The Buenaventura Reserve is managed by Jocotoco Foundation and is located in the south of Ecuador.  This is the home of the El Oro Parakeet so it’s well worth the effort to get there.  The nearest airport is Loja which is served by TAME airlines, then you can take a bus or taxi to Pinas, the nearest town.  You can also get buses from Guayaquil via Machala which are very cheap, less than $10 per person.  An overview and map of the reserve can be seen here.

We left Loja on the 9:15am bus which was very comfortable and only $6 per person.  If you miss the bus, you can get a taxi to Pinas but it will be over $100 so not  a good idea to miss the bus!

It’s about a 5 hour ride through very beautiful scenery.

After arriving in Pinas, you can get a camioneta to the reserve and the Umbrellabird Lodge.  The road is pretty bad so don’t use a normal taxi. 

Awesome statue of an El Oro Parakeet!  I just love when local people honour their native birds!

And here’s one of a Jocotoco Antpitta.

Turn off to the lodge.

At last we arrived!  After checking in and dropping off our backpacks, we asked the same camioneta driver to wait for us and take us and the lodge’s guide to the El Oro Parakeet hotspot which is about 10km from the lodge.  The whole transport cost around $30.