Welcome to Jennie of the Jungle!

Photo by Jennifer Ilene November 2015 was my first-ever trip with my new business Jennie of the Jungle , and I chose to take clients to volunteer at Lek Chalert's Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. The Elephant Nature Park is among a few of the only legit conservation organizations/sanctuaries in the country. Many organizations claim to rescue elephants, but in reality they deny them true freedom and natural behavior, the ability to socialize and form family groups, and continue to exploit them and their negatively trained behaviors for profit. As a general rule, if you can ride an elephant, it is still being abused. Lek and one of her beloved elephants Elephants have to have their spirits broken in order to learn behaviors that are unnatural to them, such as riding people around, doing tricks, and yes - even painting. Breaking an elephant's spirit takes years and years of abuse - which, in Thailand and many surrounding countries, involves beating, burning, skinni...

I ran across this website, SustainableTrip.org , quite a few months ago and was impressed with it. I get monthly email updates from them that make me want to jump out of my office chair and hop on the next plane to South America. Their photos bring back fond memories of jungle cabins and tropical adventures; of rain so hard it rendered umbrellas useless, and of heat so sweltering it rendered sleep useless. This may not sound appetizing to you, but if you've ever been to the tropics and fell in love with it like I did, you know exactly what I'm talking about. SustainableTrip.org is a website that features destinations or businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean that are making outstanding efforts to conserve natural resources and improve livelihoods in their local community. Whether its a hacienda 9,600 feet above sea level in Ecuador, a bed and breakfast lodge smack in the middle of Amazonia, or a tourism company that leads jungle expeditions, these businesses are certifie...