Investigating ecotourism

Update 7

AmazonQuest is an interactive expedition developed by Classroom Connect. For five weeks, a team of scientists and explorers are examining one of the most distinctive and most threatened environments on Earth: the Amazon River basin.

Beautiful flowers are one of the attractions that draw people from all over the world to ecolodges.

After seven brutal days slogging down the Río Azul, we were ready for a little luxury.

It wasn't just the stingrays, bees and torrential downpours that wore us down. The food stank. We ate rice, lentils, crackers, eggs and canned tuna fish day after day. It seemed like years since I'd had a cold drink. And on our last night in the Amarakaeri Reserve Zone, with half our food lost in the previous day's storm, we hit rock bottom.

We had deep-fried tuna balls for dinner.

We ate at 9 p.m., standing in a circle around the outdoor stove with our plastic bowls and metal knives. We gulped down our crispy tuna balls in silence. Then we went straight to bed. "It's the type of food I normally whip at cars," Dan says. "But the feeling of having arrived safely made me appreciate even tuna balls."

Soon after we woke up yesterday, a motorboat whisked us three hours downriver to the Manu Wildlife Lodge, an ecolodge on the Río Madre de Dios. When we arrived, manager Jorge Luis escorted us to a screened-in dining room, where he served us cold lemonade. He gave us each a bungalow, complete with hot water, real beds, mosquito netting, candlesticks and toilets that flush. For a day-and-a-half, we've been feasting on avocados, apples, palm hearts, cookies and other treats.

Believe it or not, we were still in the same rainforest.

We are investigating ecotourism this week, and the Manu Wildlife Center is our first stop. Every year, more tourists travel to Peru, often to visit the jungle. Every year, more ecolodges pop up, promising an environmentally friendly way to see the wonders of the rainforest. The United Nations has even designated 2002 as the International Year of Ecotourism. But some people don't think that's such a good idea, mostly because there are no standards for ecotourism. Anyone can build a hotel, call it an ecolodge, and lure tourists seeking to have a rainforest experience and help the environment. It can be hard to gauge the authenticity of the experience.

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Jorge says the Manu Wildlife Center takes its "eco" claims seriously. The lodge uses biodegradable soap to wash dishes and clothes. They recycle cardboard and glass. They treat their sewage before throwing it away. With the profits they make, the center buys more land every year, which they protect from hunters and loggers.

"I am 100-percent certain," Jorge says, "that we are helping the environment."

In a survey of 300 people in 1992, our online expert Charlie Munn found that 70 percent of ecotourists wanted to see wildlife on their vacations. Today, I met a group of four British travelers staying at this lodge. They are traveling with a checklist of species four pages long.

"Anyone can pay a few pounds and visit a zoo," said amateur biologist Eleanor McDermid. Her group been in the Manu region of Peru for only six days, but they've already seen 10 species of monkeys, a jaguar and tons of birds, said Eleanor's friend Daniel Tizarg. "There is a buzz to catching sight of an animal in the wild after hours of patience."

Like other ecolodges, the Manu Wildlife Center takes advantage of their guests' desires to see exotic animals. Fifteen miles of hiking trails wind through the forest. Ten minutes from our bungalows, a staircase spirals 100 feet up to a platform in a 300-year-old Ceiba tree. From the platform, if you're lucky, you can see as many as 40 species of birds in one morning, says our guide Oscar.

Tonight, I experienced the center's biggest draw. About an hour's walk from the lodge is a mound of clay, where, if you're quiet and patient enough, you can see deer and tapirs emerge from the darkness to feed off the minerals in the dirt. Lying on a platform less than twenty feet from a giant tapir was one of the greatest wildlife sightings I've ever experienced.

Trail markers written in English make exploring the jungle easy for visitors to the ecolodge.

Still, I feel conflicted. Without these buildings, I could not be here. But people have chopped down trees to make way for hiking trails and buildings. The same food I've been drooling over for a day and a half comes all the way from Cuzco. Loud, gasoline-burning airplanes make the deliveries once or twice a week. The more ecolodges there are, the more tourists will come, and that puts even more strain on the country's natural resources.

Compared to the rigors of last week's travel, it's nice to enjoy the rainforest in style. Still, there was something authentic about immersing ourselves in the reality of this place, with all its discomforts and dangers. There must be a balance here somewhere. For now, the jury is still out.

Happy to be clean again,

Dan Buettner, expedition leader

P.S. This week's Make a Difference (on Friday) will let you come up with a list of standards for ecolodges, so think about it as you read this week's dispatches. Washington Post columnist Remar Sutton may publish your list.