Cloud Forest

By Bradley Rehak - Guest blogger studying in Quito, Ecuador. Seeking some natural beauty and a bit of a break from the big city, I spent last week in the cloud forest, in a refuge called Bellavista. Originally a small farm, the land was bought by a conservationist couple (the man English, the woman Colombian) after winning a competition for it against a logging company. While finishing up other projects in oversees locations such as Madagascar, the land was inhabited purely by cows and chickens, which made the area appear inhabited by farmers while the owners were away. They returned after a couple of years and began constructing lodging for ecotourism, building trails and protecting and learning about the wilderness. The refuge is about a two and a half hour trip from Quito, that final half hour by SUV through rudimentary mountain roads switch backing up a mountainside. One finally arrives at a set of buildings built out of bamboo poles and thatch roofs. The buildings are interconnected with thatch-covered walkways as well. The walkway leads out along a spur to a geodesic dome that is the center of life in the refuge. The main area of the dome serves as a restaurant/dining room for the guests, while a large portion of the lodging, perhaps for thirty people, is located above the dining area and accessed by a set of stairs and then ladders to the top two floors, which are hostel-style dorms. The top floor is completely surrounded by windows, which offer an excellent view of the neighboring mountains and valleys. There are six other buildings located on the reserve, which serve to house some of the workers, guests that overflow the main lodging, and researchers who require a more isolated sector of forest. Running through the entire area is a system of trails, most of which were built strictly for tourism and therefore offer breathtaking views, access to important indigenous plant and animal populations, and a range of difficulty levels for all levels of fitness and ability. There are four waterfalls in the area as well, which serve as endpoints for some of the trails. Everything in between and among these man-made features is forest, most of which is secondary growth but also some primary growth. In all, the reserve encompasses 700 hectares (about 1700 acres) of beautiful, cloud-encircled wilderness.