blog 2024

We ended our time in Ecuador where we had originally planned to start - exploring the historic center of Quito. There was definitely an increased police and military presence which made everything quite safe. After waking up in our downtown hostel we started our exploration of Quito by walking the through the charming streets full of Spanish colonial architecture.  Our first stop was an artisan chocolate shop and production center. We learned how the chocolate is grown, shelled the beans to uncover the nibs, ground the nibs to make the paste and then made used the paste to make chocolate covered passion fruit. We then walked uphill to the basilica on the hill and climbed hundreds of steps up to the tower and then across the catwalk to the condor tower. It took

Some bravery to then climb the narrow ladder but the view was worth it. A clear day in Quito revealed two snow covered volcanic peaks - quite incredible views. After a lunch we headed to the artisan markets where the students loaded up on presents for folks back home. It was great seeing them navigate Spanish and interacting with the merchants.

We depart in waves over from midnight to midday tomorrow.  At our last dinner together we shared and it is obvious that this journey has had a deep impact on the students. Ecuador is an incredible country filled with such biodiversity and generous people. Such a deep learning experience.

Our plan for our last day in tena was to visit amaZOOnica - a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center located on the napo river. To get there we needed a van to take use to a canoe ferry location. The speed of the river made some nervous but once we were underway the nerves disappeared replaced by excitement as we saw several new species of birds including toucans and parrots.

Arriving at the rehab center we were immersed in the harsh reality of rehab work. About half of the animals that come to the center can ultimately be released into the wild, but the others are too damaged physically or mentally or are too conditioned to humans to be released. What then does that mean for their lives - such hard work and challenging questions. These volunteers strive to create livable conditions for these wild animals damaged by humans. We toured the facilities feeling excited to see some species we hadn’t seen in the wild and at the same time saddened by their conditions. Food for thought for us all.

Afterwards we continued down the river to eat lunch at an indigenous community. They prepared an incredible meal of fresh tilapia and the students were able to support them thru their purchases of crafts and cocoa. Unlike the other indigenous communities, these Quechua are tied to the water moving up and down in dugout canoes and motorized canoes. Life intimately connected to the land - rich but very impoverished at the same time. Our presence provides income that is less destructive that wood harvesting and hopefully a huge reminder at how privileged we are - and also how impoverished we are of community.  We returned as the sun came out and the temperature rose into the 90s with 80% humidity. Sweating in the shade. We took a siesta and packed for our journey back to Quito tomorrow.

Today we sadly had to say goodbye to our friends in Guayosa Runa and made our way to Tena where we'll be staying for two days. Upon our arrival at Pakay Hostal, we settled down into the beautful house and gardens. We then shuttled off to downtown Tena where we had an amazing and filling lunch at a local cafe. After, we enjoyed the scenery of the city and had the ability to bird along the way! We ended our city tour at the Bio-Park of Tena, where we saw squirrel monkeys, lots of birds, and a tapir! We have had another amazing day with wonderful experiences...with many more to come! Adios :)-Amy B

Fireside welcomes, receiving our quichua names, painted faces and crowns to enter the jungle with blessings and protection, fishing for our lunch, purchasing artisan crafts, throwing spears, blowing darts and learning about life in the jungle. All of this in less than 24 hours! 

Our time at guayusa runa has been so rich and so deep. It is hard to put into words.

We left eco raaza and the wonderful owner Dona Alejandra with heavy hearts. She was such a caring human being bringing tea to the students battling respiratory bugs and tummy troubles. Three of the four were completely mended by her care.  The breakfasts that she prepared were amazing and the jugos beyond compare.

But it was time to continue our journey further into the Amazon with malaria meds added to our morning routine. Our first stop was puyo, Known for its sugar cane market and balsa wood crafts. The students had their first real opportunity to buy crafta to carry home. Afterwards we went to an orchid park, started by an Ecuadorian man who had a vision to protect the Amazon. He purchased depleted fields and over the next 40 years has carefully regrown a forest which supports diversity and in particular orchids. Look at the pictures of the forest and imagine that 40 years ago there was flat pasture. What a legacy to leave the entire world - a forest that supports so much life and trails designed to educate those of us yet to find our vision to support pancha mama.

Afterwards we had a delicious lunch in puyo and got to climb a five story tower to be in the canopy along the river. We saw five species of hummingbirds in one tree!  Incredible. I will do just a bird post soon.

We then took taxis to guayusa runa our indigenous home for the next two days. More posts of

This wonderful community to follow. What an incredible transformative experience this has been!

Another amazing day of work and community capped off with a splash in the Rio Tigre.  Tomorrow we head to Puyo and a stay with the community we have been working our Minga with.  More soon   

It was an amazing day and more will be coming - we are cleaning up as it pours and hope to have some dinner tonight.  

We had a wonderful and SUCCESSFUL day working with WASKA Community with their mission of building out a meeting house and area. Our main projects at hand consisted of Chozo (community house), gardening, and landscaping. As easy as that was to write out it was so much more at hand. We were all assigned a task and throughout the day, a nice flow was created to get everyone a chance to participate in everything. The chozo group worked on creating the skeleton for the hut and prepared the roofing by braiding fish tail palms. The gardening group prepared the spaces for new growth and plants that they retrieved from the rainforest, as well as created waterworks throughout the garden. The landscaping group prepared the walkways scattered around the garden and surrounding property with sand and rocks retreived previously from other team projects. Through the pouring rain we had a lot of determination, grit, and creativity during the day which allowed us to get a huge head start on these important tasks. We will continue these projects for the next few days to make a beautiful plan into reality! -Amy B.

Leaving Sumak for Mera proper was a task like no other. After a lovely breakfast courtesy of Mamita Gloria and a quick session of packing, we hiked down from the field station to Waska Community on the first leg of our journey, and then after sending the cab away with our bags we began our hike into the deep of the Amazon rainforest. As suggested by the name, we encountered our fair amount of rain, I struggled a bit to find my way through my fogged-up glasses and knee-deep mud, but after identifying Smooth-billed Ani's, Strangler Trees, and wild Coca plants, we made our way to the first chamber of a cave on Waska property. The first cave we entered was the Cave of the Tiger, a massive chamber with a small creek running through the middle. After drying off from the previous downpour, we ate a lunch of tuna and salad sandwiches with pineapple jam on the side and then began to move through the chamber out into the open air again to search for our next cave, the Cathedral. We climbed down a steep slope and over fallen vines in order to enter the gorgeous passage with a skylight at the top, letting in sunlight and the occasional drizzle. We then began our hike back to Waska Community, passing through our last cave, the Throat of the Dragon on the way back, where we saw Glass Frogs and all sort of other creepy crawlies. After a long and hard hike through the Amazon, up steep slopes and down slippery mudslides, we climbed into our cabs (in my case the trunk) and arrived smoothly to our next destination, Eco Arazza, a beautiful hostel surrounded by hanging Russet-backed Oropendola nests. After a much needed shower we all made our way to dinner, courtesy of the hostel, a delicious cut of chicken with potatoes and a rich mushroom sauce with a salad of lettuce, cucumber and tomato on the side. We all had a much needed early bedtime following dinner, and listened to the unique swallowing-call of the Oroendola as we fell asleep. 

Today started off with another delicious breakfast, consisting of eggs, plantains, and coffee and then we were off to the races. We were filled to the brim with incredible experiences today, beginning with a short hike to a natural clay deposite for a jungle spa day. The clay had a natural soothing and exfoliating feel; while some applied more clay than others, everyone felt rejuvinated by it. While still in the clay, our resident spiritual guide, Dione Fiallos (of WASKA) led us in a meditation that left me feeling grounded and optimistic. Afterwards, some of the more clay-covered folks hiked down to the river to rinse off. We had some downtime and lunch before diving in to our afternoon work shops with the amazing cooks at Sumak, Mamita Gloria and Mayra. They walked us through processing coffee beans and to prepare for roasting, we searated the individual beans from their pods and waited for the fire to get hot. In the meantime, we learned how to husk choclo (corn) in order to keep the leaves intact to make humitas. They are a tamale-like bread made by taking the corn kernels off the cob and grinding them into a wet paste. From there, you can either go in the sweet or savory direction and today the group sprang for savory humitas; we added eggs, butter, baking powder, seasonings, and some cheese then packed them back into the husks to be steamed. While the coffee beans roasted and humitas steamed, I along with Amy and Kaelin continued our survey of mammal activity around the rainforest. We identified native coatis, red sprocket deer, tyras, pecaris (wild pigs), and a puma! We enjoyed our humitas as an appitizer and a light dinner, the moth biodiversity group registered an undescribed spcies of Dobsonfly, the bird diversity group observed a Paradise Tanager (the state bird of the Pastaza province) and a Squirrel Cuckoo. If our energy allows, we hope to end the night with some karaoke!

Hola from Sumak! 

Accompanied by Kushi, a little white dog and expert jungle navigator, we trecked through the rainforest today; through the many slips in the mud, I was able to take note of the many adaptations the plants in the jungle possess to compete in the harsh conditions (particularly the spikes of the walking palm that I was repeatedly told not to grab onto if I fell). Unfortunately for the termites and ants we snacked on, they did not have these same protective measures. At some point when I was lagging far behind, Renee started to yell about a cookie, and I was so confused as to why there would be a dessert on the forest floor. For all the folks at home, it turns out a cookie is a cross section of a tree! After our descent we were met with gorgeous waterfalls, and (using four points of contact) we were able to enter and swim in the pools. Once we were back at Sumak, I demolished three plates worth of beets in an effort to urinate pink (coquette core); Henri, the director of Sumak, laughed at me upon hearing this. Later in the day, our moth research group collaborated and decided to change the experiment's methodology in order to yield better results. A night hike after dinner began in the most magical way for one Olivia Sacci. I was trying to get a picture of a frog, incredibly frustrated by my camera's inability to focus, when the frog began to stare at me in the perfect position for a photo op. Still no luck from my camera, the frog JUMPED on me and started climbing up my arm. I was so very happy I had made a friend. About half an hour later one of our guides, Alex, finds a juvenile cat eyed snake hanging out on a leaf, and I got to hold it which was actually loco. -Olivia Sacci :)

We started the day early to head excitedly to the hot springs in Banos. It was a relaxing time sitting in the warm waters as the birds chattered above and through the mountains. After, we devoured a delicious breakfast at La Petite before pushing on to our next adventure: the Devils Bathtub. We were treated to a wonderful ride by an excellent guide in our fiesta autobus. As we stopped along the way, we enjoyed the scenery and got to see the many creatures within the vast ecosystems we have been learning about. As a last minute, spontaneous "hey why not?", we made a quick pit stop to zip line across the valley and rivers and into the forest. It was awesome to say the least!! Once making it to the Devils Bathtub, we hiked through the rainforest to get to our lunch destination in Pailon Diablo. We had another amazing meal and views, as well as fantastic birding oppurtunities. Our next activity was a small hike to the waterfall where we had the oppurtunity to trek through the small caves and under the fall itself! It was an exhilarating experience and gaveway to wonderful sights. We hopped back onto the party bus where we arrived to Mira (WASKA home), allowing us time to get ready for our hike to Sumak! It was such a fun experience to go through the rainforest and we are having a great time! The moth group had a successful first day of research and we could not be any luckier with cool air and no rain (so far :)). Adios!!  Amy B.

While the US news suggests a country in peril, we have had an amazingly different experience. We woke up today with Mt Chimborazo coming in and out of the clouds and temperatures near 40 F. After breakfast, the women of the indigenous community of Casa Condor showed us how they sheer alpaca and the students got to participate. While the shearing was in process, there was mating going on within the herd as well as the live birth of a baby alpaca. Such new sweet life - an incredible experience for us all. We then drove to the entrance of Chimborazo national park which was closed because of the crisis. Later in the afternoon we dropped into Banos descending 6000 feet. Tomorrow we head to the devils bathtub (an incredible botanical garden with waterfalls) and then head to Sumak Kawsay In Situ - a remote biological field station. The students are doing a fantastic job absorbing and being present. Though there may be troubles in larger cities, in the places we are people are just going about their lives. It has been an amazing experience!

We left Zayzant Ecolodge and headed to Cotopaxi, the second tallest volcano in Ecuador.  There we explored the high elevation habitat and found some interesting new bird and lizard species and were inspired by the incredible landscape.  We then headed down to Chimborazo - the tallest mountain in Ecuador - for our stay at Casa Condor, an indigenous Quechua community of the high Andes.  Though we are at the equator, it was quite chilly but our hearts were warmed by the excellent food and warm welcome extended to us by these hardy kind people.  We learned a bit about their way of life and connection to the land and went to sleep with hats on our heads and excitement for what tomorrow had in store for us.

Students that arrived yesterday completed a bird survey, made some registries in Inaturalist, and did some nature journaling in the company of the Zayzant chihuahuas.  By 3 we were all together and shared our first dinner.  After dinner we discussed how we want to work and live as a group for the next two weeks and signed the Familia Polilla contract.  We decided to skip our day in Quito given the political situation and will head into the more peaceful countryside - Stay tuned to our next post from the high Andes.

With all of the instructors here in Quito, we embarked on a scouting trip to the gondolas which transport tourists from 10,000 ft to 13,000ft into the Paramo - one of the first activities for the students.  Our plan was to take the gondola up and from there summit Rucu Pinchincha but alas the gondolas have a week of unscheduled maintenance.  So we brainstormed some cool alternative activities for their first day as we hiked the impossibly steep trail from the gondola to the site pictured.  A long 8 mile hike at high elevation - but it was worth it - both for the views of the Andes and Quito as well as a citing of Andean Condors, among several other cool species!