Jocotoco Buenaventura

The Jocotoco Reserves are areas where land is purchased in order to preserve certain species of birds. There are 11 reserves, I believe. I went to another reserve for 4 days. The Buenaventura Reserve and the Umbrellabird Lodge are closer to the coast, northwest of Loja. I took a bus to Loja and then the bus to Piñas, a 5 hour trip. My bus driver looked like an Ecuadorian Ralph Kramden. In Loja an indigenous woman asked for the time and I showed her my watch. Then I realised she could not tell time so I told her the time, which I should have done to begin with. In Piñas I took a taxi west for 40  minutes to the reserve. It was a holiday here in Ecuador. The Day of the Dead, when all go visit their relatives stacked in tombs. The bus took a route which carried us over a narrow dirt road for 2 hours. My vertigo has diminished considerably. Along the way I saw folks bathing in the rivers to cool off and wash themselves. I had to close the window on the bus to keep out the dust. It was hot. The sun was bright in town but as we neared Jocotoco in the taxi the clouds descended. I was in the cloud forest again. The muddy road to the lodge was about 5 miles long. As it was a holiday there were many local families visiting the lodge to watch the hummingbirds. Many were trying to touch the birds. Two Coatis came and one shit in the corner. Everyone laughed. I was shown to my cabin and immediately headed out on the trail to bird (verb). White-shouldered tanagers, blue-necked tanagers, club-winged manakins- check! There were birds everwhere. I, I, I say, everwhere. The cloud forests are truely amazing places. The variety of plants and flowers are astounding. At the lodge was Bruce Sherman from Texas. He was in Ecuador to photograph birds. He had an elaborate setup for pictures of hummingbirds. There were 5 flash mounts  on tripods. One of the ladies tried to look through the flash. Bruce dosen't speak Spanish and told her slowly 'it's aaa flaaashh..'  She was a little embarrassed. Bruce seemed  to think if you spoke slowly enough everyone understood English. A 30-something couple from San Francisco showed up at the lodge and Ivan intoduced himself as a board member of Jocotoco. Not much personality. His girlfriend  is an Ecuadorian who has lived in D.C.  The 4 of us had dinner and chatted about the foundation and how they had to split the tour business away from the foundation. Jocotocotours are a separate entity. I was in bed by 9 and up at 5 to meet my guide, Leo. We walked the old road up  to a higher  elevation to look for the El Oro Parakeet, which is one of the birds of special interest. There was a derrumbe which  blocked the path  and I was afraid to try to scale it--- long way down. I dipped on the parakeet as I  did at Tapichalaca and  the golden-plumed  parakeet. I'll git em one day! My guide was a nice guy but not a great birder. I had nice looks  at white-tipped sicklebills and club-winged manakins were abondanza. They make a sound with their wings. Watch one HERE.
The next day I walked the trails alone and saw many more birds. The long-wattled umbrellabird is the most fascinating crow-size bird. The males resonate their calls through the wattle, which is  longer then the bird is tall! I heard  one  calling and tracked him down. Not easy to do in the jungle.
Ivan and his GF departed and were replaced by an older man with white, unkempt hair. A Brit was here. Not your average Brit, mind you, but an O.B.E. Brit! Nigel Simpson is the benefactor of Casa Simpson at Tapichalaca and founder of Jocotoco. A  pharmaceutical chemist who sold the company and gave money to preserve birds in Ecuador. At dinner Bruce wanted to know if Brits liked the Queen. I wanted to know how he came to have a frog named after him. He funded the exploratory project. He was quite interesting and very personable. I enjoyed talking with him.
I stayed an extra night. It is hard to leave the cloud forest jungles. The beauty and strange sounds are enchanting. Eleven  new species of birds. But soon I was back on a bus headed home. A man threw a glass bottle out the bus window and I finally said something. Shame on you, I said.  He wasn't phased.  I'm sick of adults littering here. Shame, indeed.
My porch spider lives. I thought she was dead when I found her dangling from her web one morning. I lowered her to a bush and she climbed under a leaf. Maybe she had just ate her husband and it made her sick. She's better now. She greeted me this morning and had a juicy June beetle to suck on. I'm so glad.