Latitude: 0° 00' 0.00" N - Ecuador – Part 1

September 9 - 11 

(Mark)

Teri and I visited Ecuador in 2008 before we retired. We had been on four international birding trips previously, and thought that we knew what the pace would be like. However, we got paired up with a young British guide who was an absolutely rabid birder, and we went from before sunup till after sundown for twelve straight days!  We ended up seeing 431 species of birds, but were so overwhelmed by the pace that we often talked about returning to Ecuador and doing it in a more relaxed manner.  

This is our Ecuador Trip, ver. 2.0

(Teri)

Several months ago, we came across YouTube videos from a company called Tropical Birding.  The videos were hosted by their bird guides and talked about bird trips from all over the world. 

In the past, we have always traveled as “independent travelers”, meaning we were not in a group with other birders that we didn’t know.  We started talking about trying a group trip with Tropical Birding.  They have many packaged deals and seemed like a very easy way to book a trip.

Mark called them up and we signed up for our trip.  Our experiment to see if we would enjoy a group type birding trip didn’t really pan out because there ended up being only one other person on the trip.  

We did our usual "night before our flight" at a hotel in San Antonio.  We always have very early flights out and since the airport is 1½ hours from our house, it makes it a lot easier on us.  Also, we can leave our car at the hotel for up to two weeks for only $20!

We flew from San Antonio to Miami.  We had an 8-hour layover so Mark booked us a day-room.  I had never heard of such a thing, but it turned out to be a great idea.  It was nice to be able to relax and take off our masks.  The time went quickly and we were back on a plane and heading to Quito, Ecuador by 5:30 that evening.

Quito is at an elevation of a little over 9,000 feet.  Since we were going to spend much of our 2 weeks at higher elevations, Mark thought it would be a good idea for us to spend an extra day in Quito.  It would also keep us from having another early morning with a long day of traveling.

Hostería Rincon de Puembo

We came across the only other person on our group and spent some time birding in the hotel gardens with her and having dinner before our official trip started.

Thursday, 9/9/2021 (Mark)

We drove to San Antonio at about 5:30 pm. Stayed at the Airport La Quinta and paid $20 to leave the car there for two weeks. I ordered an Uber for 4:00 am the next morning as we didn’t want to risk not getting one on time. Turned out to be very expensive $35 because of the “pre-order”. 

Friday, 9/10/2021

Uber driver showed up a little early and we were at the airport by 4:00 am. Got checked in, went through security (seems like the most frantic part of traveling) and were at our gate with loads of time to spare. Our flight to Miami left at 5:30 and we arrived at around 9:30 (EDT). Because of a very long layover (Our flight to Quito didn’t leave until 5:30 pm) I’d booked a day-room at the Miami International Airport Hotel. It took us a little while to figure out where the hotel was, but we located it and got our room. Turned out to be a great idea, as I’d been feeling a little under the weather, and was able to nap off and on for several hours. Teri got a little sleep as well.

We left the hotel, went back through security, and were at our gate by around 4:30 pm. The flight to Quito left on time, and we landed at 8:30 pm (CDT). We got through immigration quickly and easily but waited quite a while for the bags to come off. Once we had our luggage we found our driver right outside waiting for us, and we got to the hotel within about 25 minutes.

The Hostería Rincon de Puembo is an older hotel, with many arched windows, confusing passageways, little courtyards, etc. It is actually in the Best Western chain! By the time we got settled in it was after 10:00 pm, and we were so glad to have added this extra night. Otherwise we’d be up at 5:30 am for breakfast and heading out at 6:00

Saturday, 9/11/2021

We both had so-so nights. Being in a new place, with no fan to move the air and the unfamiliar street noises, etc. made for a restless night. But we slept in late and headed off for breakfast. We had some fruit, bread, and an omelet. No black beans and rice, so we know we’re not in Costa Rica!

After breakfast we walked out to the gardens and spotted a single lady with binoculars. We’d learned that there was only one other person on our tour, and her name was Tracy. We introduced ourselves and talked with her a bit. She was a 70ish year old lady from Syracuse, New York and had been birding for about three years. But in that time, she’d taken several international birding trips. She was a botanist by profession and would spend much of the time in the following days looking at plants rather than birds.

There were some interesting birds around, so we headed back to the room for our binoculars, and then I went back again for my camera. It was a small garden, but there were some flowering and fruiting trees and we got good looks at some nice birds like Golden Grosbeak, Golden-rumped Euphonia, Scrub Tanager and Sparkling Violetear.

Golden Grosbeak

Golden-rumped Euphonia - female

Golden-rumped Euphonia - male

Great Thrush - male

Scrub Tanager

Teri and I decided to skip lunch since we’d had a late breakfast, and we arranged to meet Tracy at 6:30 for dinner. We sat around the room for a couple of hours, reading and relaxing, and them went back out to the garden.

The hotel was hosting a college reunion and what seemed like a separate family reunion, so there were lots of folks wandering around, swimming, playing pool, etc. We saw most of the same birds we’d seen that morning, and then headed back to the room when it started to sprinkle.

We heard Tracy leave her room at 6:00, so went out to join her. We ended up in the dining room and went ahead and ordered our dinner. It was three full courses and too much food. We went back to our rooms for another so-so night’s sleep. The main issue seemed to be that in spite of outdoor temps in the 50’s the room stayed up in the mid-70’s. Even opening the patio door didn’t do much to cool it off.

Next time: Yanacocha Reserve.