A look back at a pioneering ecotourism hotel in Pucón, Chile, as it closes its doors.

 

 

 

In the forests of southern Chile, not all trailblazing takes place under the canopy of trees. Take Hostería Ecole, a funky hostel in the heart of Pucón. For nearly three decades, it claimed – rightly –to be the "first fun place north of the South Pole."

 

Sometimes written in their publicity in all lower case as “¡école!”, the name combined eco (for ecology) with ¡olé! (for fiesta). It means "right on!" in chilensis and schoolin French, highlighting its mission to spread the word about Chile's magnificent forests and the need to protect them. Beyond the banter, the hostel pioneered a radical concept for its time by bringing people into the forests to save them, engage community, and serve yummy veggie food.

 

Its most audacious move, however, was the one that launched it: partner with conservationists to protect a primal forest by purchasing it, then promote it. The El Cañi Forest Sanctuary, located 13 miles (21 kms) from Pucón, is the first private protected area in Chile. The conservationist vision of the hostel's founders has never dimmed since. But after nearly 30 years, this iconic inn at the corner of Arauco and General Urrutia is now up for sale, leaving an ecotourism and gastronomic legacy that transformed tourism in this Lake District resort town.

 

Gathered around the roaring fire in Ecole’s cozy-bordering-on-cramped living room, you'd find naturalists sharing their latest finds. The patio under the grapevine trellis served as a launching pad for outdoor adventure enthusiasts, whose kayaks, skis and mountain bikes could be found strewn throughout the property. Travelers on a budget appreciated the simple, reasonably-priced rooms (including backpacker bunks) and shared baths, all named for native trees. For most of the year, its 22 rooms housed travelers from every corner of the globe heading to remote corners of the cordillera and Patagonia.

 

The homey feeling was especially welcoming to families and women travelling alone. A rickety second-floor balcony had the only view in the house – a striking vista of Volcán Villarica's smoky puffs.

 

The hostel later purchased the lot next door and scaled up, adding suites with private baths and a sturdier deck. A spacious new community hall with its dramatic skylight hosted everything from yoga classes to free weekly films, including a decade of the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

 

And the food! The Ecole restaurant/bar served primarily vegetarian fare, including a celebrated lasagna and hearty granola breakfasts with "café café,"  -- real coffee, not instant. Some tables even had trees growing out of them. "Ecole was THE local meeting place for like-minded people," says founding member Nicole Mintz, owner of El Huerto, the Santiago restaurant that introduced veggie gastronomy to Chile.

 

The Ecole restaurant was the first to formally partner with Mapuche communities in Curarrehue, Villarrica and Pucón to source produce, and inspire its menu -- serving katuto (Mapuche bread) and salads made with toasted hazelnuts. It also hosted Pucón's first intercultural trafkintu, a traditional exchange of seeds, plants and wisdom.

 

 

 

 

The hostel's "green values and activism" set it apart, says Ecole founding member Cristina Délano, who ran a vegetarian restaurant in Canada before moving to Pucón.

 

The unique chileno/gringo mix among owners and guests bolstered their commitment to build community -- not just among transient travelers, but within and around Pucón. From the start, Hostería Ecole invited the locals in as it reached out to the town, countryside, and wilderness areas beyond.

 

Délano remembers a week-long event shortly after Ecole opened that brought two late, great legendary conservationists – Doug Tompkins, the U.S. businessman who created Parque Pumalín, and Chilean forest defender Adriana Hoffmann – into the streets of Pucón to pick up garbage alongside youth groups and business owners.

 

Scores of native trees still shading those streets were planted decades ago by townspeople with an Ecole-organized donation of 1,000 seedlings. Financial support from Ecole also helped neighboring Tinquilco residents access water rights and head off construction of a power plant. And while its campaign to save the Trancura River Delta failed, it helped usher in the passage of Chile's urban wetlands protection law. Activities like these "got people thinking about conservation and taking action," Délano believes. 

 

The prehistory of Hostería Ecole has much to do with California forest activist Rick Klein and his obsession with old trees. "A legend in his own mind," according to his Rick's Picks hiking guide, this champion of old-growth forests landed in the upper Bio Bio River Valley in the early 1970s as Chile's first park ranger.

 

Back in the U.S., Ranger Rick couldn't shake his desire to look for the world's oldest trees among the ancient alerce forests of Chile.In the early 1990s, he led several expeditions under the banner of the California-based Ancient Forests International (AFI) in search of them. While the treks missed their mark, Klein was able to visit some of the region's most majestic and little-known ecosystems and form friendships with key actors in Chile's incipient environmental movement. And his quest ultimately proved prescient, three decades later, in 2022, scientists discovered in Alerce Costero National Park the world's oldest living tree. Dubbed Gran Abuelo (Great Grandfather), this alerce tree is estimated to be more than 5,000 years old.

 

Klein believed that people would work to save Chile's primal forests if they could experience them. Among his successes was introducing U.S. philanthropist Doug Tompkins to the area that would eventually become Pumalín Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then there's the Cañi, the forest preserve that Ecole helped create. "When we heard that the Cañi was up for sale," Klein says, "we moved to save it."

 

In 1990, environmental activists from Chile, Canada, and the U.S. raised the funds to buy this rare forest out from under the nose of a transnational timber beast. Led by environmental educator Rod Walker (who died in July 2023), they created Lahuén Foundation, a partner siste rorganization to Ecole, which owns the preserve. For years, Ecole trained Cañi guides, provided fiscal sponsorship, and directed a steady stream of visitors up the mountain. One of Klein's favorite Ecole memories is taking tourists to El Mirador, the Cañi lookout with 360-degree views of the park's ancient araucaria forest. In Mapudungun, the site's name means "vision that transforms.”

 

In those pre-GPS -days, information about wilderness trails was scarce, and with no amenities to ease the way. Hikers faced the conundrum of outdoor exploration in Chile: the closer you got to the most beautiful wild places, the worser the lodgings. Hostería Ecole helped change that.

 

When the rundown inn favored by Cañi volunteers and AFI expeditioners came up for auction in 1994, “imaginations burned,” says Alan Coar, an Ecole co-founder. "The seemingly crazy idea of rounding up environmental fellow-travelers as investors grew plausible."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dozens of environmentalists and nature lovers came together to support the project financially. The partners, or socios, included experts in forest fire prevention, sustainable forestry, botany, conservation philanthropy and architecture; along with ecotourism entrepreneurs, nature and news photographers, vegetarian restaurant owners, drivers, guides, natural healers, educators, and mystics.

 

"Socios viewed their investment as a way to influence conservation policy," says Ecole socio and former manager Hernán Verscheure, who also worked for decades as the forest campaign director for Chile's oldest conservation group, the Comité Nacional Pro Defensa de la Flora y Fauna (CODEFF). "Their investments demonstrated the value that foreigners and Chileans place on nature."

 

"We pooled our resources, bought the place, shoveled out the junk, slammed on some paint, and put out some grub," says Klein, who splits his time between the temperate rainforests of southern Chile and northern California.

 

By the beginning of 1995, a guest could find a firm bed with a down comforter, hot showers, luxurious food, and helpful info about Alto Bio Bio, Cochamó Valley, Pumalín Park, and other protected areas inspired by the Cañi model.

 

The constant presence of socios and friends at Ecole gave the place a club-like buzz sometimes described as the Ecole vortex for its irresistible pull. Travelers who'd come for a few days could end up staying for months, volunteering in the garden or at the Ecole language school.

 

Its non-profit business model and counterculture vibe was big on ideals. All profits were reinvested into the business. Unlike most Pucón tourism establishments, Ecole provided year-round employment to most of its staff, a team led by the ubiquitous Marta Barra, who'd been working at the original inn long before the Ecole crew took over.

 

But like so many other tourism enterprises lately, Hostería Ecole has been unable to weather the changing times. In 2020, Chile's strict Covid lockdowns brought visitors to a halt. Moreover, Pucón is changing, with more and more vacation condos crowding the landscape. In 2022, Ecole decided to roll up the rug and rent itself out to new operators. The bittersweet decision to sell the property was made by shareholders last year.

 

"It's hard to imagine Pucón without Ecole,” says Mintz.

 

Socios hope that future owners will respect its legacy of environmental activism legacy. "Just honor the trees," says Klein, the driving force behind the Ecole vision. "That's our past and its future."