Photos from the cloudforest

Today I arrived back in Quito after 30 days stay in what became a very special place for me here in Ecuador. Now I finally have some fast internet, I can show you what it looks like. Some of the photos below are by Rebecca - I´ve mentioned which ones. Hovering over images (in Internet Explorer at least) will give you some information about what the photo is about.

It all started off with a bus ride from Quito to Chontal, about 60km away and a 3.5 hour bus ride.



When I got off the bus I met up with Rebecca, Jose (the man who made the Reserve what it is) and two Spanish tourists who were visiting Los Cedros for a few days. After a short while we jumped on some mules for the ride up to where we would be staying for the next month.









The bunkhouse in which volunteers, scientists and tourists stay is situated in an idyllic area, part of a complex which also comprises Jose´s house and the kitchen and dining area.







On the first full day, Ray, a long term Canadian volunteer, took us out on a hike to show us some of the trails in the bosque nublado. We did some river crossings, and went to see the waterfall that lies about 3km walk away from the bunkhouse.





Most days we would go out on the trails, be it looking for monkeys or for our own enjoyment. We even had our own swimming pool, naturally formed by the river.





I had a number of encounters with animals, some tame and some less so.





The best animal I had a glimpse of in the forest was a Jaguarundi, on Christmas Day. I was incredibly lucky to see it - Jose said he´s seen about five in his 20 year time in the forest. Suffice to say it was too quick to fall victim to a photo.

Christmas Eve was a very fun event. We had several more people up at the Reserve: myself, Rebecca, Jose, Pedro (Rebecca´s boyfriend), Tony (a Spanish artist), and Courtney and Elise (from Colorado). Much rum was drunk, and much dancing was engaged in. Christmas Eve is the main Christmas event in Latin America so who were we to pass up the opportunity of a good party?











Reserva Los Cedros has many species of bird that are endemic to the region (not found anywhere else). During my stay I saw amongst others, several species of toucans and parrots. This poor creature succumbed to being held only because she was knocked out when she flew full pelt into one of the bunkhouse windows. We later picked Rebecca up off the floor and told her to try to be more aware of where the windows of the bunkhouse were in relation to the doors.