Nature Reserve – La Isla Escondida

The long bus from Bogota had the expected delays that come with everything in Colombia. I wasn’t going to arrive in Puerto Asis in time to get the bus to Orito and then catch the last bus I needed to arrive on this day. This meant I had to jump off the bus in Santa Ana and take another bus to Orito, which in hindsight is much better as it saved me another 3-4 hours going back and forth. Having made it to Orito, I had the ticket I needed to get closer to my destination. The last leg of the journey was by a pretty bad gravel road in the back of a pickup, as was most transport here between the smaller villages.

Orito is an oil town that has grown significantly after the detection of oil. I have been told there is a thin layer of gold beneath Orito but nobody seems to care anymore because the oil is seemingly more valuable to them. With this said, there is a pipeline that runs along the side of the road and heavy trucks passing by constantly. This doesn’t seem to have affected the environment too much as I saw a flock comprising of hundreds of white herons gathered in a handful of trees around a small lake. There wasn’t a branch available and this popular watering hole as the trees were painted white with the plumage of the small herons.

As we neared the entrance to the path, we had to pass through a military control – conveniently placed before the oil company’s main buildings. I am guessing this is another sign of what money can buy you in Colombia with the military serving as a very useful protection to the oil company´s assets. A little bit further down the road, there was a man with a mule. This was Manuel, the father of the Esthefan, who was in charge of the lodge that I was heading to. Manuel was here to lead me to the lodge and Sucio, the mule, helped me with my bags.

Manuel had lived here a long time and knew the jungles and paths like the back of his hand. It made for an interesting walk and as we left the road and headed up into the jungle, there was plenty for me to ask. Due to the time of the day, there wasn’t much visible life around but there was still plenty to be heard and seen. The walk first crossed and then entered between two large, heavy flowing currents, the Guamez River and the Sucio River. The second river is named like the mule because it has a dirty colour to it, with sucio translating as dirty in English. The walk was fairly relaxing albeit most of it was uphill, and took about an hour and a half to arrive at the lodge. I probably could have carried my bags by myself but with 20kgs in my backpack, I was grateful for the help of Sucio.

Upon arrival, I was greeted by Esthefan and given a quick tour of the place and shown where I would sleep. The house was beautiful and was built mostly from one humungous tree that was found close by. Downstairs was almost completely open allowing you to see all the birds that were flying past without the walls getting in the way. And that was what this place was built for. It was a lodge for avid twitchers to come and find some birds and there were some really special ones here (apparently). Also out in the jungle, you could find 3 towers built in the trees allowing you to spot some birds from there. A couple of these towers were over 20m high, situated in, and above the canopy of the trees. One of the towers had a hut with beds where you could spend the night.

The house itself was situated in a clearing, surrounded by a garden that was in turn surrounded by tall trees. There was also a river passing through the garden with a little dam creating a swimming hole. As there were no houses or people anywhere near this place (over a 2-hour walk in one direction), the water was fresh, clean and drinkable. Even for the weak tourist stomachs turning up, the water was completely safe to drink as it was fresh and mountain filtered. In all directions around the lodge, there were paths heading off into the jungle leading to destinations near and far. My plan was to try and explore them all whilst I was here and with my stay being a minimum of 3 weeks, it should be possible.

There was a family of local people who worked here but out of all of them, Esthefan was the one who lived here constantly and was meant to be in charge. But Esthefan was so relaxed and didn’t really care what you were doing that he just seemed like the glue that held the place together. In theory, you could arrive and do absolutely nothing and he would cook, clean and help you with everything. He would do this happily without any problems due to his incredibly kind and caring nature. He was also incredibly knowledgeable about the area and the wildlife, knowing the names of lots of birds in Spanish, English, and Latin. And he doesn’t really speak any English either apart from the basics and bird names. I learned so much from him in such a short period of time and can understand why he enjoys working where he does.

Other than the local workers, who came and left in a seemingly random fashion, there was another volunteer there, Phoebe a 20-year-old girl from Bristol. A really nice a sweet girl who was coming to the end of her stint there had been doing some work in the garden, trying to develop that. I think she was relieved when I arrived as she had someone to speak English to as before she was there by herself and was forced to practice her Spanish. After Phoebe left, a Dutch/Spanish couple arrived and when they left, a young guy from the States arrived. Having worked with different volunteers shows that I overstayed my 3 weeks and that is a testament to how nice the place is. Relaxing, beautiful, with fun people and enjoyable work.

I spent my time there swinging a chainsaw around and smacking nails with a hammer. The work was there for you to choose what you wanted to do as long as it helped the lodge out in some way. My first task was to unblock a path from a tree that had fallen across it. After chopping the smaller branches away by machete, I was greeted by a beautiful red trunk in front of me. This tree could definitely be of use with its strong and sexy looking wood. I chopped a section of about 2-metres out of the tree to enable people to pass through and then with a chainsaw, I chopped the trunk in half diagonally. This gave me 2 flat fronted, free-standing pillars that narrowed towards a point at the top. With a few extra pieces of wood getting attached, I had turned the fallen tree into 2 boot racks perfect for the plastic boots you needed to navigate the trails around here.

Throughout my stay, I continued to build a variety of causes in and around the house. I built benches for watching the birds from upstairs that could be folded up to the wall to create space if needed. I also made coat racks that could be folded away so that when it was sunny, they didn’t block the view of the jungle. Next on the list was a place for compost to be made from all the organic waste we created. This involved 3 large boxes with a roof above their heads allowing a rotation system as the compost needed time to become useful. Surprisingly the soil here was almost useless for fruit and veg even though the trees and plants grew so successfully in the jungle. The last of my tasks was to finish off the veranda on the bridge that crossed the river. I didn’t have time to completely finish it but progressed it sufficiently to be of some use.

Whilst we weren’t working, we were exploring the jungle, cooking feasts or heavily relaxing in the hammocks. Once we were shown how to use the harness and climbing apparatus, we could climb the towers by ourselves and the trails were easy to navigate without a guide. It was always better if Esthefan came with us though because he could spot everything much easy and then explain what it was. If he wasn’t there, anything we managed to spot we could explain to him and he could tell you what it was. No word of a lie here but on a couple of occasions I would approach Esthefan to ask him about a bird I have seen and the conversation went something like this (but in Spanish):

Me: Hey Esthefan, I was on the purple trail and I saw this bird that ha

Esthefan interrupts: Gilded Barbet

Me: But I didn’t explain anything??

Esthefan: Look in the bird book. Is it that one?

He was correct most times. Sometimes he needed more information like the noise, of size and sometimes I would need to tell him the colourations of the bird. It was like a magic trick but it was the extensity of his knowledge of the trails, and what birds lived where, and what came out at certain times or something like that.

He took us on a hike one day to a place on the map but with Esthefan we took a direct, quicker and trail-less route. His 10-year-old daughter also came along for the hike and took part in everything we did. We arrived at a small canyon after a few hours of chopping our way through the jungle. After clambering down the river we arrived at the top of a 10-metre waterfall. Esthefan asked if I wanted to abseil down and I obviously said yes. Having a slight fear of heights, I couldn’t understand why I was going first. But I had complete faith in Esthefan who disappeared into the thick to tie the rope around a tree. Once he said it was good, I took his word and made my way down. Once we were all down at the bottom, we found out that there wasn’t enough rope to get us down the next larger waterfall so we had to climb back up this one. Looking at it was very daunting but the climb was really basic as the waterfall had loads of amazing hand and footholds.

After this, we continued to a different location where we came across a much larger and more powerful waterfall. The same situation occurred, Esthefan asked and I obliged. This time as I approached the edge, I had to ask how we would get back up. I wasn’t confident the rocks were stable enough seeing as they were crumbling in my test attempts. Esthefan had an idea and he disappeared. I looked to see if I could see a route back up but it didn’t look good. I went to look for Esthefan who had chopped down a very tall and thin tree and was trying to manoeuvre it through the rocks leading to the waterfall. I gave him a hand and with a lot of effort, we managed to get it to the edge of the waterfall where we just pushed it off. It nearly took me with it as it tipped over the water but I had the ropes attached to my harness as a backup anyway.

The tree was the perfect size as the tip was pointing out the top of the waterfall but I couldn’t quite understand the plan. I think the idea was to climb back up the tree through the raging rush of water coming off the top of the waterfall. I basically said no and I am pretty sure no one else was willing to try it so we decided it was best to go home, build a rope ladder and come back another day. We had many other excursions like this where we could explore places hidden and lost to the outside world. With the intense rain that has come down here over the years, there are numerous rivers that have carved stunning canyons and landscapes throughout this area and we were lucky to have someone to show us.

Other than Phoebe, none of the other volunteers really made any effort to enter the kitchen and cook something. That left Esthefan and I in charge of providing food for the ‘kids’. This was always good fun as there were lots of experiments going on with splicing of cultures and recipes. The kitchen was full of food, spices, and condiments to cook with and what wasn’t there, we could find in the garden. Esthefan was fond of making a Thai style lemony flavoured infusion curry type things which were delicious, he was a great cook. Keen to teach but also keen to learn, we also ate some Indian style curries too.

Guests were fairly rare at this time of the year but we did have overnight guests on a few occasions. We had 3 English bird enthusiasts arrive for a couple of nights and that meant that with their driver and 2 guides, Esthefan and I were cooking for 10 or more people. This became our daily work with the twitchers wanting coffee at 5am so they could be ready for when the birds were most active and then preparing 3 meals a day. The guests were incredibly polite and complimentary but I got the feeling that one of the guests wasn’t enjoying the food. I said to Esthefan that I think the food was too exotic for his taste buds so we should cook something like an English stew to try and get him to eat. So we whacked some beef, veg, stock, wine etc etc into a pot and stewed it all day for 4 or more hours. Serving it up with plain rice and French fries it went down very well and was even enjoyed by the Colombians who were eating too.

The guest who wasn’t eating much managed to eat a lot more but still refused to eat the pancakes we made especially for him for his birthday. He also refused the cheese, ham and cucumber sandwich we made him for his journey home because he doesn’t eat cheese that’s not cheddar. He kind of reminded me of myself before I started travelling with his fussy eating. So sorry to anyone I offended by refusing perfectly good and probably deliciously tasting food in the past because of my fussy tastes.

But talking about that sandwich has reminded me of the biggest cultural difference I have seen since leaving England. Not only is it strange but when mentioned, the reactions have been the biggest from myself and from the Colombians. Now I have only seen this here in Orito so it may not be throughout Colombia but here it is common. Are you ready? Here in Orito, a key ingredient whilst they are cooking Spaghetti Bolognese is cucumber!! To be honest, the cucumber dissolved and disappeared into the sauce and I couldn’t really taste any cucumber. The sauce was really nice too so I can’t say a bad word about it, but to call it Bolognese will have Italians turning over in their graves. When I tried to explain that cucumbers were invented for sandwiches, they look that I got was a look of complete disgust with a hint of don’t be so completely and utterly ridiculous.

One other thing that amazed me and also kind of pleased me was that Esthefan had never eaten a hamburger before. It’s good to know that McDonald’s can’t reach everywhere at least. They do have hamburgers here but the local version is to have the patty and toppings, not between bread rolls but between two patacones – which are plantains that are fried, squished flat, and then fried again. So one night he made hamburgers, under my loose instructions, seeing as he had never eaten one. I also asked if he had ever eaten Pizza to which he said that he thought he had eaten one but didn’t know because he didn’t know if what he was sold could be classed as a pizza. Esthefan was definitely one the best things about this volunteering gig and it would be nice to get back and see him at some point.

Some of the other guests were really nice people too including some Colombian bird watchers and a Colombian student who was here to collect spiders for research for his degree in a college in the States. This guy was scared of heights but he was willing to grab every spider he came across by hand. I would ask him if they bite and he would explain about the pain from this bite being more painful than the pain from the bullet ant, known as the most painful sting/bite of any insect. On occasions, he would say that the bite could be dangerous and cause him medical issues in some cases. I was glad it was him doing the grabbing but I was also glad to be walking around with him. He was an expert and knew so much about all the spiders and other insects it was incredible to learn some things.

The easiest time to find spiders is at night which meant we went out after dinner searching for spiders mainly but also anything else we might find. There is so much to see at night time that a normal 30-minute walk takes you around 3 hours to complete. With a head torch, you move slowly trying to distinguish the difference between the reflections of the water droplets and the eyes of something trying to hide in plain sight. And only when you stop and look hard do you begin to see the plethora of living things all around you. But sometimes things make themselves known to you fairly obviously.

I was exploring at night with one guest and we were on our way home slowly along one of the trails. All of a sudden there was a loud thud as it sounded like something jumped out of a tree. We could hear it moving still maybe 5 to 10 metres away from us when another one joined fairly close to it. We both had a scared look on our faces when the noise initially made us jump but curiosity made us hang around to try and find it. Even with the headlamps we were unable to see what they were due to the thickness of the vegetation but we could still hear them moving. That’s when I saw one cross from one side to the other side of the path. I could not make out the body shape but I saw 2 orange eyes reflecting my light as it passed. I could also see the way it ran by the rough shadows passing and the movement of the eyes and I could also see its rough size due to the height of the eyes.

The following morning we explained what we saw and heard, and with the experts’ help, we came to the conclusion that it could have been anything. There are lots of large cats here as well as large boar-like animals but I don’t think it was either of them due to the vocal noises they made. The most likely outcome we came to was that it might have been a Spectacled Bear although we still don’t know. I like to think that it was a bear and for me, this is the best option because of the lack of stealth it had, the lack of fear of us it had, the sounds that it made and its weight of movement. Whatever it was, we will never know for certain but it was certainly an intense, slightly terrifying but thoroughly intriguing 10 minutes or so.

As well as exploring the jungle day and night, a lot of time was spent chilling around the lodge. The place was a birding spot and by just lying in a hammock with a set of binoculars you could see plenty of birds. You may have to look these up but groups of tanagers regularly flew around the lodge feeding off their favourite trees. At certain times of the day, every day, there were Violaceous Jays flying around and making a loud racket. These were then joined by the extremely vocal and bizarre-sounding Oropendulas with 5 different species sometimes singing together albeit with different songs. There was a resident Hummingbird called Dave who fed on the heliconias and banana tree throughout the day and fought off other hummingbirds who entered his patch. This is naming only a few and not even mentioning the monkeys that passed by the trees around the lodge.

In my time here I managed to positively identify over 60 different species of birds out of the 300 that have been previously identified. There would have been many, many more that I could not say was something for certain due to my poor eyesight or Esthefan not being there. It was an amazing place to spend a month and a half and would recommend the journey to anyone wanting to see some birds or just wanting to relax away from everything. But with all good things, they have to come to an end and it was time for me to move on. My next plan was to head slowly up toward the Pacific Coast where I would hopefully be able to find some Whales swimming around. It is that season at the moment so fingers crossed that they are still there once I arrive.

In posting this I have already been to the Pacific coast but with there being no internet connection there, this blog post has been sat on my laptop awaiting a connection. So I will post this now and explain what I have been up to since for the last month in my next post. Still in Colombia, I plan to head to Ecuador soon and explore pastures new. The next time you hear from me I should hopefully be in a new country with new experiences.