Rain Brings a Sigh of Relief

The rain began in the afternoon and lasted through the night. The river trickled over rocks in the morning but by afternoon had overflowed its banks. Five times as much water flowed down from the mountains where it had rained much more. Humidity increased. You could almost feel or hear life cycles enter a growing phase. Insects, reptiles and mammals leave their burrows. Tree limbs, weakened by insects and disease, snap. New sounds emanate from the greenery. Frogs come to life. Time to build nests and webs. Within a few days everything will take on new colors as moss, lichens, mildew, leaves, and flowers grow. Even rocks have different hues and shades of color. I love change. The valley is green again.

 Every night just after dark, a spider starts building her circular web on my front porch.  The web is large and she sits patiently in the middle all night long. Then, at first light, around 4:30, she begins cutting the tie lines. Within a few minutes she and her web are gone. I greet her each morning and evening.

I took a trip to the Jocotoco Tapichalaca reserve. I caught the bus at 6 am and headed south. We picked up school kids along the way and dropped them off at Yangana. These are rural kids, mostly indigenous backgrounds, whose family subsists off the land. Most of them smiling and all of them with the clean, bright white clothes. Their uniforms perfectly clean, tee shirts bright and stainless. The bus driver insisted he knew where I wanted to get off. When we came to Valladolid I told him we passed the reserve and he assured me it was in front of us. I got off the bus and asked if there was a taxi service in the town. No. Then I spotted a taxi coming around the plaza. I called Jocotoco and she explained to him where I wanted to go- 4 miles back. He told me the taxi 
service is new in Valladolid. How lucky I am when I travel! I arrived at the lodge at 8 am and was given a forest-ranger guide. he knew his birds and their calls. After watching them feed the Jocotoco Antpitta, I saw 3 more species of Antpitta- a very reclusive, ground dwelling bird. My meals were excellent and I finally bought a shoulder harness for my binoculars. They no longer hang around my sore neck. The hummingbird feeders were a constant buzz of activity with 5 species coming regularly. At night bats came to feed on the nectar. Amazing. This lodge has camera traps set along the trails and pumas and bears have been photographed. The cloud forest jungles are so breathtaking. So much growth and life abound.  I still dipped on the gray-breasted mountain toucans. Shit, these birds avoid me every time I am in their habitat. I will return and get them. I did see 14 new species (1155). At 11 am the next day I heard the bus coming up the hill and it stopped to pick me up in front of the lodge. I was home in 1.5 hours. So simple. I have forgotten how easy it is to travel in Ecuador. Bus fare was $3. I will be going the to Jocotoco Buenaventura Umbrellabird lodge next week. They are running a special for the holiday- Cuenca's Independence Day. $100 off- sold!

As I get to know some of the locals, mostly U.S. expats but a lot of Canucks and Krauts as well, I am very much aware of how tolerant I have become. Yes, tolerant. Few of the nuts that live here bother me. Just yesterday I was told again about the UFO's that hang over Mandango at night. I hear how safe we are here, away from the Empire and the chemical trails from jets. Honestly, some of these people are certifiably crazy. They take pills to kill all their parasites, then drink booze for 3 hours. Of course everyone has a cure for cancer. Sometimes you have to ask yourself if maybe these are the most intelligent people in the world in my valley and I am the nut. The bird voyueur. They are good people, for the most part.

There is a Halloween party this weekend at Montesuenos. I feel like I should take the invitation and go. I will have to take some B-12 and stay up late. I really don't want to miss my favorite holiday party. The Wood-Logic parties in Atlanta were the best ever, but this could compare. I'll make up my mind Saturday. In the meantime, I am going to a bar to watch the World Series with some friends. He and his wife have a beach house in El Salvador they are trying to sell and it needs painting. I am invited to go with him for a few weeks. Tempting. So is the $350 roundtrip airfare to Sao Paulo, Brazil I saw yesterday. The birds I would tick-off there!Fuck.
Each day I discover something different. A new trail or a new stream or valley. I have squirrel cuckoo in my back yard and something always blooming. I like it here, with my spiders.

Another Modest Proposal

As an avid, well, hard-core, bird watcher, I have always slept better if I had gone birding that morning. Indeed, my mood and attitude were more conducive to sleep. Whatever the world's problems were, they weren't mine. I had thoughts of what I had seen that day. Rain or shine, it had been a better day because I had gone birding. As I thought of species that eluded me, I would plan another outing with the determination of finding a certain bird. Hopefully, I would dream of birds or other wildlife. I now live in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, in the midst of the greatest diversity of life on the planet. If you are searching for birds, plants or orchids, animals or reptiles, it just does not get any better than Ecuador. My walk this morning took me from dry scrub to wet cloud forest in just an hour. One couldn't help but smile at such surroundings. An article in The Atlantic for October, 2015, describes the benefits of such activity. Not birding, per se, but any activity which brings you into an environment conducive to tranquility and awe. They call it ecotherapy. It can be the best prescription for many ailments or conditions. It can alleviate stress (hormonal) and behavioral disorders. We are an animal ourselves and we must affiliate ourselves with other life forms. Nature-deficit disorder exists! Thoreau understood this, as did E. O. Wilson. Children are more at ease after time spent communing with nature. Patients heal faster if their hospital room has a view of nature. You have less anger, fatigue or sadness if your workout is in a park, or the woods, rather than in a gym. But you can't just touch a tree and incur the benefits, you also have to have a sense of caring or feel involved. You, as a life form, are a part of this environment. You don't have to wear tie-dye and live in a commune to appreciate the benefits of nature. I propose that this be incorporated in a childs' education at the appropriate age, which I would leave to educators to determine. I am not saying take kids out to a park and have them smell the flowers. They need to be taught how to appreciate their surroundings and have a sense of belonging. Ecuadorians have a propensity to litter which could be alleviated if they are taught at a young age that trash has its place, and this place is not along the side of the road. All the populace should have this appreciation instilled in them. As a tool, teaching bird watching skills is an ideal way to accomplish this goal. It can have a set curriculum. And if you like to learn names of the birds you see, it can teach you something about Latin! Every aspect of what a child might learn by birding has multiple benefits. A teacher could 'sneak' in the science of biology and chemistry with ease. Ask someone to donate 20 pairs of binoculars to a school. Surely a corporation in your area would like to sponsor this type of education. Nature-deficit disorder can sometimes lead to a teenager picking up a few cans of spray-paint!

John W. Erickson

Vilcabamba, Loja, Ecuador.