Yes, the 7-year-old son of the president of Ecuador was here last week. I can tell you that now because he has left.

Here’s his school group when they arrived. Security was tight all week. See the police and secret service in the background?

Saturday I went into Santo Domingo to Skype home and buy some supplies. It’s not a terribly photogenic city, so just use your imagination.

This morning however was perhaps the most gorgeous I have seen since my arrival, so I set off after breakfast with all my birding paraphernalia up the trail to the highest point of the reserve (some 2000+ meters above sea level).

This is from about halfway up. By the time I reached the summit I was surrounded by clouds.

The best wildlife shot of the hike ended up being this cut little Western Red Squirrel.

Squirrels aren’t as common here as they are back in the US. In fact, every squirrel sighting is supposed to be recorded on a mammal sighting data sheet.

I saw lots of birds of course, including one species of woodcreeper that has not been recorded at La Hesperia before(!). Out in the forest, birds tend to hide themselves pretty well within the dense foliage. But when I got back to the farm for a late lunch, this guy just begged to be photographed.

So I put down my fork and obliged. (It’s a Fawn-breasted Tanager for those of you who may be keeping score).

I hope to get a more serious blogpost up soon about the idea behind La Hesperia. So much of the rhetoric about the place seems like it has never been properly read and edited by a native English speaker. I’ve got quite a lot of writing to do this week, so a little rain would not be so bad.