The Upper Amazon Basin - Adventure Guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands - page 336

a four-day trip and the longer, more active program is eight days.
Contact Piraña Tours , Manuel Silva, Casa de la Cultura, Colombia
and 18 de Noviembre, Lago Agrio, 6-830-624, or in Quito at Tropic

Ecological Adventures , Av. República 307 and Almagro, Edificio
Taurus, Dept. 1-A, 2-2225-907/2234-594, fax [phone], tropic@

uio.satnet.net, www.tropiceco.com.

The Cofan, whose territory once ranged all the way to the foothills of
the Andes, have spent years retreating farther and farther east from
the oil industry expansion in order to maintain their lifestyle of sub-
sistence hunting and rotational agriculture . Abrave people, in recent
years they have gone so far as to march on illegal oil wells in protest
and actually stop production activity, but their success has been
mixed. They are now reduced to 500 inhabitants in a reserve along
the Río Aguarico and another small cluster west of Lago Agrio in the
foothills of the Andes. Nevertheless, their “leader,” Randy Borman -
an Americanwhomarried a Cofan - has implemented a solid commu-
nity-based ecotourism (CBE) program, if not an expensive one. As
with everything else, though, you get what you pay for. For $60-$120
per day per person, you will visit the most remote stretches of Ecua-
dor's Oriente and the Cofan community of Zábalo. Typical programs
last six days, with all of the standard activities offered by other pro-
grams, as well as a couple of surprises and extended, more challeng-
ing treks available. Contact Randy Borman in Quito,

/fax 2-2437-
844, [e-mail], or Tropic Ecological Adven-
tures in Quito, /fax [phone], tropic@

uio.satnet.net, www.tropiceco.com. Other responsible outfitters that
work with this group include Transturi ([e-mail]),
Harpia Tours and Wilderness Travel (1102 Ninth Street, Berke-
ley, CA 94710,

2-2234-594/2225-907,

800-368-2794, 510-558-2488, fax [phone],
www.wildernesstravel.com. Transturi also officially works with a
Quichua CBE project in the heart of the Cuyabeno Reserve at Playas
de Cuyabeno.