Hacienda Bomboli

Hacienda Bomboli is owned by Jose Javier’s father, Oswaldo. He lives there with his wife, 3 dogs, 14 puppies, 20 horses, 80 cattle and lots of orchids and other exciting cloud forest flowers and plants.

Here’s a pic of Oswaldo and lechuga we later ate for tea.

We rode into Bomboli from Machachi, a ride of about 5 hours, around the Northern side of Corazón. A volcano on the western side of what is locally called volcano avenue and which runs South of Quito down the sides of the Pan American highway.

View from about 3,800 meters up the side of Corazón…

Some where between Machachi and Bomboli we climbed and crossed a ridge and the vegetation began to alter. I don’t know a great deal about the cloud forest, other than it’s a bit like a rain forest (but not as wet). I think this ridge is the first high point that clouds coming in from the Pacific hit and so a unique, warm and humid area exists where plants, unlike those in the rest of Ecuador, thrive.

Shortly after we rode in, after we’d coo’ed at the puppies, and after the dog was sick on my knee… Oswaldo took us for a walk to show us his garden full of edible treats like wild strawberries and blackberries, small mini grape things, chinese gooseberries, and home grown organic lettuce. He turned over unremarkable leaves on plants to reveal the tiniest orchids and showed us fern trees (yes fern trees, not just ferns) over 800 years old. Three varieties, not found anywhere else in the world. He was a complete eco-maniac, utterly devoted to preserving the cloud forest in it’s perfect symbiosis, pointing out small insects responsible for pollenating plants and eating bugs.

Some random pics of plants and the beautiful scenery to the west stretching as far as the Pacific coast are here.

Bomboli, named after the hill it sits nestled along the west side of, is an eco-heaven, Mrs Oswaldo cooks by candle light as there isn’t any electricty, and makes her own soft and hard cheeses from the milk given by their own cows. Oswaldo won’t allow a single tree to be cut down and is busy educating his neighbours in good practice, so much so, that they bring him all their old tyres rather than burning them and he uses them to plant vegetables in.

One day all this will be Jose Javier’s. Lucky swine.