Here I am stuck in Ecuador , my flights have been canceled.
I had just finished my work in the Amazon and returned to Quito to have a couple of weeks to visit and travel when I heard the news, the following day all buses were to stop, no shops, schools, restaurants could open. Total quarantine for 2 weeks or 2 months??? All borders are closed.
So….. I ran for the hills….the Los Cedros Reserve… what a place.. one of the most biodiverse cloudforests on earth.
2 hours walk with mules carrying everything from the nearest dirt track.
I had planned to come here to write a report for John Seed, the great ecologist who reminds us to think like a mountain. He was the person who first sent me to Ecuador 20 years ago. I wrote to him to thank him for all he had done for the deep ecology movement. I reminded him of all I have done in the last 20 years here and thanked him for this.
I asked if there was anything I could do for him as it was to be my last trip…. He asked me to come to Los Cedros and write a report.
This 15,000-acre primary forest is home to pumas, spectacled bears, toucans and more birds, butterflies, and orchids that you can imagine. Last night I counted 29 different species of moths around the lights… wow huge ones, brightly covered ones, hairy ones… the diversity was incredible. They told me this was nothing. Wait for after the rain and you will see so many more.
Yesterday I trekked all day out to a giant waterfall, where the water is so pure you can drink it whilst swimming.
This is a scientific research station and National Geographic came last year with 20 scientists to study the diversity.
Trouble is gold has been found in the belly of this mountain…. and copper and molybdenum… and a mining concession has been granted by the government…. so the fight is on to protect one of the last true islands of life.
I have no idea how long I will stay in this paradise. Whilst I hear of stories from the other world.. a virus sweeping the planet life here is like it has always been.
What a blessing for me to have landed in this place. I send my love to you from this extraordinary place and hope in some way I can connect you all with the magic of Nature.
and a few words sent to me….