About the Choco region

Our primary area of operation, the tropical Ecuadorian Chocó of Esmeraldas, is known as a World Biodiversity Hotspot. Home to countless endangered and endemic species, it is one of the last coastal rainforests of its kind.
At the same time, it is home to two distinct traditional cultures, Afro-Ecuadorian and Chachi.

The first blacks entered the forest during the Age of Colonization, when a slave slip shipwrecked off of Ecuador’s Pacific COAST. They were later joined by refugee slaves from plantations further north and today still retain a traditional culture with strong African overtones.

On the other hand, the Chachi are an indigenous tribe of the Americas, tracing their roots back to both the ancient Chibcha of Central America and the Andean people who fled the lands north of Quito during the time of the Incan and Spanish Conquests. For centuries now, the Chachi and Afro-Ecuadorians have learned to share their forest and traditions side by side.