Here are some reviews from former guests and volunteers!
¡Aquí hay algunas reseñas de antiguos huéspedes y voluntarios!
I stayed in the Yagua community as a volunteer for two weeks in July 2025. This was the most authentic indigenous community experience I could imagine!Gustavo might be THE most knowledgeable guide in the Amazon. He is 59 years old and was born in the jungle (not a village, but in the middle of the jungle). He learned everything from his parents who lived off the land and his grandfather who was a well-respected shaman in the region. He is an expert in tree/plant identification and explains all their uses (wood, artisania, medicine, fruit, flora-fauna relationships). We went on a 2 day hike with him deep into the jungle and he knew every single plant, animal and tree that we asked about! I do not believe it is possible to accumulate the same knowledge by studying books and tourism - only by growing up as a survivor in the jungle. He is an open book who loves to share fascinating stories about his elders, community, and experiences. He is a builder, farmer, medicine man, guide, caring father/grandfather, nature expert, cook, and so much more.Gustavo is the only person in the town of La Libertad (800 people) who invites tourists to stay the night, participate in volunteering, shamanic ceremonies, and deep jungle tours lasting from 1-5 days. Living in the village is a humbling experience and I would like to help you set the correct expectations. There is poverty, lots of insects and malnourished dogs, simple accommodations, limited facilities, dozens of children running around, and lots of people going about their daily lives. All of our essential needs were fully met - there is electricity 6 hours/day, internet 18+ hours/day, a refrigerated, equipped kitchen, and bunk beds with mosquito nets. Nobody speaks English in the community, so bring a translator if you do not speak Spanish or you will risk losing out on all the invaluable knowledge that Gustavo and the community leaders have.My partner Dani and I run a permaculture project in Costa Rica called Finca Sol y Valle. We have a lot of experience with agroforestry, natural building, medicinal and tropical plants. We were looking for an educational experience more than a touristic one, and Gustavo offers both! He took us to see the pink dolphins, visit the beautiful town of Puerto Nariño, work in agriculture, build thatch roofing, sunset kayak tours, basically he caters the experience to whatever you want. He even gifted us food harvests on several occasions. And the best part - everything he charged us cost less than 50% of what is charged by tour agencies in Leticia!Please feel free to contact me through our farm's email (solyvallecr@gmail.com) if you have further questions, I'm happy to help in any way I can!
Este es un excelente lugar si querés conocer una realidad indígena de las Amazonas. Estuve únicamente una semana y media, que bastó para entender y conocer muchas de las técnicas y tradiciones del lugar. Si querés entenderlo a profundidad, te recomiendo una estadía más larga.Gustavo es un indígena que nació en la selva y la conoce a detalle, es una persona que contiene los saberes medicinales, de construcción, de artesanía y de chamanismo. Es muy humilde y al mismo tiempo sabio. Está lleno de historias y amabilidad.En esta semana y media hicimos numerosas actividades de voluntariado: remodelación de una bodega con madera local y técnicas simples de construcción, cosecha y tejido de palmas para techos naturales, artesanías, cosecha y proceso de yuca para conservación a través de fariña y masato (fermento de yuca), cosecha de frutas exóticas, inicios de construcción de una nueva casa y un tour de dos días y una noche en la selva con Gustavo. Estoy segura de que se pueden hacer muchas otras cosas estando aquí.Gustavo tiene mucha experiencia en turismo, solamente le dices lo que quieres ver y él te va a crear una experiencia ajustada a tus intereses a un precio mucho más accesible en comparación a las agencias turísticas. Yo me siento más satisfecha de lo que pensé que iba a estar, vi mucha fauna y flora. Gustavo también respondió a todas mis dudas y me enseñó todas las plantas que le pedí ver e identificar.Para este voluntariado, debes traer tu propia comida y cocinarla. Puede parecer retador, pero tiene sentido ya que la comida en el pueblo está limitada y las bocas hambrientas son muchas. También, hay diferentes gustos de alimentación que no son posibles de atender en el pequeño pueblo. No necesitas traer frutas ya que se pueden conseguir con personas locales, de hecho, si las compras aquí, estarás apoyando económicamente la agricultura orgánica local.Por último, si vienes, te recomiendo traer bastante efectivo, ya que posiblemente quieras comprar las hermosas artesanías que las personas locales ofrecen. Esta es la base de su ingreso, por lo que la ganancia va a ir directamente a las personas artesanas sin intermediarios.El lugar ofrece instalaciones acorde al estilo de vida, este lugar es para personas que desean empatizar y aprender con la cultura indígena. No es para quienes esperan un gran desarrollo turístico con lujos, para esto está la ciudad, lejos de la simpleza de la vida comunitaria.Sin duda una experiencia que repetiría y recomendaría a personas aventureras y con mente abierta para aprender.
It was an unforgettable experience, unlike anything I've ever done.
For full disclosure, I originally booked for one night, but I stayed a week. I've traveled across six continents and never done anything like this. This visit has meant so much to me; I will write a lot about it.I'm from the US. I've visited the Amazon once before but felt it wasn't as "intimate" of a jungle experience as I'd hoped. It was just one of those 4-day package tours out of Cusco. I realize now that it lacked the cultural connection, which I found here unexpectedly. Here is a community just living in the jungle. I don't know how to put it. There's no show here; it's real and raw. And I learned so much.
Gustavo is one of the baddest dudes I've ever met. I highly recommend a multi-day jungle tour with him. The amount of ancestral knowledge he has about his natural habitat is incredible. I now know which vines contain potable water inside, which plants/fruits/bugs treat dengue or asthma or scorpion bites, how to communicate with friends across a 10km distance via a tree root system (yes, really), and how to weave an entire backpack or build a hut from just a coconut palm. I felt completely safe in the wilderness with him, as if I were embraced by it. His prices are super reasonable. It was pretty challenging - the heat here is no joke. But an experience of a lifetime.
For context, I'm the traveler who enjoys camping, outdoor activities, pushing my comfort zone, and so on. That's an essential point, as people have various travel goals. They mean it when they say they're not a luxury resort; it can sometimes be primitive. It might be outside your comfort zone, but you will feel a new kind of comfort in exchange. You'll do well here if you're a hiker, camper, outdoorsy person, or a humble/open-minded traveler.
With that in mind, you get everything to fulfill your basic needs, and Gustavo's family is lovely and attentive. I bought groceries in Leticia and easily took them on the boat with me. The kitchen has everything a standard Airbnb would have, just a little weathered. A few doors down, there's also a small tienda (store) that sells basic things - rice, oil, onions, canned sausages, etc.
The other struggle I had was just the heat & humidity. I wanted to join in some of the daily work, such as jungle foraging for medicines or harvesting plantains, and it was all so cool, but there were multiple times when I had to stop because I felt dizzy from heat exhaustion. It was another learning experience. I'm in relatively good shape, but these folks are tough. That all said, even just hanging out in the village is excellent, and you'll always have kids to play games with, a symphony of fauna noises to listen to, or a legendary river to dip in.
Crystal Angulo-Garcia, June 2017, USA
I visited the village of La Libertad two years ago, after going through a tough year following my divorce. My brother was at my parent's house visiting (while I was living there) and saw me ‘struggling’ through putting together a new budget to move into solo life, with line items such as “going out money” and “eyebrows/nails”. While I still believe this is responsible and real budgeting while living in North America, my brother said something along the lines of me needing a reality check and that I should come down and volunteer in the village with the project which he had started. Well, he was right. Shortly thereafter, I moved into my apartment and booked my trip down to La Libertad, Amazonas for that same November.
It was a life-changing trip for me. From putting my first-world problems into perspective and getting a small, yet true glimpse into what it is like to live without clean water, consistent access to food, or education. But the villagers continue to persist and survive in conditions that most of us are unaware of or lack the knowledge to truly empathize because we have not exposed ourselves to places such as these.
After my 10-day trip in November 2014, Ben, my brother and Executive Director of Amazon Pueblo, asked me to be on the board of trustees. Since then, I have helped put on two fundraisers for the project in California and participated in the online board meetings, read blogs, and tried to stay updated. Ben pretty much is a one-man show and has dedicated his life to helping the people of Amazon Pueblo, something I know I could not do.
My Confusion About What "Amazon Pueblo" Was
However, to be completely honest, in these 2 years, I have struggled to figure out exactly what “Amazon Pueblo” does. I knew the ultimate goal was to help the villagers become a self-sustainable community and I’ve always been on-board with supporting it because I have met the people and heard their stories and knew they needed assistance. However, I always felt like the method of getting the people to become sustainable was changing or didn’t make sense to me as an outsider because there were so many moving parts or, what seemed like, side projects.
That may seem naïve of me to not truly know and understand the ways of an organization of a board I am on, but to be fair, I knew my brother was doing great work and that the money raised was going directly to the village (unlike many corrupt non-profits) and any manual labor was being done by actual villagers who would earn a wage). I’ve seen the benefits to the village, and coming from a world of non-profits, the first several years of any new non-profit can be a bit wobbly with changes until it can finds its grounding or ‘tipping point.’
Growing Its Legs
With my current trip to La Libertad, one of my main goals was to understand what the is exact mission of ‘Amazon Pueblo’ and how it is going to achieve that mission. Ben and I obviously had a lot of time to talk about it, being with limited electricity, so I think I truly understand where our organization is now. In my opinion, I believe it’s fair to say that ‘Amazon Pueblo’ now has its’ legs.
The project now has a clear vision, which I don’t think it had before, because it couldn’t. I now understand (which I somewhat understood before, but not enough), that things are different here. As frustrating as it can be for North Americans, the people of the Amazon have a different history, live their every-day life differently, and envision their future differently.
An idea that may have been presented to the people of La Libertad in the beginning years of Amazon Pueblo which the organization believed would be great for the future of the village, may not have been accepted by the villagers because they are not used to planning for the future, only day to day. Or, sometimes with frustration, an idea was presented by Ben that he and the chief of the village had worked out and about which the villagers were excited and said they were on-board because they wanted to change. But then after the initial excitement they would not show up to a scheduled meeting or fulfill their role.
It also took about 2 years for many of the village people to even trust that Ben was actually a good guy and not in this for himself. It took this long for him to frequent the village and piece together from different people where the true issues laid and still lay- was it access to clean water? Education? Lack of leadership? Lack of access to real health care? Lack of jobs? Well, the answer is, it is ALL of these things and more.
So What Does Amazon Pueblo Actually Do?
Without complete buy-in from the entire village, progress cannot be made. This is where a lot of the difficulty comes in for Ben and the volunteers, the desire of the villagers for change, but the understanding that they all need to contribute and do the work.
The Amazon Project does not (and has not) want to raise money for ‘x’ and then walk away. Amazon Pueblo wants to educate and provide them with the skills needed to function together, create a profitable village of production, and for that business to be sustainable.
We want the people of La Libertad to look into their future and be excited that they can control it and have a future without constant parasites and sickness. Shifting the mindset alone of the people to being able to use the rich resources in their own backyard to create a profitable and sustainable business has taken the last 5 years- with many meetings, time spent with the villagers to build trust, and have them truly believe in and help create the solutions for authentic buy-in. Amazon Pueblo is the facilitator of this- a real grass-roots organization, to promote sustainability through socially-conscious business and then be able to turn everything over and walk away, knowing that the village has the skills to continue running their business for years and generations to come. To Amazon Pueblo, success is being able to walk away from La Libertad village knowing that they do not need our assistance anymore. In short, their success is our success.
When we arrived in the village we were welcomed and guided to Gustavo (our host who helped us in everything) by Thomas, Gustavo's younger brother. Gustavo expressed his joy to see us with a smile that could not be beat. After settling in our house, many curious little eyes were watching us from the cracks in the walls of wooden slats. The house of the volunteers, while very simple, still stood out among the others. After being empty for 5 months it was opened with our coming. Gustavo advised us about some things related to home and then began our orientation. He really could not hide his eagerness and smile.The first week of work was the most intense. We did the construction of the compost bin, we taught adults to write their names and that of their children and grandchildren, we helped the teachers during lessons and in later in the week we taught some yoga movements to the children.At first Gustavo needed to introduce us to others, for all the villagers were very shy. Gradually, while things were happening, we were autonomous and that gave us the freedom of no longer needing Gustavo for most things.The afternoon was more relaxing. I was always with the children. No matter where and what I was doing ... they were always there. We had a lot of fun. I have more photo of children than anything else on my phone. In a little hill that was behind the school, which we named the "little hill of beautiful sight," I taught some yoga moves. Just because it always ended in happiness. There I also connected to the Internet and could read or sense the amount of mosquitoes that had bitten me. It was relaxing.During the night we almost never had dinner. Me and Joao (my nephew), while we grew up together, we have never had much time only with each other. We learned about our differences, and we did not care much about our defects. We valued more our qualities. Joao told me some cool and funny things about his life and the likes that we share.We went to bed early. At around 8 pm I was already in my fifth dream. Before bed, I always analyzed the mosquitoes trying to get to their evening meal of my blood. The mosquito net certainly saved me from an allergic reaction. When I awoke, religiously and involuntarily at 6:30 am, several of those mosquitoes were dead at the top of the net. I do not know why, but it just happened in my bed. Every morning I always had many dead mosquitoes. The breakfast was uniform all mornings: an orange cookie, two milk biscuits, and packets of powdered milk with chocolate.Already our second week was mainly marked by the maintenance we made to the village raft and a follow-up of children who are sponsored by some friends and colleagues of the project. This week, I also tried to understand more about the methods of construction of houses and the longhouse. One of our neighbors was building a house for their mother. In one of the evenings another neighbor was making cassava flour in a huge cauldron. She taught me and showed me their family secrets for the production of a food that is consumed by the entire village.Almost every afternoon I was in the river, with children and friends I made to swim, have fun, to be refreshed and to admire the sunset. I feel that those were the best moments of the entire pilgrimage. After those moments when we sat on the raft, watching the sunset, I could feel numbed by all that sunlight that dissipated drops of Amazon water from my skin and blinded me. I took focus as I contemplated the flamboyance of La Libertad.We left La Libertad on Saturday. But I do not feel that I have gone. You cannot just go to a place that you now feel part of. I do not know how to describe this feeling I'm having right now. I think this is the first time I have ever felt like this. It would be more like a state of grace, charm, of complete fullness. I have the feeling that my visit has made a big difference in the lives of the villagers, but they have no idea what it all meant to me. Many concepts within me were restored, rebuilt, rethought and cured. I still want to say in another publication about this new light that my eyes can now see. Thank you to the whole universe that gave me everything.
On the boat ride back to La Libertad, in the little canoe on the Amazon river, I kept thinking, “This is my real life. I am really in a canoe on the Amazon and I really just held a baby sloth and shook hands with a manatee. Look what happens when you can change your mind and get focused. I went from growing up poor (relative to the States) to teaching English and holding a sloth in the Amazon, walking through Peru, and drinking a $1 bottle of Brazilian cachaça in good company last night. Who gets to do this if they don't have a travel show on TV?”In the afternoon I taught one class since we skipped the morning class while I was in Peru. The markers Ben got helped SO much as I was able to write out specific words the kids wanted, and they were able to write both the words and translations. They were also doing really well remembering words from previous lessons.After class but before dinner I played catch with some of my children – ages probably from about 5-8. The older kids played soccer with David at the base of the hill and the little ones and I tossed the ball around at the top of the hill. After basic catch got boring I introduced them to the brilliance that is “monkey in the middle” and they got a kick out of that. We ended up playing for hours. Then the really little girls – about 4 years old – came to sit with me and slowly started gathering flowers and leaves from nearby plants. I don't remember who started it but one of them tied a leaf around my head and they all began sticking flowers and grasses into the “crown.” One put tiny flowers in my empty earring holes and another put a tiny flower on the bridge of my sunglasses. When they decided I was finally done, one announced, “You're the queen now. The Queen of the Amazon!” I was blown away by the love and kindness shown to me by these tiny humans. Queen of the Amazon is quite a title and I was honored to have it bestowed upon me, so we made sure to get photos of me with my “subjects.”While playing, kids would occasionally step out of the circle and climb to the top of a tree to pick some fruit. I was the only crazy person cautioning them to “be careful, be careful!” and everyone looked at me like something was inherently wrong with my way of thinking. I realized these kids are far more self-sufficient and strong than I imagined. They're adept at climbing and will often climb up a tree, get the fruit, and jump down from the top of the tree, no harm done. They're very athletic and they know what they're capable of. The kids shared the fruit with me and once again I was struck by their kindness. They have so little – they pick the fruit because they are hungry – and yet they wanted me to have some of everything they had. I would generally take a bite or two and pass it along to a smaller child because I didn't want to eat all of their food. I did get to try some really crazy fruits unlike anything we have here though.After playing it was time to cook dinner. Ben and David handled the cooking and I sang while they cooked. I actually had children request a song I'd written myself and played a couple of days before. The chorus has the words “baby, baby please don't, baby don't bring me down” in it, and two children said to me in Spanish, “Sarah, sing the baby song.” I was utterly confused and asked them what baby song a few times before one started singing and it hit me that it was my song – MY song, a song in English that I had written – that had made such an impact on them that they remembered it and wanted to hear it. That one word stuck out to them because it's repeated over and over and they latched onto it. Amazed and humbled once again, I obliged them, feeling more appreciation for my craft than I'd felt in a long time, and they sang along with me, making up words to the English ones they didn't understand.Not only did I have children singing along with me, but at one point, Yuki, the motherless baby monkey, climbed into my lap, and actually started howling along with me. I was shocked. It had taken him a little time to warm up to the three of us “outsiders” and now here he was, sitting in my lap, singing along with me. A wild animal of a different species who doesn't speak English and isn't a pet had willingly and of his own accord climbed into my lap to sing with me. Even now, writing this entry in my apartment months later, I feel the same sense of surprise and unity I felt then with him in my lap.I want my life to be full of such adventure always. I realize how much I missed out on because of my mindset. And it's not just about music and my tunnel-vision way of life for the past ten years. I will always be a musician. Now it is time to be a human too. To experience, to love, try, take risks, explore, throw caution to the wind (within reason – I still take my malaria pills and wear bug spray, but if the kids hand me food, I eat it. They don't have much so it's a big deal).It is time for me to keep living and enjoy and embrace life.
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