Sandra

The home renovations at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest are complete. In 2010 we had a lot of help from friends, visitors, residents and some hired help. Here are some photos of all of you who helped throughout the year plus some special shots of visitors. Thank You!

The last few months of 2010 the home is available for rent and we already have several bookings. New construction and further renovations are now on hold until the dry season starts in December. In January 2011 we will start the first cabin at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest. Those of you with carpentry and building skills are herewith formally invited to come and share your creative skills!

Newly painted front of house with new mudroom extension.

Michael,Danny,Emily and Dave on the new deck

VK

Kevin helped get it all started. Raising the house.

and designing the deck!

Roberto and Alex constructing the slate wall

Miguel and team building the sun/mud room.

Robertito fastening the lug bolts

Alma and Karin Painting

Tom and Ana

Dave building the coat rack.  Dave is an architect helping design our first cabins

Daniel and family from Montreal

Lyra working on the welcome sign

Michael eyeballing the tile work

Danny and Roberto after stacking the newly harvested wood

Tom, Ada, Sam and Megan

Mudroom going up

Chainsaw alchemist Mr. Noe Vega

Emily up on Mount Totumas

Jahrun

Enrico,Shane and Roberto’s family

Megan the feral one!

Jenny playing scrabble with the tiles

Shane with garden harvest

Madam butterfly

Lyra and Robertito

Roberto putting on new siding

Emily on horseback

Peter, who hasn’t yet visited Mount Totumas, is our website designer in Seattle. Thank You.

Yours truly ringing the bell calling on all volunteers to join us in 2011

You want up close and intimate hummingbird eye candy? Slip on your cap, powerful reading glasses and attachable feeder and sit back and be literally blown away as the wind from the wings of these hummers gently caress your face. Inches away in sharp focus these glittering jewels hover and feed in full splendor. Inter species territorial fighting can happen just inches from your nose as sabrewings, mountain gems, green crowned brilliants, stripe-tailed and magnificent hummingbirds all vie for their turn to dazzle you with their acrobatic dances. Really, in spite of your predatory stereoscopic eyes just inches away magnified by the reading glasses you are no more than a lamp post for these dudes……….

We have harvested some timber on site. We got a permit from ANAM to cut two dead oak trees, each one at least 250 years old. The timber will be used for the first two cabins we will start in January 2011. Mr. Noe Vega who works miracles with a chainsaw and a chalkline felled the trees and cut the timber to the dimensions listed below. Everyone around on site came out to see the trees drop. The photos of the epiphytes are plants that were living on the dead branches of the trees. We harvested some of these and attached them to the hummingbird displays on our deck. Check out the photos below.

Roble (Oak)
QTY Dimension
1X 2X4X4
1X 2X4X5
1X 2X4X6
3X 2X4X8
2X 2X4X12
2X 2X4X14
3X 2X6X4
2X 2X6X6
2X 2X6X8
5X 2X6X10
4X 2X6X12
1X 2X6X16
1X 2X8X6
1X 2X8X8
1X 2X8X12
1X 2X8X16
1X 2X12X8
2X 4X4X14
7X 4X6X12
4X 4X6X14
5X 4X6X16
1X 4X8X10
1X 4X8X12
12X 6X6X12
15X 6X6X14
12X 6X6X16
1X 8X8X4
8X 8X8X12

Today we left (a group of eight) the homestead at 1907m and climbed to the peak of Mount Totumas at 2630m. This is an elevation change of 700m (2100 feet). The hike is very steep, arduous and just a game trail. The effort is worth it for what you find at the peak, a virgin oak bamboo forest. The moss covering all the old growth oaks is orange apparently a protective adaptation to high levels of UV light found at this altitude. The orange moss is the dominant color in the forest canopy and when reflected by daylight the forest takes on an ambient warm orange color. It’s magical.

Tom Danny and I went for a late afternoon walk following a heavy rain. Wet and dark green landscape with white clouds hanging in the valley outlining individual emergent trees. We were at the site where we dropped the old dead oak by the road which is in one of the main wildlife corridors that extend uninterrupted from the peak of Mount Totumas. From within the forest a large bird emerged and perched on a dead snag that was created when the oak tree fell. An Ornate Hawk Eagle. One of the most regal birds of prey in the new world tropics, the first for Mount Totumas Cloud Forest. Not since a visit years ago to Manu National Park in Peru have I seen this bird. We all had good views through the binoculars but amongst the three of us the only camera available was a point and shoot Canon. Two poor shots but even through the mist and poor resolution of these cropped images this noble bird can still inspire.

Wasp Moths comprise a subfamily (Ctenuchinae) of the Tiger Moth family (Arctiidae). They are mostly diurnal but readily arrive at our bug lights. Many species are toxic and they imitate wasps to avoid predation. Imitating a whole suite of Hymenoptera from yellow jackets to wasps to bumble bees, the wasp moths as a group practice Mullerian mimicry. Check out the diversity here at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest

Colibri is the Spanish word for Hummingbird. The locals here in Chiriqui refer to them often as Visita Flor, or flower visitor. In Brazil they are Beija Flor or flower kisser. Their beauty transcends the names we give them. The three feeders on the deck here at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest attract a variety of species. Some are breathtaking in sunlight when feeding only inches away.

Green-Crowned Brilliant (female)

Stripe-tailed Hummingbird

White-Throated Mountain Gem (female)

Green-Crowned Brilliant (male)

Magnificent Hummingbird (male)

Green-Crowned Brilliant (male)

Violet Sabrewing (male)

Violet Sabrewing (male)

Green-Crowned Brilliant (male)

Stripe-tailed Hummingbird

This large snake reaches 6 feet long here at Mount Totumas Cloud Forest and is only found in the lower elevations below 1800 in vegetation near streams. It is quite sluggish during the cooler days when there is no sun.

The last photo of the last blog entry was that blurry Spider Monkey racing through the canopy. Contrast that with these slow metabolism leaf eating Mantled Howlers hanging out this morning catching the rays of the rising sun after a rainy night.

After watching a large group of acrobatic Spider Monkeys I took shelter from the rain at the base of a giant ceniza tree (local name) that had a second large Ficus tree wrapped around its trunk and a third small tree (Eugenia sp.) with peeling bark growing in the under story. I hung around for an hour chilling out on this awesome view while the rain fell.

While waiting out the rain an immature male Resplendent Quetzal arrived on a Cigua (Nectandra sp.) tree nearby and starting feeding. When the rain stopped I slowly meandered over a got a nice shot of him with his raggedy head. No elongated tail feathers on this youngster.

Here are the fruit of the Cigua tree he is eating. It’s in the avocado family and he was chucking these down whole.

When Quetzals are digesting these large fruit they seem to hang quiet and not move which makes them quite easy to photograph.

About those Spider Monkeys you can forget about photographing them as they scramble through the canopy and leap 40 feet through the air grabbing on to thin branches and swinging and swaying on to the next tree. Here is the best shot I got…