Prior to resigning our positions at Cordero Lodge we took stock of the dream that had become a nightmare.
The beautiful and serene location we had come to love was, in reality, nothing of the sort.
20 some years the owners buried trash on Lorte Island, dumped weighted trash in Cordero Channel, burned trash (including carpets, plastic tubing, and oil containers) on the beaches.
How could people live in such a locale and treat it with such disrespect?
We will never know, except that perhaps they are so self absorbed that they can no longer see the forest for the trees.
I’ll never forget standing on the barge in front of the restaurant and watching as one of the guests morning bowel movements crawled out from under the lodge with the tide like a cockroach scurring out after dark. It was a truly horrific slap in the face by some truly horrific owners.
I also recall all the time spent Prawning with the owner, Reinhardt Kuppers. “We need 1,000 more prawns” he said.
“Why” i asked.
“For the restaurant” was the answer.
Seems the owners save on overhead by catching thier own seafood, and covering the tracks by purchasing meager ammounts of the same from a local crabber/prawner.
Oh the humanity of it all!
Are we bitter former employees? Perhaps.
But more than anything else, the manner in which the owners maintained thier own properties and treated the environment and the neighboring lodges with such disrespect is not something we will ever be able to reconcile ourselves with.
We are grateful to have removed ourselves from the premises and the impending liabilities thier behaviour is sure to reap.