2019 update: Kurt Holle is no longer with Rainforest Expeditions. He now funds EcoEnterprises Fund. But I figure some of these sentiments are still true, so am leaving up this 2013 interview.

I recently had the chance to do a short email interview with Kurt Holle, co-founder of Rainforest Expeditions in Peru. In February, Kurt was named a social entrepreneur for the year 2013 by the World Economic Forum and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. He joins a group of about 200 international award winners since the foundation’s inception in 2000.

Kurt Holle, co-founder of Rainforest Expeditions in Peru

Kurt co-founded Rainforest Expeditions with Eduardo Nycander in 1992. Since then, they’ve built three remote jungle ecolodges in the Peruvian rainforest. Lodgings started out pretty rustic, attracting scientists and hardcore nature lovers. But over time, they’ve upgraded to make the lodges more attractive to less rugged types. However, they’ve maintained a three-wall construction that leaves rooms open to the rainforest on one side.

Posada Amazonas ecolodge in Peru

Throughout its two decades, Rainforest Expeditions has partnered with local communities to pool expertise, experience, resources and profits. The native community in Infierno owns one of the lodges, Posada Amazonas, which it co-manages with Rainforest Expeditions. Together, the company and the community work on conserving forests and enforcing no hunting zones around the ecolodges.

Macaws load up on sodium at a clay lick.

If you have the opportunity to visit the Peruvian rainforest, you might see spider monkeys, macaws, howler monkeys, capybaras, giant river otters and, if you’re really lucky, a jaguar

Here’s my interview with Kurt:

Teresa:  Where are most of your visitors from?

Kurt Holle:  Most of our visitors are North American. About half of our visitors come from the US or Canada.

Teresa:  Do you get many vegetarian visitors, or visitors with other special diets? Which special diets can you accommodate?

Kurt Holle: We get a lot of vegetarian guests, and guests with a special diet. For vegetarians we always offer alternatives to the main menu. For other special diets, we ask to be advised before arrival so we can accommodate.

Teresa: What do you feel like visitors take away from their time in the Amazon?

Kurt Holle: An experience they will remember their whole life. A deepened connection to nature and our past.

Teresa: What do you think visitors learn from indigenous people?

Kurt Holle: I think they remember rather than learn. I think they remember the value of time well spent, without a hurry. I think they remember how good it feels to have long conversations about nothing in particular. I think they remember to pay attention to the here and the now. I hope they remember those things for a long time.

Teresa: What is your favorite animal?

Kurt Holle: My favorite animal to encounter on a trail are white lipped peccary, a wild boar that hangs out in herds of dozens to a hundred. They have a great sense of smell but poor eyesight and hearing, so often they stumble right upon you and then stampede. It is a great feeling to be in the middle of them.