The history of Mentawai Adventure

The founder and owner of Mentawai Adventure, Gilles, is a mountain guide, writer, journalist and photographer.
In 1977, he organized his first trek and sustainable development program in the Tessaout, a valley of the Moroccan High Atlas. For thirteen years, he organized expeditions and treks in Niger, Crete, Madeira, the Aeolian Islands and Sri Lanka with his own local teams and equipment (including mules, camels and even an elephant).
Several incoming agencies, run by locals trained by him, are nowadays in operation thanks to his initiatives. Their goal continues to be to develop responsible tourism, a powerful means of sustainable development.
In 1985, Gilles lands in the Arctic and settles in Spitsbergen, where he creates the first company organizing regular trekking programs in the region, as well as polar cruises and ski expeditions.
During his first stay in the Mentawai Archipelago, a shaman of the village of Malagassat recognized him to be the reincarnation
of his own father. Gilles who had already been initiated to Xuar (jivaros) shamanism in Ecuador decided to learn more about the Mentawai people and its complex culture.With the Mentawai Adventure project, he is implementing a sustainable growth program that offers the Mentawai people an economic development that also preserves their souls.Travelers for their part will have a unique opportunity to discover a wonderful tropical forest and experience an authentic meeting with a shamanist culture that is still fully alive.

The spirit of Mentawai Adventure

Sustainable development actions
The concept of Mentawai Adventure is to bridge, in a non intrusive way, the gap between an old traditional culture and the modern world. Mentawai Adventure is however a commercial self-financed organization and not a N.G.O. depending on private or institutional donors.
Through his experience in Africa and in South America the founder of Mentawai Adventure came to realize that institutional charity programs, although full of good intentions, very often create more problems – phenomena of acculturation and sometimes irreversible ecological damages – than they offer lasting solutions. Our organization offers economic partnerships with guaranteed short and long term profitability to the Mentawai clans. These joint ventures offer them a reliable economic future and strengthen their political, family, and psychological structures. These actions of microdevelopment are always planned by request of the clans themselves.
Atabai School
Mentawai Adventure finances a school, which teaches young Mentawaians and sikerei the Indonesian language, arithmetic and English. Three elements that will allow them to take part in the development of tourism, have a decent income and be able to cut fair deals with the merchants of Sumatra.
Forest jobs School
Mentawai Adventure is researching the possibilities of growing high-income plants that have no negative impact on the forest ecology. For example, the cultivation and transformation of aromatic plants used by the perfume industry is a good combination of sustainable development, protection of the forest and interesting income.
The Forest jobs School markets these refined products directly to the European or American purchasing agents; guarantees prices and quantities bought from the Mentawaians; educates volunteers in cultivating and refining products; finances and builds the necessary infrastructures.
Our resort of Siloinak was built and is maintained by the Mentawaians according to their traditional techniques. Its construction, using only natural materials taken from the forest was one of the Forest jobs School’s first actions.
The goal was to allow the Mentawaians to adapt their traditional techniques to the demands of modern tourism (electric and water networks, showers, toilets, septic-tanks, energy generators…).

Eco Tourism

Energy
In the Siloinak Island resort, simple solar techniques are used to generate the necessary energy for lighting, hot water and refrigeration. Cooling and ice are produced by dilating ammoniac gases, avoiding thus the use of chlorofluorocarbon and the need for an electric generator. In the long run, the only fuel used in Siloinak will be the coconut shell of which there are numerous trees on the island.
Protection of the wildlife and the forest
The first action of Mentawai Adventure is a turtle hatchery that buys turtle eggs from fishermen, breeds the young turtles for a few weeks in the lagoons before freeing them into the sea, increasing the chance of survival of this threatened species.
Mentawai Adventure will also participate in the preservation of the forest and the coral reefs in the Siberut Island area.

The team of Mentawai Adventure

Gezie is at the Padang office, taking care of the welcoming of the guests at the airport and checking the quality of the food we buy in Padang. (Vegetables are organicaly grown).
She is 25 and speaks perfect english.
Robi is the main surf guide. He is 27, speaks english and surf as an independant professionnal surf guide for 6 years. He also participates in the building and maintainance of the resort.
Gilles is the boss. He is 53 and has worked as a guide since 1977. He speaks French and English.
He has conceived, planned, and manages now Mentawai Adventure.