Reserva Los Cedros

I think I might just be in paradise.

Reserva Los Cedros is a 6400 hectare area of cloudforest on the
western flank of the Andes, just 60km north west of Quito but a whole
world away. I arrived on a three hour bus from Quito to a village
named Chontal, on Sunday morning. There I met up with Jose, the owner
of the reserve and the administrator of the projects that go on here
and Rebecca, another volunteer who is originally American but who has
lived in Venezuela for the past few years. We were joined by some
Spanish tourists who are visiting from a short time, and after a while
we began the several hour trek up to where we would be staying and the
base for our volunteering. I hadn't counted on getting to ride on the
mules, which made the trek much easier! By the end of the five hours
my mule was well under control, having become familiar with some
Spanish commands I also taught it some English ones. The trek took us
up and out of the lush tropical valley in which Chontal sits, over
several rivers and higher up into the forest.

The research centre at Los Cedros comprises several buildings - Jose's
house, a bunkhouse, a kitchen /communal area, several toilets and a
shower. Water is run through hoses directly from the river higher up
the hill, and electricity is generated by a dynamo in the river.
Water is so plentiful, that it is actually preferable to leave the tap
<i>on</i> in the kitchen, so that the river doesn't overflow and run
down into the mule pasture. Walking past a flowing tap initially
really went against the grain for me, but now I'm used to it! After
all, the water is simply re entering the river somewhat further down,
once it has travelled down the hand-dug drains. The internet here is
very patchy, but sometimes accessible. In order to access the
internet we dial up to the ISP on a radio phone, and the noise on the
line often means it takes several attempts to dial up. Unfortunately
I don't think I'm going to get any photos out till I'm back in Quito
in January, but you can see some photos of the place at www.reservaloscedros.org.

Rebecca and I are mainly going to be going out in search of primates
while we are here. Primenet is one of the projects that has been set
up here by scientists and students, and the primate spotting program
continues to run in their absence. Three species of monkey: the
Spider Monkey, Capuchin and Howler, are found in this relatively small
pocket of forest in North West Ecuador. Only about 4% of the original
beautiful cloudforest is left in this part of Ecuador and it is a good
job that Jose bought up this land and has fought over it because
otherwise this figure would be even lower. The devastating
deforestation has led to the drastic reduction of many animal species,
but this pocket of paradise still allows many species to survive. As
well as monkeys, spectacled bears are occasionally sighted here, and
there is evidence of big cats, though they're virtually never seen.
I'm looking forward to working on an ongoing scientific project -
tomorrow will be our first time out looking for monkeys.

As well as that, there are some other projects that sometimes need
doing here at Los Cedros. This morning we went out into the forest to
plant to begin recolonising the forest with a tree species which was
at one point felled by humans, and at some point we're going to tackle
the water supply to another building a kilometre or two along one of
the trails, in the hope that in the future it can be used for
volunteer accommodation. The trail network here is quite extensive,
and it feels incredibly exciting to go out on hikes on trails that
really no one else in the world has access to. When it is clear,
simply looking out from the research centre into the mountainous
cloudforest landscape affords me views of hillsides that have quite
possibly never had a human step on them. We even have a impressive
waterfall, a couple of hours walk away on the appropriately named
`Cascada' trail. The whole experience so far has been amazing - Jose
says he lives in the best place in the world, and it was only when we
arrived here on Sunday evening that we agreed he may be right.

As well as the exciting animals, there are stunning plant species
everywhere you look; huge tree butresses, leaves the size of my torso
and orchids abound. There are a ridiculous number of insects here,
including several species of spider (the tarantula being one). I have
yet to find anything much bigger than a grasshopper in my room, I am
glad to say, and the research centre cat keeps the snakes away by
destroying their prey (the rodents).

Right now I'm going to go and read and generally enjoy my afternoon
off (the afternoons off and the great food that the cooks produce are
two of my favourite things about the place).