Independent Study Project

My independent study project was undertaken at the request of eccentric botanist Vlastimil Zack, a professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, who had given us a lecture or two earlier in the program and accompanied us all on a day tour through the paramo highlands. Vlastimil’s personal hacienda, his own little reserve really as far as I can tell, named La Reserva Rio Guajalito is the site of my project. Situated in the cloud forest southwest of Quito, in Pichincha, Rio Guajalito is out in the boonies, complete with mainly primary forest, fast flowing Andean streams and oilpipe, the reason for most of the little development in the area. Vlastimil’s concern was for the White Capped Dipper, a resident riverine bird that depends heavily on the well being of the river for survival, feeding on macroinvertebrates living in the water. My friend Christa and I, both interested in bird behavior projects, had visited Vlasti at his university office a few days before leaving for Galapagos. Between searching (unsuccessfully) for a map of the area, upturning papers and a bottle of wine in his desk drawers, and picking up both of his cellphones, Vlastimil outlined the situation. In 1999 there was an oil spill that caused the Dipper to disappear for a few years from the area. He wanted me to find out what it was doing now, how it spends its time, where it goes. Christa was asked to look into the populations of Toucan Barbet in the area with reference to the dwindling numbers of Cecropia trees, on whose fruits it feeds. Some weeks later I find myself arriving at a cluster of buildings after a bumpy two hour drive in a dodgy truck that broke down the moment we stopped. Vlasti scurried about trying to fix it (unable to find jumpstart cables, but managing to change the flat tire) as we got settled in to our new quarters, met the family staying in the house by us, dropped off our previously purchased 3-week supply of groceries in the farmhouse-style kitchen and put our things in a large room filled with bunkbeds and mattresses. Soon afterwards Vlastimil left, still not having fixed the car, taking the bus back to Quito. Before he leaves he introduces us to the place by vaguely gesturing at the the borders of the reserve, telling us to burn our garbage, showing us the refrigerator, freezer, multiple gas stoves and the knob for hot water in the showers and saying that we can ask the bus driver of the regular (some days not others) bus going back to Quito to get us anything if we need it. We seem to be in the middle of nowhere, overlooking a large stream, the road and a huge oilpipe, with forested mountains on all sides. The road winds off upwards. We are left alone and pretty overwhelmed. It seems from here on out we can do whatever we want to do within the stipulations of researching our birds.
I spend most of my research time roaming along the stream looking for Dippers and Black Phoebes, another bird I wish to study as a comparison to the Dipper. I mark down their behaviors every thirty seconds that I see them. I intend to compare not only their activity level but their ability to adapt to human influences, through looking at the proportion of time they spend moving around and also studying time spent perching on manmade structures as opposed to natural things. So far the Black Phoebe (another riverine dependent bird) seems to spend much more time not moving than the Dipper, and it also seems to be better adapted to making use of the manmade things – the warm oilpipe, powerlines, bridges etc. I get up before 6 to take data from that time until 8am, and repeat for 4-6 in the afternoon. Every day. Otherwise I read a lot and run and work on the written part of my project which includes a work journal and statistics as well as the paper itself. Christa and I are putting together a map of the area using GPS, a base map we find in the dining room and an Adobe Illustrator pirated version in Spanish that Christa’s host brother gave her. It’s a quiet life but I get along with the neighbors very well, and I manage to fill my time easily (well, I do take a lot of naps…) My body at least is quite active due to the amount of walking we have to do to get anywhere.

Highlights:
- no hot water for showers, frequent power outs, rain every afternoon, many mornings
-happily Christa and I have similar taste in food – we eat pasta 2 out of 3 nights, and we decide to start a new religion with Peanut Butter as our god.
- hour and thirty minute walk uphill (that is up to 3 hours total) to get cellphone service, we’re expected to call our academic directors twice a week
- 9 km to the nearest town, Chiriboga, where we buy some food every now and then, hope we don’t get struck by lightning on the walk back home, Christa almost loses her shoe in the mud while trying to pick a giant leaf to use as an umbrella
- power goes out for 2 days straight during the first week forcing Elsita to cook all of her meat in fear that it might go bad. She has eaten it all (mince, steaks, cold cuts) within the first 6 days
- little cat decides to take up residence in kitchen building – very cute, affectionate and parasitic, will not shut up at meal times to the point of extreme aggravation, nicknamed ‘Maggie’ for ‘maggot’ but also refered to as “Kitty! Futzek!!” (go away), and actually named ‘Conejo’ (rabbit) by neighbors’ three-year old daughter
- tons of downtime, not much going on, not much to do, so Elsita works out a lot and has some great runs in the pouring rain
- Elsita and Christa unable to tell why or when Vlastimil named himself, as everyone here refers to him as Patricio
- Rigoberto (the “guardabosque” or gamewarden basically) mentions that he was wondering whether the flagging tape Christa leaves along the road to mark where she has sighted birds for later GPSing, is so that we won’t get lost (the road leads directly back to the houses)
- Christa and Elsita attempt to make vegetable soup; later on it is undecided whose fault it was that way too much water was put on to boil, it is so bland that they add all the spices they can to it including salt, pepper, soy sauce, aji (Ecuadorian hot sauce), vinagrette and tomato paste (luckily Christa vetos the hot chocolate powder)
- starting a fire to burn the garbage requires much talent in the humidity, so the addition of gasoline provides a welcome source of ‘insta-fire’
- Christa and Elsita badly in need of coordination - Christa manages to drop two forks into the pot of boiling pasta water while stirring, Elsita sets dishrag on fire twice trying to get them out
- Elsita locks keys inside kitchen. Neighbors, Cesar and seven year old son, Paul lend a hand - lifting up corrugated tin roof segment so Paul can climb over door and open up.
- On the one day it doesn’t rain, Elsita does laundry. Unfortunately the lack of afternoon shower allows her to forget all her socks and some undergarments outside overnight, at which point they are soaked anew. Elsita later quoted as saying “I think I should remove my underwear and bra before Vlastimil gets here”.

Look out for a hilarious account of my last two days at the Reserva - coming soon