
We are pleased to announce that Mount Totumas Cloud Forest has been certified as a sustainable eco tourist destination with Rainforest Alliance. Check out our listing on their website.
http://www.sustainabletrip.org/profile/mount-totumas
Three Wattled Bellbirds perched on a distant tree. Cloudy weather brings them out on exposed purchases of the canopy. Immature males often join adults at this time of year as their mechanical calls resonate in the forest. Not at all like a bell by the way. Who named this bird anyway?
This orchid was at 2100m on a tree at the edge of a pasture on Mr. Vega’s property. First time seeing this one blooming.
Julio with Violet Sabrewing
The MTCF hummingbird hat has been requested by many guests who saw this on a previous blog entry. So here are a few images of happy humans and hummers.
Ryan and Violet Sabrewing
Niko with Green Crowned Brilliant
Alma with Violet Sabrewing
Mateo with Scinttilant Hummingbird
Julio with Green Violet Ear
Niko with Magnificant Hummingbird
Colleen with Scintillant Hummingbird
Ana with two Violet Sabrewing
Marco with Violet Sabrewing
Mateo with Scintillant and female Green Crowned Brilliant
Marco with Bronze and Silver Beer Can………
Julio Crispin, a recent guest at MTCF, brought his remote controlled model airplane on site and put together this wonderful video. The video camera mounted on the plane provides a fish eye view of the core common area of MTCF.
An Ornate Hawk Eagle’s view of MTCF!!!
We had a trio of entomologists last week at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest. John Heppner from the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, part of the Florida Natural History Museum organized the group. John specializes in Lepidoptera, specifically in micro moths, Nick Donnelly in dragonflies and Ed Fuller is an expert on click beetles. It was a great week of collecting and the group inspired one of our guest volunteers, Bret Carlson, who made some stunning macro photography of some of the insects that were attracted to our traps and lights.
John Heppner at work with specimens where we converted our mudroom into a lab.
Some of the micro moths collected during the week.
Check out the mites infesting this beetle
Clear night with the milky way in stunning brilliance as far away flashes of lightening lit up the horizon
Here are some images from all the infrastructure work we have started in 2011
Topography in order to define the common area where our infrastructure will be built
We got help from Professor Ricardo Sanjur, local topographer from David. Yes it is a Leica theodolite!
Drainage, drainage drainage. Major work was done for drainage. We hired a back hoe for several days and worked on ditches to channel water away from the house and road and future cabin locations.
Tene and Macial discussing drainage strategy
Preparing the grounds for next years construction of the future common area building at the mirador.
Reinaldo up on the back hoe bucket removing branches from a Matahombro tree. Notice the Bajareque clouds on the continental divide
Breaking foundation of our first cabin
Foundation complete and framing going up using the timber we harvested during he summer of 2010
Timber framing with mortise and tenons and pegs instead of nails
A portable saw mill was hauled up the 10km 4×4 road to cut our timber into beams and rafters and planks for future siding and flooring
3×6 rafters in the foreground cut with the portable mill will be the rafters for the future loft
Roof rafters going up
More photos and updates as our infrastructure progress unfolds…….
Check out this bad ass new wasp moth that visited our bug lights recently. Yellow jacket abdomen with blue iridescent spots. This was the first specimen of this species seen at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest.
On June 1st we planted the first of 1500 coffee trees. The site location is at 1800m and is on a wind protected east facing slope that was shaded primarily by trees of the Inga genus. This is a good elevation for growing premium high altitude coffee and the existing shade trees are recognized as a great tree under which to grow shade grown coffee. The area covers about 1 hectar or less than 1% of the land at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest.
We hired Mr. Clemente Vega to get us started off on the right track. Clemente is a coffee consultant with many years experience growing coffee in Chiriqui. In addition he studied sustainable agriculture in Costa Rica. With his guidance we will follow sustainable practices in growing coffee using mainly biological controls and organic techniques.
We decided to plant 5 varieties of coffee in order to gain experience on what grows best at this location; Geisha, Caturra, Katuii, Pacamara and Tipica.
Our plans are to sell the coffee to guests and to process and roast the beans on site. We hope this will make a significant contribution to the operating costs of the site as well as provide an educational and agro tourism attraction for visitors.
We went to Boquete to a nursery to buy the coffee seedlings. Here we are loading them on our pick up truck. We made a two story rack on the truck and were able to fit 1000 seedlings on our first trip. We returned for the other 500 a couple days later.
Coffee tree nursery in Boquete
Transporting the seedlings to the site
This is a view facing south at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest. The site where we are planting the coffee is beyond the horses at the end of the pasture where the slope drops down
Here is the shaded slope where we are planting the coffee. This string represents the very first row at the top of the slope. We will plant Caturra variety here as this is the most compact variety and will handle best the occasional winds that may affect this area at the top of the slope.
Cloud forest immediately above the slope where we are planting the coffee
Mr. Clemente Vega training the staff on the proper planting of the coffee seedlings
Clemente applying Microsplag, a bacteria that is a soil innoculant that controls nematodes and other pests.
Planting the first row
Yours truly