LISTEN

Let the people who live here explain the place.

03 PARTICIPATE

Cook, walk, learn, share and get your boots dirty.

04 RECIPROCATE

Make sure the journey leaves value behind too.

Quito → Amazon foothills → Community → Quito
Food cooking over a wood fire in the Shuar community
DAY 1 · ARRIVE

First, leave the clock behind.

Travel from Quito using local transportation and arrive around lunchtime. Meet your hosts, share your first meal and settle into the community.

The afternoon is for getting oriented. Walk through the surrounding area, learn about the landscape and daily life and, conditions permitting, cool off in the river or stream.

As evening arrives, help with food preparation and share dinner. A meal may include traditional maito de pescado, fish prepared and cooked in leaves.

Stories. Conversation. Forest sounds.
The Amazon usually handles the entertainment.
THE JOURNEY

Enough structure to get there.
Enough space to actually be there.

Community life and rainforest conditions don't operate by stopwatch. The sequence below is a guide rather than a performance schedule.

DAY 01
QUITO → COMMUNITY

Arrive. Eat. Start listening.

Morning

Depart Quito using local transport for the approximately five to six hour journey toward the community.

Lunch

Arrive, meet your hosts and share your first community meal.

Afternoon

Orientation walk, introduction to the surrounding forest and community life, with time to swim when conditions allow.

Evening

Help prepare dinner, share food and settle into the sounds and pace of the forest.

You travelled five or six hours.
The bigger distance may be somewhere else.
DAY 02
FOREST · FOOD · KNOWLEDGE

The full day. And the reason you're here.

Morning

Breakfast followed by a forest walk toward a waterfall with cultural and spiritual importance to the Shuar.

Midday

Return for lunch and time to rest.

Afternoon

Visit the chacra and learn about planting, harvesting and foods grown in the forest environment. Traditional skills may include spear throwing, blowpipe techniques or fishing methods.

Evening

Help prepare dinner. Depending on conditions and the community schedule, the evening may include storytelling or a guided night walk.

Come curious.
Leave knowing how much you didn't know.
DAY 03
COMMUNITY → QUITO

One last morning. Don't rush it.

Morning

Breakfast followed by a final community activity. Depending on conditions, this could mean time by the river, a short forest activity, traditional skills, food preparation or simply more time with your hosts.

Optional

Visit the nearby Nunkui Project for the tree planting experience.

Lunch

Share one final meal before saying goodbye.

Afternoon

Begin the return journey to Quito, arriving in the evening.

Leave the community.
Take the relationship with you.
Traveller exploring a rainforest stream during the Shuar community experience
DAY 2 · THE FOREST

You arrive thinking
the forest is the destination.

Then you meet the people who know how to read it.

PARTICIPATION, NOT PERFORMANCE

Sit down.
Pass the food.

Community based travel gets strange when every interaction is packaged as a show.

That's not what we're trying to build here.

The point is time together: preparing food, learning about the chacra, walking through the forest, asking questions and sharing the ordinary moments that rarely fit inside a sightseeing schedule.

The community isn't the attraction.
The relationship is the experience.
Travellers sharing a traditional meal with a Shuar host
Chontacuro prepared beside a wood fire in the Amazon
LOCAL FOOD

Keep an open mind.
Maybe an open mouth.

Food is one of the fastest ways into another way of living. What is available varies, and that is exactly the point.

Depending on the visit and what the community is preparing, travellers may encounter foods very different from those waiting back in Quito.

Trying everything is not compulsory.
Curiosity is strongly encouraged.
THE RIPPLE EFFECT

Travel can pass through a place.
Or it can circulate inside it.

We built this program around the second idea.

01

Stay local.

Basic accommodation is part of the community experience rather than a separate hotel product.

02

Eat local.

Meals create value through ingredients, preparation and the people sharing their food and time.

03

Learn local.

Community knowledge, forest skills and cultural exchange are part of what travellers are paying to experience.

04

Keep it moving.

The majority of the revenue from this experience goes toward the local community and the people involved in hosting it.

CarpeDM helps build the bridge.

The community creates the experience.

This isn't about creating dependency.

It's about creating options.

More locally generated income can create more choices for the people deciding what comes next for their own community.

Traveller participating in the Nunkui tree planting project with a named stone beside the new tree
OPTIONAL · NUNKUI PROJECT

Plant something.
Then leave it there.

US$20 per tree

Around 30 minutes from the community, travellers can add a visit to the Nunkui Project and participate in tree planting.

Your US$20 contribution goes toward the tree and the materials needed for planting.

Plant your tree and place a small painted stone with your name beside it.

Not every souvenir needs to come home with you.
Traveller standing beneath a giant tree in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest

Some places make you feel small.

The good ones make that feel like a gift.

NOT READY TO LEAVE?

Good.
Stay another day.

Three days gives you the heart of the experience. A fourth gives you more room to follow it.

ADDITIONAL DAY FROM US$85 per person · final price depends on group size and activities

Potential activities

  • Early morning bird and wildlife walk
  • Longer forest hike
  • Additional waterfall exploration
  • Guided night walk
  • More time working in the chacra
  • Traditional cooking and food preparation
  • Fishing or traditional skills
  • River swimming and slower community time
  • Participation in an appropriate community project
  • Additional time with the Nunkui reforestation project
  • Community storytelling and cultural exchange
  • Community led cultural traditions when appropriate and mutually agreed
FIND YOUR SLOW FLOW STYLE

How this journey travels.

Not every experience creates impact in the same way. Here's where the Shuar Community Experience sits in the CarpeDM travel framework.

TRAVEL APPROACH
△

Traditional

Rainforest trails, waterfalls, local food and time deep in Ecuador's Amazon foothills.

◒

Responsible

Community hosted accommodation, meals, activities and local knowledge keep the majority of the experience's revenue within the community.

≈

Slow Flow

Stay. Participate. Listen. Let the people who live here determine what is shared and how the experience unfolds.

TOUR DNA
👥 Small Group
▰▰□□□ Active
3D Community Stay
♧ Rainforest
◎ Participation
IMPACT CONNECTIONS
8 Decent Work
& Economic Growth
11 Sustainable Cities
& Communities
15 Life
on Land
17 Partnerships
for the Goals
THE RIPPLE EFFECT

Travel can pass through a place. Or it can circulate inside it.

THE PRACTICAL STUFF

Simple by design.

INCLUDED
  • Local transport and taxi connections from Quito and return
  • Basic community accommodation · 2 nights
  • Meals from lunch on Day 1 through lunch on Day 3
  • English speaking CarpeDM guide
  • Community hosted activities
  • Local community participation and guiding
NOT INCLUDED
  • Breakfast on Day 1
  • Dinner on Day 3
  • Snacks and additional drinks
  • Rubber boots
  • Personal expenses
  • Tips
  • Nunkui tree planting · optional US$20
  • Optional additional day
Bring flexibility. This is a community hosted rainforest experience. Weather, river conditions, community commitments and local circumstances may change the order or availability of individual activities.
YOUR STAY. THEIR COMMUNITY.

Three days.
Five simple prices.

These aren't just activity prices. Your stay supports the people providing accommodation, meals, guiding, knowledge and the community experience itself.

Private 1 traveller
US$449 per person
2 travellers travelling together
US$299 per person
3 travellers travelling together
US$249 per person
4 travellers travelling together
US$219 per person
5+ travellers travelling together
US$199 per person
BOOK YOUR EXPERIENCE
NEED SOMETHING DIFFERENT?

Build a little more time into it.

Add another day, talk to us about your group or ask what activities make sense for the season and community schedule.

TALK TO CARPEDM
BEFORE YOU GO

Worth knowing.

Is this a luxury Amazon experience?

No. Accommodation is basic and the experience is intentionally community based. Come for participation, not thread count.

How long is the journey from Quito?

Allow approximately five to six hours each way using local transportation, depending on road and transport conditions.

Are all the listed activities guaranteed?

No. Community schedules, weather and rainforest conditions can change the order or availability of individual activities. Flexibility is part of travelling this way.

Do I have to try every traditional food?

No. Food is part of the cultural exchange, but travellers can decide what they are comfortable eating.

Is the Nunkui tree planting included?

No. It is an optional US$20 add on approximately 30 minutes from the community. The contribution goes toward the tree and planting materials.

Can I stay longer?

Yes. An additional day starts from US$85 per person, with the final amount depending on group size and the activities arranged.

SLOW FLOW · COMMUNITY EDITION

Maybe the most meaningful part of a journey isn't what you bring home.

Maybe it's the meal somebody was paid fairly to prepare. The knowledge somebody had a reason to share. The relationship that didn't end when the photograph was taken.

Maybe it's what keeps growing after you leave.
SHUAR COMMUNITY · AMAZON FOOTHILLS · ECUADOR

Come in.
Stay a while.
Leave something good behind.

Three days. Two nights. One community. And a different way of thinking about what travel can do.

BOOK YOUR EXPERIENCE
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