Arrayanes – A family lives off-grid in Ecuador

Arrayanes is a small, half-abandoned village in the Western cloud forest of Ecuador, at 3100 m altitude. At one hour walking distance lies Luis’ finca. We took care of his animals for a couple of months. The spectacular setting and the loneliness of this place made it a very special stay. We woke up at 5 in the morning and milked the cows. We loaded the milk on the donkey and brought it to the village. The Ecuadorean cloud forest is disappearing rapidly. The reason it still exists to some extent is its inaccessibility. It was much easier to clear the rainforest of the lowlands first. The cloud forest is the logical next step. Each year, large areas of cloud forest are burned down to make place for pastures. Without doubt, most of this fascinating ecosystem will disappear within the next decades. Before we condemn the farmers, we should remember that the houses we live in and the fields where our food grows, all lie on areas that once have been forest. The difference between more and less developed countries consists in the progression of this process. The fire you can see in this film is not a fire for burning down forest. The pastures in this area are rapidly overgrown by bushes and have to be cleared every 2 - 3 years. Some farmers use chemicals. Others cut the bushes with machetes and burn the remains. Thank you, Mathias Hentz, for the music: