By Kasey Vangelov Today, Catholicism is the most prominent religion practiced among the Ese Eja people, particularly those who belong to the Infierno community. This religion was introduced to the region during the period of Spanish colonization. Traditionally, no formal religion was practiced. Rather, locals within the Infierno community state that a set of spiritual beliefs and practices were commonly held among the Ese Eja people. In particular, every plant and animal within the Amazon forest has a spirit — some bring good luck, while others bring bad. Shamans are those most in touch with t ..read more

By Bradley Russ When many people hear the word Ayahuasca, especially in Western circles, they paint a stereotypical image of psychedelic use in their heads: casual usage for fun in an attempt to see moving shapes and colors and feel intense emotions, paired with jokes about bad trips and an approach to spirituality typically associated with ‘New Age‘ practices. This is not the case for indigenous people in the Amazon, where ayahuasca has long been understood as and has remained an essential medicine for spiritual and physical ailments. Ayahuasca has been used for hundreds of years across South ..read more

By Rebecca DeStefano Throughout our stay in the Peruvian Amazon, our guides introduced us to various plant species  native to the area, many of which are used for traditional medicinal practices. We saw many of these plants as we hiked along the different paths surrounding Posada Amazonas; however, our visit to the nearby medicinal garden allowed us to take a deeper dive into their uses and significance to the region’s culture.  On the third day of our visit to Posada Amazonas, a short boat ride along the Tambopata River led us to the Ñape Medicinal Garden where our guide, Rodolfo, s ..read more

By Javier de Leon Project Origins and Community Nestled within the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon reside the Ese’eja people who comprise the native community of Infierno. It is here that a unique partnership was established in 1996 between the community and private company, Rainforest Expeditions, to jointly operate and run the soon-to-be-created Posada Amazonas ecolodge. This decision to partner with an external enterprise was not reached easily within the Ese’eja community. Many citizens were skeptical about the prospect of opening their doors to the outside world and suffering ..read more

By Patricia Boccard During our trip, we traveled to both the rainforest in Madre de Dios and the mountains in Cusco, seeing firsthand the environmental and socio-political links between the Andes and the Amazon Basin. In both locations, the forest and the mountains seemed immense and impenetrable. Yet, from above, during our plane ride, it was possible to see more clearly the deforestation that is harming the ecosystem. There is a critical relationship between the Andes and the Amazon. Millions of years ago, the rise of the Andes Mountains through shifts in tectonic plates significantly change ..read more

By Ben Forbes In the historic district of Cusco, Peru, there is a little musical instrument shop run by a man named Sabino. There, he handcrafts traditional Peruvian and Incan instruments. When I visited, he showed us each instrument, played them, and explained some of their origins and symbols. I purchased an ocarina. On it is carved a condor, a puma, and a serpent, which are representative of the sky or heaven, earth, and the underworld in Incan culture (Gullberg & Malville, 2011). This instrument and its symbols represent the Incan worldview and show the link between Incan and Peruvian ..read more

By Keeli Otto Posada Amazonas illustrates how humans have engineered landscapes, including those in remote places such as the Amazon Rainforest. Through the lens of niche construction theory, I’ll explain how the Posada Amazonas ecolodge serves as an example of human influence in the rainforest landscape. Entrance to the Posada Amazonas ecolodge (Photo by K. Otto) Niche construction is the process through which an environment is modified by an organism (Odling-Smee et al. 1996, Shaffer 2024). For example, our guides explained to us that in the Amazon, the agouti are one of a few animals that ..read more

By Samaa Eldadah In February 2019, the Peruvian government launched an unprecedented armed military operation to disrupt illegal gold mining operations in the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve, a major national park. The intervention, named Operation Mercury (Operación Mercurio) for the mercury pollution caused by small-scale gold mining, was launched with the stated goals of eradicating illegal mining activities and related crimes in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, from the drug trade to human trafficking to sexual exploitation (Ministry of the Interior, 2019). Historically, small-sc ..read more

By Veronika Leitold During our four-day stay at the Posada Amazonas eco-lodge located along the Tambopata River of Madre de Dios in southeast Peru, we had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet and gain familiarity with the local flora and fauna while learning about the indigenous Ese’eja community’s sustainable ecotourism activities. In this part of the Peruvian Amazon, which is home to some of the largest trees in the tropics, rain does not fall continuously throughout the year, and the driest months generally occur from June through September ..read more

By Kimberly Keravuori As a child, I was fascinated with the Moiri, the three goddesses who collectively made up the Greek concept of fate, and their Norse counterparts, the Norn. It was the idea of a life being like a thread, spun and woven, integrating with others to form a tapestry, and then being cut, that fascinated me. That interest has persisted in other forms throughout my life, as I’ve observed the intricacies of complex systems dynamics, considered how cultures ebb and flow, and seen how the facts of peoples’ lives interconnect to cause events to occur a certain way on a given da ..read more