Bienvenidos James Y Karen!

Hola Amigos!

Finally, we arrived at Reserva las Tangaras after knowing for close to a year that we would be the Jun-Nov 2025 stewards. We are Karen & James from Australia!

We took the long way around to get here departing Australia early January. We spent two months in Europe visiting family and friends in Spain and Holland. We road tripped through France, spent a week in the UK and flew to Bolivia where we travelled and volunteered for 3 months. After a week in Peru, we headed north to Ecuador. Although, what was meant to take 2 flights from Cusco, in one day to arrive in Quito, it ended up being 3 flights over 3 days! Ecuador have recently made it mandatory to show your Yellow Fever vaccination at check in. The check-in person in Cusco forgot to mention that to us. Unfortunately, Karen’s card was packed in our checked luggage. We were offloaded in Lima and tried again the next day. After purchasing a new flight (now via Bogota) we stayed overnight in Lima. The flight from Lima was delayed and we missed the connection to Quito. Another overnight required, this time in Bogota. At this point some might say it was a bad omen and maybe we shouldn’t be going. Not us!! We finally arrived in Quito in the morning of the 3^rd day, got a taxi to Mindo and arrived at midday. We found Danielle and Joshua, the outgoing stewards and after a bit of shopping, lunch and some meet and greets we headed out to the reserve.

Oh My Goodness! This place is incredible!! The beauty of the forest, the mountains, and the wildlife is mind-blowing. We knew it would be amazing here but just how amazing has far, far exceeded our expectations. To make it even better, the state of the house, the immediate surrounds and beyond have been left in such great condition by Danielle and Joshua, that our transition to taking over the stewardship role has been as smooth as a toucan’s beak.

We can’t thank those guys enough for the work and consistent effort they have put into the upkeep of the Reserve and its facilities to make our transition so easy. We know it wasn’t an easy road for them but they have done wonders. Thank you both (and Parker of course!) for everything and your commitment and dedication to RLT the past six months!

So, who are we? James is a qualified Civil Engineer with a background in construction prior to his engineering days. Karen has a background in tourism and education and has a PhD in conservation and behaviour change. But, we left our corporate jobs in 2019, opting for a more relaxed nomadic lifestyle. We have been able to use our combined skills to undertake similar jobs to this stewardship role on the Low Isles in the Great Barrier Reef and the most southern island on the Australian continental shelf, Maatsuyker Island. It works best for us in these roles to split the jobs so, in brief, James will look after the systems, facilities and tracks and Karen will showcase her tour guiding skills with visitors and take charge of the bird counts and admin.

We hope you follow our journey with us via a monthly blog here and regular social media posts on Facebook and Instagram. After just a few days Karen has enough photos for posts for a couple of weeks already! Sign up and stay tuned for our adventures in this most beautiful location, Reserva las Tangaras. Or, come and visit for a day or more as a guest or a volunteer.