December 2020
Dear friends of AMIGOS ARBOLITO
View from the beach to our mangrove patch. We are also committed to the preservation of the mangroves along the coast.
TIME GOES BY...
Since we arrived in Ecuador, we have experienced a lot, and above all, we have worked a lot. Our business development had priority until spring; we were always busy with construction projects, and the last one was a bungalow. This is during ongoing operations because, in February 2019, we opened our restaurant in addition to the guest house. Then in March 2020, the nationwide lockdown, we had to close and hold out for five long months without real income, which delayed our next steps in the project AMIGOS ARBOLITO. What these are, we explain at the end. Of course, we have always cared for our trees. The rainy season was fortunately very extended this year; until the end of July, we had regular rains but no renewed flooding thanks to clean canals and strategic filling and drainage works on our property. The larger trees do not need additional irrigation even now during the dry season, the roots go deep, and some rain falls now and then.
"fall"
We were recently asked if the trees here also lose their leaves; there is no fall and winter. The trees also go through a cycle here with constant temperatures of around 30 degrees year-round. With the guayacan, it was evident after a few years; they started to flower. Then they lose all their leaves and instead glow bright yellow or pink once a year. After that, the leaves grow again, gradually turning green. A magnificent play of colors! So far, only our older trees have bloomed, planted a few years before Amigos Arbolito was founded. At the beginning of the rainy season, the young guayacan dropped their leaves one by one without flowering and then started to sprout again. Some of the cedro negro look only a little withered in the meantime; others lose all their leaves and stand there bare and as if dead for several weeks, only to grow bushier and greener than ever before. The many leaves swirling around gives us much to do; it should all look neat. Where it does not bother us, we leave it as fertilizer for the soil.
Flowering guayacan – raking on foliage
Next targets
It is time to transform our private project into an official foundation in Ecuador, the Fundación AMIGOS ARBOLITO, because we have ambitious goals! We are still in the planning phase of the agroforestry project AMIGOS ARBOLITO 2.0, where sustainable agriculture shall be combined with reforestation and a social aspect with social-added value on a larger area. In the following newsletters, we will present our plans in more detail and report on the satellite projects: other fincas that join the AMIGOS ARBOLITO and reforest.
A Samán (left) and a Fernan sanchéz (right), in whose shade cabbage and cucumbers thrive in their beds. In the foreground, cacao plants, in turn shaded by plantain shrubs. Reforestation and agricultural crops on the same site. What we started on a small scale should now grow into a showcase project and find many imitators.
In the meantime, we sincerely thank all our supporters and greet you from Ecuador. Stay healthy!
Sincerely, your
AMIGOS ARBOLITO Team
