Monday, April 13, 2026
Jender Plants His Garden in Los Guardianes
By Alejandro Rigatuso, Fundador y Director de Fundación Loros
Bent over the dry, clay-heavy earth of Los Guardianes, Jender — caretaker of this corner of the reserve — opened holes one by one to receive the seedlings that had arrived that day: sapote, papaya, anón, limón, and guama. With his hands buried in the soil, unhurried, he transplanted each plant around his own home, like someone who is not only tending a territory but putting down roots in it.
The ground at Los Guardianes is hard and dry, as good tropical soil tends to be — one that holds drought close to the surface. But there were the seedlings, their leaves green and bright, some still damp from the journey, waiting for the earth to take them in. No one counted how many there were in total — those things are sometimes better measured with time, once they are already bearing fruit.
There is something particular about planting fruit trees around your own house: it is a gesture that thinks in years to come, in the shade and the harvests that you don't always live to see grow. Jender knows this, even if he never says so.
About the author
Alejandro Rigatuso · Fundador y Director de Fundación Loros
Alejandro Rigatuso arrived at Fundación Loros after years as Vice President of Growth Marketing at Toptal, bringing with him an unconventional perspective: he knows an animal is well by its eyes, "bright, wide open." Lorenzo, the first parrot released, recaptured several times and always set free to fly again, marked him forever. At dusk, around five-thirty, you'll find him at the Mirador de las Ciénagas or wandering around Cerro El Peligro, envisioning observation towers and hundreds of native parrots soaring over a reserve that an entire community calls their own.
