Sustainable Ecotourism Seeds: Compost, Conservation, Community and Comfort De The Geotourism Challenge: Celebrating Places - Changing Lives Saved April 16, 2008 - 07:02 PM EST

My wife, Michelle Kirby, and I created a sustainable tourist destination in the rural Andean village of Chugchilan by building the Black Sheep Inn and promoting the entire area as a Destination. There were no tourist facilities when we moved here in 1994. Tourism now provides a new economy for one of the poorest areas in Ecuador. There are now 3 hotels, several horseback riding businesses, guides, a transportation cooperative, a women's knitting coop, a girls Andean folk dance troupe, employment, public library/computer learning center, recycling center, phone service, over 100% more buses and benefits to schools, water system and health clinic.