Yachana Colegio Técnico

Mondaña is a small remote community of about 50 families. One of the projects of the Yachana Foundation is a technical high school for area students, indigenous and not. Especially in rural areas, education is hard, and many young people do not finish high school. The foundation is working to change that in this area, working on projects that help build life skills as well, including sustainable agriculture, aquaculture, better alimentation, animal husbandry, etc. It's a remarkable program.

Our excursion this day was an afternoon hike, to another birding area, then to visit the school. Sadly, my headache was back. However, Olga sent me to bed after lunch, then woke me for the trip. It wasn't gone, but it was better. Balancing in/out of the boat was tricky, but aside from that, all was good. And I'm glad I went.

First, more birding! Again, Hannele has the photos, but here's one from her Facebook page.


The hoatzin is actually a prehistoric survivor. This bird is the size of our turkey, but you can't eat it -- it has a double-chambered stomach like cows, reptile claws as a juvenile, and all kinds of other neat things that make it early on the divergent family tree from the dinosaurs. Cool.

We also saw black-billed thrush, Amazonian kingfisher (VERY cool), great kisskadee, grey-breasted cyberwing (a type of hummingbird), lettered arisari, yellow cacique, yellow-tufted woodpecker, and a monha. Honestly, two incredible days. Too bad I don't keep a bird list.....


Lots of great plants on the day's hike. Top, achiote, a plant that is commonly used for its pigment, especially for dying ceramics and skin. (It lasts 2-3 weeks on the skin.) Below, cacao. Yes, that's the seed pod your chocolate comes from.



Plantains. Yes, they are lots like bananas. And I ate plantains in all manner of forms and dishes. Love them! Below, snails. It's one project of the high school. Tasty things too.



This is one of the dormitories of the school; many of the students do board here. We caught them during a break and in the middle of a soccer game.


One of the amazing heliconas. Juan told me that Ecuador has 87 species of heliaconas (of the 200+ in the world) and that 18 of them are endemic. To see them all you have to go up the road to Colombia.....


This is, I believe, a morete palma, which has a very sweet fruit. Honestly, there are more amazing fruits in Ecuador.... Below, something from the bird-of-paradise family. Lovely.


Once again, we ate fabulously, then retired to the bar for drinks and conversation. The staff were all really nice, and very patient with our evolving Spanish. While it was hard to believe that our week at the lodge would end the next day, I was greatly relieved not to have to battle more giant cockroach-type of bugs in my room (I fought two the night before, and won). I was also ready to be done with the flying, biting insects -- my skin was starting to rebel against the constant repellent.