We are down in Nanegalito, the nearest town to where we are staying (Refugio Paz de las Aves) http://refugiopazdelasaves.com/ . It has been a great trip and we´ve only been in Ecuador a week. We are staying with the family of Angel Paz. He has seven brothers who all farm in the same area. We are in the kids´room. I havene´t taken photos of our room yet. It´s VERY basic, but we love it - has ¨natural air conditioning¨ and a variety of moths that visited us the first night....and a firefly.
The birds are amazing here - Angel used to hunt the animals but now he is a friend of the birds - they come to feeding stations he has (bananas) or he lures some species out with pieces of worms. He also is very good at doing bird calls.
So, today´s blog is mostly images of the birds. It´s often a bit dark when we see them and I don´t have a very fast lens, but you can get an idea of some of the beautiful birds. I hope to post some more pictures later today.
We´re eating quite healthy - lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, including ¨batidas¨, which are basically smoothies, made from local fruit. They raise blackberries (mora) that produce all year long and the smoothie is delicious. There is also a yummy fruit called ¨tree tomato¨ that makes a delicious smoothie.
Warren had a recent night-long bout of vomitting and other ¨digestive difficulties¨, but he´s fine now.
We go back up to the refuge this afternoon, riding in an SUV with the kids, who ride back & forth to Nanegalito every day for school.
In the afternoons we have been teaching English to kids from around the refuge area.
Heré a bit from Warren - I like his writing style:
We have spent a wonderful week with a family in the cloud
forest mountains in northern Ecuador. We had difficulty finding the
place that we had made reservations with and it turned out that they had
not had many visitors before. They moved their two boys into their
room so that Anita and I had a room. There house is about the size of
our kitchen, but there is plenty of room outside where cooking and
eating occur under shed-type roofs. The family (and extended family up
and down the mountain) has totally welcomed us.
We teach English to all
the school kids on the mountain for 2 hours in the afternoon and spend
the rest of the day helping out and walking about enjoying the green,
green, green (in both birds and vegetation). The community is
self-sufficient, raising cows, pigs, chickens, blackberries, potatoes,
and an assortment of fruits and vegetables in flavors we have never
experienced. Everyone helps everyone else. For example, the bridge on
the road had collapsed and everyone in the community came out to provide
the logs, the boards, and the labor to re-build it. It is heartening
to see how communities can work together to accomplish what needs to be
done. There is no waiting for someone else to provide what is needed
and everyone contributes according to their abilities - whether it is
lunch, taking care of the kids, falling the trees, or hauling the logs
to the bridge site.
Believe
it or not, it is rather cool and even cold most of the time. Cloud
forest is truly a forest in the clouds, and much of each day is in the
fog. I had occasion to be up the other night (a bout with bacterial
intestinal problems) and the sky was clear. Thousands of stars
(unencumbered by city lights) and none recognizable as constelations
seen at home.
Spanish
improves daily (Anita was already nearly fluent), the birds are
wonderful, and the people are so loving. I hope all is well with you.
We are off to Manabi this weekend.
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| This doesn´t even show all his brilliant colors! |
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Tomas, the oscillated tapaculo - hard to see, but he came for worms....
a guan...
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| Can you tell by the number of photos that this one was one of my favorites? |
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| I call this one ¨Fancy Pants....he´s only about 1 1/2 inches and sounds like a bumble bee... |
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