Cuyabeno lodge
Who We are
Hi, Welcome to our beloved Cuyabeno Lodge. I am the owner of Cuyabeno Lodge, conservation
ecologist Dr. Daan Vreugdenhil. From 1974 to 1976, I was a member of the United Nations team that
selected Ecuador’s first 39 protected areas. In charge of Ecuador’s Amazon region, I proposed nine
protected areas, including the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (then 150,000 ha) and Yasuni National Park
(then 1,800,000 ha).
In 1983, Cuyabeno faced an invasion by settlers from the Andes. The park’s director at the time, Dr.
Flavio Coello, invited me back to Ecuador to advise on how to respond. We recommended excluding
the invaded portion from the reserve but expanding it to the border with Peru, increasing its size from
150,000 ha to 600,000 ha. Thanks to our intervention, Cuyabeno was not only saved but quadrupled
in size.
I also proposed building a lodge at Lake Cuyabeno to generate income for the reserve. As no
Ecuadorians were willing to invest, my wife Eveline and I sold our own house in the Netherlands to
finance the construction. We obtained a license and built the Cuyabeno Lodge. In doing so, I
pioneered ecotourism not only in Cuyabeno but actually in mainland Ecuador, where there was no
ecotourism to speak of. Of course, for our lodge, I chose the best spot: a small island near the shore
of Lake Cuyabeno. Completed in 1988, the Cuyabeno Lodge remains the only lodge in the country
run by a conservation professional.
From the beginning, Eveline and I prioritized the needs of the local Siona community, involving them
in tourism services. We organized training courses, ensured that all canoe transportation is hired from
Siona families, and we facilitate monthly medical checkups for the children of the community.