Bienvenidos a Reserva Las Tangaras!

Yes, Welcome!  That’s how we want all guests and volunteers at Las Tangaras Reserve (RLT) to feel upon arrival to our lodge, nature reserve and avian research field center, located “on the wild side” of the Nambillo River in the heart of Ecuador’s Andean-Choco’ rainforest.  Certainly, we have felt very welcomed since arriving at the beginning of January for our 6-month tenure as volunteers tasked with managing the land and trails, coordinating projects and birding tours, and hosting our guests.  After several intense and rewarding days getting trained up by our organization’s Director, Dr. Dusti Becker—and having her introduce us to our Ecuadorian neighbors, collaborators and companeros — we have taken the reins and after a few weeks it feels exciting to be leaning into the challenge.  There’s much to learn in this wild, fecund and mega-diverse western slope of the Andes, right on that center line of the equatorial Neo-tropics.  We’ve already made some progress we’ll share out here, but first allow us to introduce ourselves.

We are Anastasia “Tasia” Torres and Jason Rainey (aka Jaxson Lluveoso).  Although well-travelled, we’re both Californians in origin and spirit, and took an expatriation leap last year, living, traveling and birding the past six months in Colombia (the only Rufous-Headed Pygmy Tyrants we want to experience are birds that call Andean cloud forests their home).  We really have fallen for Colombia— it’s varied landscapes, people and avifauna—yet after visiting Mindo while attending the 2023 South American Birding Fair in October (Ecuador was the host country, and Mindo was the epicenter of the week-long event) circumstances had us excited by the prospect of applying ourselves fully with Reserva Las Tangaras.

Anastasia spent the first ten years of her adult life raising two sons on the wet-side of the Big Island of Hawaii, where she enjoyed homesteading and learning tropical gardening and fruit tree propagation—skills she’s eager to apply to the remnant banana and citrus orchards here at RLT.  More recently, she worked in the field of sustainable energy, primarily in residential and commercial solar electricity; also very handy skills for RLT’s off-grid power!  Tasia found her way to birds by taking a part-time second job helping a friend who owns and operates a retail store of the popular North American franchise “Wild Birds Unlimited.”  At first, she was mostly skeptical and perplexed by her customers who would casually drop $100 on bird seed, and then chat to her with such admiration, devotion and detail about the Jays, Grosbeaks and Goldfinches in their backyard. But after some years of selling all manner of fancy feeders and bird seed blends, she used her staff discount to buy a pair of binoculars (and eventually an unrivaled and deluxe assortment of backyard bird feeders of her own!) and hasn’t looked back since. She’s only a few years into the hobby, but it’s gotten serious: she’s birded the western US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador.  With Jason, she’s developing a Colombia- & Ecuador-based Bird Tourism, and Avian Conservation business (Tranquilo Birding, stay tuned!).  With her previous experience leading Cooperative (shared-ownership) enterprises, and her current passion for bringing youth, women and other under-represented people into birdwatching and community-based conservation, Anastasia is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the international organization “The Birding Co-op.”

Jason was raised rural in the mountains of northern California, but got out to see the world and sample a very wide range of universities (too many countries and colleges to mention here!) in his 20s. After getting schooled in things like International Economic Development, Social Movement Organizing, Public and Non-profit Administration, Environmental Policy & Natural Resource Management, and Ecological Agriculture, Jason spent 15 years as a leader in three organizations.  Most relevant to his role at RLT, he values the trail building, volunteer coordination, habitat restoration and water-quality and wildlife monitoring projects he developed and managed as the Program Director of the Marin (North Bay) Conservation Corps and then as the Executive Director at the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL). And as Executive Director of the global NGO International Rivers…well, that role wasn’t so close to the ground so unless, for example, a Brazilian or Chinese energy company proposes a mega-dam on the Nambillo River that would flood the Mindo Valley…let’s say that grant writing and fundraising might be the most apropos skills to apply to RLT!  In more recent years, Jason owned and operated an outdoor hospitality company, which offered high-end “glamping” and outdoor nature experiences at four locations throughout the Yuba Watershed of the west slope of the northern Sierra Nevada (California). 

Jason’s been birding since 1999, when he was a graduate student (at IU-Bloomington) fascinated by the remnant hardwood forests of southern Indiana, introduced to him by his avid birding friend and accomplished global forest protector, Jim Ford.  Anastasia relit his dormant passion for birds, and so…here we are at one of the world’s hands-down hottest birding spots, co-hosting and guiding guests in this avian paradise called Reserva Las Tangaras!

Our start at RLT has been grand. After training, we had one day to ready ourselves and the lodge for two groups: a pair of awesome volunteers from the US, Mo and Joli, who spent 5 nights and days pitching in on numerous projects, and a small group of 4 herp-enthusiasts who stayed a night checking out the various glass frogs and other nocturnal amphibians and reptiles living in the forests of RLT (the group was led by our friends at Ecuador Reptile Adventures). 

In addition to teaching us how to play the board game Wingspan (which we’ve been traveling around with for over a year), Mo and Joli helped us with a range of habitat restoration and sustainability projects.  Together we liberated from moss and encroaching secondary forest most of the banana and citrus trees in the remnant orchards around the lodge. Joli and Mo completed a full assessment of the experimental Aquacatillo (G, s) saplings that were planted on the Reserve in April 2022, mending protective cages and weeding and clearing around this important species in our habitat restoration project. (Aguacatillo trees produce fruits highly sought after by birds and mammals, especially the Andean “Spectacled” Bear. They are a large, slow-growing tree of excellent quality wood, that in decades past were almost entirely removed from the region, including the lands that are now protected by RLT.)

Mo and Joli also got trained in our avian monitoring protocols and woke before 5am to help with an early dawn project monitoring “our” Andean Cock-of-the-Rock lek.  These boisterous and outrageously shaped birds have been coming to the same ridge of primary forest on RLT’s land twice a day, for at least 80 years; a dozen or more males shouting and screeching like geese, jostling for the “alpha” role and the reward of a quick courtship (if you will) with a female. Dr. Becker, with monitoring assistance from RLT managers like us, and volunteers like Mo and Joli, has been pioneering field research on these magnificent birds for nearly two decades.  At RLT, we can lead guests on daily tours of this wonderous spectacle: if you’re visiting Ecuador, come join us and see for yourself!

We’ve otherwise been spending these first weeks at RLT familiarizing ourselves with the trails, trees, wildlife, watercourses, and birds of this exciting place and doing all we can to make any visitors to our remote lodge feel most welcomed, comfortable and well-cared for upon arrival. We’ve cleared and improved the entrance trail (Sendero Entrada) to our lodge and are flagging points of interest along the route and will construct a small rain shelter at the half-way point of this 2.2km (1-mile) trail, which is how most visitors reach RLT.  The final 100 meters of the hike requires you to cross the Nambillo River by footbridge. We just finished some major improvements on the bridge (with a local expert), adding new cables and re-anchoring footings in more concrete reinforcements: it’s still exhilarating to cross over to our lodge on the wild side of the river (Torrent Duck, White-capped Dipper, and Striated Heron can be seen from the bridge), but much sturdier than in the past.  And Anastasia, who is an experienced and accomplished cook, has been enjoying putting together tasty, wholesome meals for our volunteers and guests.  

And finally, to address a broader question that might be on the minds of those paying attention to current events in Ecuador: The recent and dramatic episodes of drug cartel violence (after a prision-escape early in January) in the south (Guayaquil) and coast of the country has put Ecuador in the international news in an unflattering light. From our experience traveling within Quito and to-and-from Mindo (which we’ve done several times, without reservation, since the President’s decree of late-night curfew) we notice almost no difference and feel quite safe and secure.  The glorious shopping malls of Quito are still filled with people young and old; all the buses are running their normal schedules without the inconveniences of security checks, and certainly the charming little hamlet of Mindo continues to bustle with travelers from Europe, North America and Asia arriving every day to this mecca of biodiversity, with scores of well-established nature tourism opportunities all open and operating.  If you’re considering a trip to Ecuador in the coming weeks or months do your own research–but count us among those who think you should still come and visit! We’d be delighted to help you put Reserve Las Tangaras in your itinerary: with our network of local service providers, we can offer advice or arrange your trip, starting from your arrival at the Quito airport, if you’d like.  Contact us and let us know what you’re most interest in doing and seeing.  We look forward to opening up the Las Tangaras Lodge to you and offering a warm beverage and a hearty “Bienvenidos”!

Jason & Anastasia