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The Ecuadorean Government granted us special permission to visit this unique part of Ecuador which is adjacent to the disputed Peruvian border. It was an amazing experience and we were able to document many species of birds that were not found in the adjacent Podocarpus National Park. Our paper made some recommendations to increase the size of the Park to incorporate this sub-to lower-tropical habitat and its wildlife. Several years later these recommendations were acted upon.

If we had stayed longer we would have undoubtedly found more wildlife, but what this paper does not say is that a war between Ecuador and Peru over the disputed territory started whilst we were there. The war was in the adjacent valley. The army was sent into to the jungle to find us fetch us out of danger (we had no GPS or mobile phone in those days!), despite this I will always remember camping over Christmas period in this magical location.