Ikiam Expedition

Location
n/a
Ecuador

Tour Operator

By Carrie Murphy

This is not your traditional Amazon tour: Ikiam Expedition is a truly authentic and exceptional travel experience. After traveling from Quito to Puyo to Shell, you depart for Shiona in a 5-passenger Cessna. Upon arrival, you take a 30 minute canoe ride to reach the territory of the Shiwiar, an indigenous community deep in the Ecuadorian jungle. With Ikiam, you become a part of the Shiwiar community, learning and living amongst this community only accessible by air. The Shiwiar are only minorly westernized, live in a non-monetized society and continue to practice the rituals and beliefs they have cultivated over thousands of years.

Here, there are no expensive meals, no spacious suites: you sleep simply in a traditional house (mosquito net included!) and participate in the daily life of 4 Shiwiar families, helping to make handicrafts and prepare food. There is no set tour or agenda, you are free to explore the forest, view the amazing diversity of species or swim in the river at your leisure. Only 5 outsiders are allowed on the site each week. In Shiwiar territory, you are not viewed as a tourist or a client, but as a friend who has come to the jungle to help and to learn.

Ikiam Expeditions is committed to showing the outside world the beauty of the Shiwiar way of life, without compromising their existence. The company is devoted to ecotourism and is locally owned. The goal of the community and of the company is to defend this territory from oil exploitation and to preserve the Shiwiar culture.

Ikiam Expeditions is pricier than many of the ecotour companies you’ll find in Ecuador (around $350 per person per day, including food) but the level of cultural immersion that you are sure to experience should be more than enough to make up for the extra cash. Please visit www.ikiam.info to learn more about this amazing journey into the Amazonian wilderness.

Contact Information:
Phone: From abroad: (593) 9 832 3637 ,(593) 9 769 2988
E-mail: shiwiarfund(at)remove-this.hotmail.com, ikiamp21(at)remove-this.hotmail.com
URL: www.ikiam.info