Excitement in my life...

So there is definitely a lot of new stuff to say since January 20th...

Firstly, I am now working at Starbucks! I pretty much love it too! Also I am going to Toronto with ACE-TRU, a business "club" I'm a part of at school in a couple days for a couple days.

And the biggest update from last post is I'm actually going to Ecuador instead of Costa Rica now, IN TWO WEEKS!


In Ecuador I will be at The Maquipucuna Reserve which is a non-profit natural reserve. Here are some cool facts about Maquipucuna:

Maquipucuna´s mission is to contribute to biodiversity conservation and responsible management of natural resources through actions including: research, protection, education and
production based on the principles of participation and equity.

It's inside the bio-region of the Andean Choco, which is considered one of the 18 most important "hot spots" of biodiversity on the planet, according to Conservation International.




In the Maquipucuna Reserve there are approximately 2,000 species of plants, of which 350
species of orchids alone have been identified.

The Reserve has at least 45 species of mammals, such as the Andean Spectacled Bear, the Armadillo, and the Guanta, 366 species of birds have been registered and as such Maquipucuna Reserve is part of the IBA or "Important Bird Area" as assigned by Maquipucuna-Rio Guayllabamba and it contains over 250 species of butterflies, many of which are considered exotic, such as the Blue Morpho.

Here are some of the cool things I could be doing:

1. Reforestation for carbon sequencing, CHOCo2 project in the Maquipucuna Reserve
• Collecting seeds for natural regeneration
• Nursery maintenance: Cleaning and Irrigation
• Bagging seedlings (first term of the year)
• Planting
• Following up harvesting and planting

2. Cultivation and Management of shade Coffee, birds friendly and organic.
• Collecting seeds
• Constructing nursery
• Preparation of substrates
• Bag filling for seedlings
• Seedlings
• Transplanting
• Tracking of the planting
• Harvest Coffee
• Post Harvest
• Maintenance of the coffee plants (clean, pruning, pest control)

3. Improvement of the Organic Farm
• Cleaning of the Farm
• Planting
• Harvesting
• Maintenance

4. Collaborative community work groups in support of their School

So, some of the things I'm looking forward to most are the orchids (my FAV flower), working in the coffee plantation, and working with the school.