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     Mount Totumas Cloud Forest Reserve is in the Chiriqui Mountains of western Panama. It is about seven kilometers from the Costa Rican border and just two kilometers on the Pacific side of the continental divide. By car from David you take the Pan-American Highway to Concepcion and then head north to Volcan. From Volcan you travel west 10 km on a paved road toward Santa Clara until you come to a four-wheel-drive road to the right. Take this road for 8 km to where it ends at Los Pozos, an unmarked public hot springs. Mount Totumas Cloud Forest Reserve begins just above the hotsprings. Once you enter the reserve there is a 2 km road leading up to the only building currently on the site, a three bedroom home.

     Jeffrey and Michael Dietrich are brothers who teamed up to purchase the reserve in 2008. They have both been committed to the preservation of natural areas through their activism and naturalist skills. Michael Dietrich became deeply engaged in the saving of Long Island, a natural barrier island on the coast of South Carolina. Through developing a website and drawing attention to the planned urban sprawl, he was able to stop it. That inspiration will transfer to the goals we have set for Mount Totumas Cloud Forest Reserve. Jeffrey Dietrich studied Environmental Science at Antioch College and is an avid birdwatcher, tropical landscape expert and naturalist, having visited many of the world's premier natural areas and lodges. He has worked more than fifteen years in Latin America and speaks fluent Spanish.   

     Both Jeffrey and Michael have found deep immersion in nature to be the single path which has provided them peace of mind and balance in the world. They both understand that only a thorough comprehension of ecological sustainability planted in the minds of the young will provide the fertile grounds for the healthy environment which our future generations and the natural world will require to thrive. Honoring this belief, a commitment to providing access to the reserve for educational institutions is at the core of the project for Mount Totumas Cloud Forest Reserve.