OUR STORY

Amazon Learning started with a chance meeting in a Washington, DC coffee shop. Andy, a returned Peace Corps volunteer with a master’s in International Education, was heading back to his home country of Ecuador. Eliot had just accepted a new job and crazily enough, was also moving to Ecuador. They struck up a conversation, became fast friends, and ended up spending the next five years living and working in the Ecuadorian Amazon—learning, adventuring, building community, and chasing ideas. In 2015, they decided to launch Amazon Learning to bring their interests in education, sustainability, and culture together in one place.

OUR THINKING

Amazon Learning was born from our time spent with Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Life here is rooted in holistic systems that nourish both people and the land. We were especially inspired by the traditional forest-garden model (in Kichwa the chakra) where food, medicine, building materials, and income crops grow side by side in harmony with the surrounding forest. This way of life is grounded in diversity, balance, and respect for the forest. It taught us that thriving communities and healthy ecosystems are inseparable and that true resilience comes from interconnection. This philosophy shapes everything we do.

We now work across the Amazon rainforest, Galápagos, and Costa Rica, partnering with local people who are continuing and adapting these traditions in creative, powerful ways. Whether it’s regenerative agriculture, conservation, traditional medicine, or community ecotourism, we see all of these efforts as part of the same whole. Through immersive learning, we invite others to experience this interconnectedness firsthand.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to create immersive educational experiences that support farmers and local communities living in delicate tropical landscapes by generating respect for their traditional knowledge, supporting the diversification of their livelihoods, and sharing their work with the world.