Donn Ritchie is a retired Professor and former Chair of the Department of Educational Technology at San Diego State University. Before moving to San Diego, he was a science teacher in Ohio and Wyoming, and received his master’s degree with an emphasis in National Parks, ecologically friendly recreational opportunities, and interpretation. His doctoral degree was in instructional technology.
It was on a recent trip to Venezuela that he chanced upon an idea that served as the impetus in the formation of Ecolodges.com. “After visiting Angel Falls and then Rorima, I booked a trip to the Llanos wildlife area of Venezuela. By chance, we stayed at an ecolodge along the river we had floated earlier that day. Around midnight, I walked in the moonlight down to the river and realized how lucky I was to be staying here, especially since I had known nothing about this lodge (nor the other great lodges I had visited over this trip), before chancing upon them. ‘If there was some kind of repository on ecolodges,’ I thought, ‘it will be much easier to plan similar trips like this in the future.’”
Although it took a couple of years to formulate the website, and adjustments to the site will be ongoing, Donn is happy with the current development. “We’re basically a non-profit website, so all the development is funded by myself with help from Aaron Lorenz, who runs the ecolodges database. Our goal is to provide travelers the ability to find lodges that are ecologically sensitive and really strive to improve their communities, while at the same time providing travelers with the experiences they hope to encounter.”
Donn Ritchie (right) with a guide at an ecolodge in Papua, New Guinea.