Field Trip to La Hesperia Cloud Forest Reserve (Monday, October 18 -Thursday October 21)

The first field trip of the Conservation Ecology CIMAS program left Quito at 8 am on Monday, less than 12 hours since I’d returned from Baños! But I was ready to explore La Hesperia, a private cloud forest reserve about 2 hours from Quito. Our tour guide and the director of the reserve, Alexandra accompanied us in the van and pointed out important plant species during the drive and during our very hot 30 minute hike up a dirt road from the highway to get to the reserve property. We moved into to our cozy accommodations and got a tour of the developed part of the property, including a veggie garden, fruit trees, horses, cows, chickens, a Montessori school, a volunteer house, a pond, and of course, lots of forest! We sat down to a delicious lunch, the first of many fresh meals that we enjoyed at the reserve. Next, we learned more about the mammals and reptiles of the reserve, and then we proceed to make our own coffee and chocolate from materials gathered on the farm! Wow it smelled good! A night hike led by two of the volunteers followed dinner, and we saw bioluminescent moss, some pond toads and firefly-like beetles!

On Tuesday morning we sampled some of our tasty coffee and hot chocolate before climbing uphill to the high montane cloud forest. We traveled with the 6 members of the volunteer crew, who would be helping us with our quadrant survey. After a 3-hour hike we reached a flat grassy camp spot overlooking most of the gorgeous reserve. Following lunch we tromped through the woods behind Walter (the volunteer director) and Alexandra, who I am convinced can identify every plant in the forest! We completed our biological survey of the plants, insects and soil and returned to the campsite for skewers over the fire and s’mores with chocolate cake! The whole group chatted outside in the dark for a while before retiring to our tents and vintage sleeping bags both borrowed from La Hesperia.

After a rather uncomfortable night, we awoke to bright sunshine in the “cloud” forest and hiked down quickly. After showers and refreshments we were off to survey two different pre-montane/low montane forest sections of the reserve and they contained noticeably larger trees with less epiphytes than the plots up above.  We finished just in time for the weekly soccer game with Hesperia volunteers and employees and locals from the community on the highway down the hill. With 6 more added from my group, the game was a little too large, but still very fun. We wrapped up the evening after dinner with a night hike with Alexandra where we saw an owl, a tree frog, lots of giant insects and possibly a very dangerous snake!

Thursday morning we left at 6:30 am to go bird watching for an hour before breakfast and we saw many interesting species, including a toucan and hummingbirds. The bird show continued after breakfast on our hike to a water slide in a small stream on the property. All of us took a quick dip in the frigid waters and the natural slide was quite a thrill! After we hiked back and had lunch our next task was sadly to leave. However, the reserve always needs volunteers to continue preserving the incredible property, and I look forward to doing that in the future!