Travel + Leisure

25 great ecolodges
Kapawi Ecolodge, Ecuador

THE SETTING On the edge of the Amazon, accessible only by plane; the closest town is a 10-day trek through dense jungle.
THE PAYBACK Ecuador's Achuar people, unknown outside the Amazon until the early seventies, are learning hotel management skills at the isolated outpost as a means of maintaining age-old rain-forest traditions, albeit with modern updates: the famous chicha brew, for example, is now made in a blender instead of masticated by tribal elders. Still, the 15 lagoon-front cabanas were built without a single metal nail. When ownership of the lodge returns to the Achuar in 2011, one of tourism's boldest recycling projects will have come full circle.