Ecuador Adventure: Visit to Yunguilla

On Monday, February 18th, we visited the community of Yunguilla, a conservation community. This community is located in a cloud forest, north of the city of Quito. A cloud forest is a forest area that is typically covered in clouds or mist. They are found within subtropical, mountainous areas. Due to being in higher elevations, they experience cooler temperatures. One of the more important features of this type of ecosystem is that the trees are able to draw moisture from the clouds, which bring in the majority of freshwater into the ecosystem.

Back in 1995 the community of Yunguilla began its conservation and sustainability efforts. In terms of sustainability, the community began jam and cheese making operations. Using fruits and milk produced in the community, they create jam and cheese that they are able to sell. We were able to taste both products and they were delicious. The jam as made just from fruit and sugar, with no artificial preservatives or flavors. I brought a jar of the strawberry jam home and enjoyed some this morning on my multi-grain english muffin. Delicioso!

Path leading to the jam "factory".

Toby stirring uvilla, a fruit similar to gooseberries, and sugar over heat to make some delicious jam.

Preparing chihualcan to make jam.

Jars of strawberry jam ready to sell.

This community has numerous conservation activities in place. They have a nursery to begin replacing some of the native plants and trees lost from deforestation. They also have a greenhouse where they grow some exotic, but indigenous orchids. The reforestation project is immensely important. With the loss of trees, there will be loss of freshwater into the ecosystem. As noted earlier, the trees are responsible for drawing water from the clouds and bringing it as a major contributor to freshwater for the area. Lastly, they are quite the recyclers. There are many bins located through out the community to separate organic and non-organic materials.