A nearby beach with walking path up to rocky areas

After a particularly inspiring trip to Chile this holiday season, we are embarking on a plan to fulfill a long-awaiting dream of opening and operating our own ecotourism facility and program.  Yes, unless we get financial backing (dream on, sistah), this plan and its implementation may be many years in the making.  But, we have to start somewhere, no?  

We want to share with you, dear readers, our basic outline and goals and would also like to solicit your feedback and other ideas you may have to improve upon our plan.

The Location: Coastal Chile, about 1.5 hours from the capital city of Santiago.  Summer temperatures generally average around 75 to 85 degrees with very little humidity.  Ideally, the location within the town will be within walking distance to the beach and to the town.  There are easy city/regional buses and shared taxis that can also be used to get around.

Flower we saw on our hike

The Facility:  We will have a large plot of land on which we will build or refurbish current building(s) to include a large main house and two smaller cabins.  The main house will serve as living quarters for us and will also host guests for certain meals, lectures, and other group activities.  The two cabins will each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living/dining room, and a small kitchen and will accommodate a total of six people per cabin.

Maybe the house will resemble this one we came across?

The Land: The plot of land will be large enough to hold all three houses but also a large vegetable garden, flower garden, fruit trees, and “meditation” areas.  A pool or pond would be nice but is not necessary.

View from a possible location for the house

Could our vegetable garden look like this one we coveted?

The Program:  We will work to establish relationships with one or more universities – those based in the U.S., Chile, and in other interested countries.  We will offer options for short courses on ecotourism/responsible tourism for undergraduate and graduate students at our site.  The courses will range from one to three weeks and will include lectures, readings, field trips, free time, and individual projects.  Local, national, and international experts will help develop the curricula and may serve as speakers or advisors during some of the courses.  We envision each student or small groups of students developing final projects such as a study of the pedestrian-friendly nature of the town or a plan to work with local officials to establish a recycling program.  Students will work with local people to understand the culture, environment, history, barriers, and advantages that may have an effect on their projects.  Whenever possible, students will build on previous participants’ projects so the community will benefit from the studies and research completed.

One project might look at ways to encourage a clean beach like this sign.

In addition to university students, the facility may be offered on a limited basis to individual travelers or for group outings.

Finally, we envision the university program being held mainly between November and March with some options to extend stays depending on circumstances.  During the months of May through October, the site will be utilized by local community and youth groups for a variety of projects.    

We have more developed ideas and details but this is the general gist of it.  What do you think?  What else do you think a program like this needs or doesn’t need?  Do you have any ideas you can share with us to make this the best ecotourism project in the history of the universe?  If so, please share them in the comments section below or write to us using our contact form.  We are anxious to hear from you and to incorporate your ideas into our plan!

One of many pelicans we saw on our trip. Penguins too!

Tags: Chile, Ecotourism, responsible tourism, Socially conscious tourism, Sustainable tourism

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Cultural Tourism, Ecotourism, Latin America, Socially conscious tourism, Sustainable tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.