An hour after watching the king vulture impersonation, the group has climbed out of the dugouts for solid ground and the safety of Zabalo, the village where Borman and about 100 Cofan live. Zabalo lies at the heart of the Cuyabeno National Preserve. The Ecuadorian government has appointed the Cofan stewards of 170,000 acres within the preserve. In exchange, the Cofan are allowed to fish and hunt, and operate their low-impact tourism business. The riverside community has five guest cottages, a small structure that serves as a meeting and dining room, as well as a number of huts in which the Cofan live set off from guests.
All buildings are thatch roofed and rest on stilts.
The only concessions to the 20th Century are solar panels mounted amid the thatch roofs and outboard motors bolted to the long canoes. After spending my whole life out here, I am still amazed at the trees. I can hike five or six days and see nothing but forest after forest after forest. He is lecturing again. Instead of the bow of a dugout as his platform, Borman is standing in the front of a blackboard in the meeting room, chalk in hand, under the thin light of a solar-powered fluorescent bulb.