Gary and Dona's, and Ram and Dawn's, and Joe and Esther's
Amazing Birding Trip to Ecuador
March, 2011
Part 8: Guango
We arrived at
Guango Lodge
pretty tired,
but not too tired to get out and wander around.
Esther got a ride back up to Papallacta,
where she relaxed in the hot spring.
When she came back the driver picked up another American
who was hitching a ride because their vehicle had died.
He turned out to be with a party who were friends of Joe and Ram's,
and they all got a good visit when they came by the next day.
The rest of us wandered down to the Papallacta River,
where we saw a pair of Torrent Ducks.
They hung around pretty consistently;
we saw them every day.
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| Papallacta River and Tributary Confluence |
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| Torrunt Duck |
Torrunt Duck (Female) |
The lodge was wonderful.
Clean rooms, hot showers, and comfortable common areas with big windows.
The dining room / common room on the main floor has a fireplace
which was great after a day out in the cool drizzle.
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| Guango Lodge |
Common Room with Fireplace |
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| Upstairs Common Room |
Upstairs Hallway |
Like every other place we stayed in Ecuador,
the lodge had hummingbird feeders set out.
We saw a few new species,
but I never did see the Sword-Billed.
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| Xxx Hummingbird |
Xxx Hummingbird |
Long Tailed Sylph |
Guango Lodge is still fairly high up the Andes,
at 2700 m,
and is surrounded by a humid, temperate forest.
There are a number of very well maintained trails around the lodge.
None of them are particularly long,
but there is a lot of variety and the birding was excellent.
There are several bridges over the river,
although the trails end at the bridges,
as that is the boundary of the lodge's property.
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| Papallacta Bridge |
Papallacta |
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| Another Papallacta Bridge |
Something for Everybody!
This Papallacta Bridge was a Busy Place |
Dona's camera drove her nuts on this trip.
She bought it because it had a very long zoom lens, which was good.
Unfortunately, it had no focus options;
in particular, it did not have a spot focus.
That made it virtually impossible to take pictures of birds in thick foliage,
as the camera always focused on some foliage that was closer than the bird.
So she spent a lot of time taking pictures of flowers and critters.
The flowers were splendid and almost as amazing as all the birds,
and the butterflies and other insects were pretty cool too.
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| Dona |
Xxx Pink Flower |
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| Xxx Yellow Flowers |
Cascade |
One of the trails goes to a great little waterfall,
where we all had to take our pictures
and Ram had to get his feet wet.
But it wasn't hot and sunny and was a little too cool for a dip.
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| Waterfall |
Waterfall |
Joe, Dona and I were out on one of the higher trails
and were able to see the rarest bird in Ecuador,
the Red-Capped White-Booted Esther Bird.
It even displayed for us!
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| Elusive Red-Capped White-Booted Esther |
Displaying Red-Capped White-Booted Esther |
The food at Guango Lodge was outstanding.
The soups were amazing, and tasted really good after a few hours out in the damp.
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| Yum! Lunch at Guango |
We had some pretty good birding in the morning before breakfast.
We'd walk the trail down from the lodge and up the next hill,
where there was a nice mixed deciduous fencerow.
There would be a great variety of birds feeding there.
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| Masked Flower Piercer |
Cinnamon Flycatcher |
Cinnamon Flycatcher |
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| Andean Guan |
Glossy Backed Thrush |
Xxx Flycatcher |
Down by the river we didn't see a lot.
There were the Torrent Ducks,
and a few White-Capped Dippers and Torrent Tyrannulets.
In the woods close to the river we sometimes found a Trogon.
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| White-Capped Dipper |
Torrent Tyrannulet |
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| Beetle |
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| Xxx Flowers |
Xxx Flower |
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| Xxx Blossoms |
Xxx Blossoms |
Xxx Blossoms |
From Guango we headed down the Andes into a more tropical habitat,
to San Isidro Lodge.
Along the way we saw numerous crosses along the highway,
something rather unsettling
but we are used to that because you see the same thing in Montana.
They were working on the road in several places,
so we had short detours with some interesting drop-offs.
There were waterfalls pouring off the mountains in many places,
not surprising given all the rainfall.
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| Village |
Valley with Roadside Cross |
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| Bridge Under Construction |
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| Waterfall |
Waterfall |
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| Waterfall |
Waterfall |
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| Who Needs a Shoulder; Just Park Anywhere... |
It's Amazing We Weren't Killed
Before Getting Out of the Bus! |
