Going Home - Ecuador – Part 13

Thursday 9/23/21 (Teri)

We were up by 6:00 and walked outside our hotel room to do a little birding.  The hotel staff was setting up numerous tables in the grass area.  Since we weren’t going to see any birds with all the commotion, we went back to our room until 9:00 then headed down to breakfast (scrambled eggs, empanada, fruit, rolls).

Our driver arrived at 10:45 to pick us up for the airport.  She was very nice, spoke only a little English and was happy to have a conversation in Spanish with Mark.  His Spanish is really coming along!

So, about our flight from Quito to Miami.  I’m not sure I can adequately explain my thoughts on the flight. 

But, here goes – the plane was awesome! I spent the first 30 minutes pushing every button I could find.  I did not want to get off that plane – ever!

We got on the plane and the flight attendant told Mark to turn left.  She told me to keep going straight then turn left.  I said “We have seats together!”.  She assured me we would be sitting together. 

My pod:

We had a wall between us:

We put the wall down and took a selfie:

We each had a personal headset to watch movies or listen to music:

The seats moved forward so you could use the foot rest.  They also laid all the way flat for sleeping.

It was very quiet in first class: 

There were thousands of songs to listen to, hundreds of movies to choose from or you could just watch the flight info on your personal tv.

Mark and I have talked about taking longer flights to different parts of the world.  I was always hesitant to be on a plane for more than about 5 hours.  Even in first class it can be uncomfortable.  But, if I was guaranteed a plane like this, I would fly anywhere in the world.  Our flight was 4 hours and it went by way too fast!  There were a lot of good movies to choose from.

Now the bet.  We always have some kind of bet involving first birds seen.  This trip the bet was that each of us named a bird and whose ever bird was seen first at the hotel, won the bet.

Mark went first and he chose a Great Thrush.  I totally cheated and chose a Tanager.  Why was this cheating?  There is only one Great Thrush.  There are 66 species of Tanagers in Ecuador.  Guess who won?

Me!  (This time)

Oreo Blizzard

I was pretty disappointed that there weren’t many opportunities to buy souvenirs.  I did find a pretty magnet at the airport. 

Colibri - "Hummingbird" in Spanish

I had Mark print out this picture and I attached it to a magnet sheet.  It turned out great and looks good on the refrigerator.

Final Thoughts:  This was a great trip.  Our guide, José, was wonderful.  He was very knowledgeable, funny and enjoyable to be around.

It was interesting staying at one lodge for the whole trip.  It was nice to just have to unpack once.  It had its limitations though.  Instead of driving farther distances each day, we covered the same areas several times. The trip could have been a couple of days shorter without making any difference in birds seen. 

Other than the soups, I didn’t really care for much of the food at the lodge.  In my opinion it would be much better if they served more traditional Ecuadorian food.

The Lodge was nice and clean but wasn’t as elegant as advertised.  It was certainly fine for us, just not what we expected.  If there had been a lot of other guests at the same time, I think it might be pretty loud with the rooms right off the community/kitchen/living area. 

I think we will probably try Tropical Birding again.  We have a destination in mind and they have a trip scheduled. 

Birds seen this trip: 331

Life birds: 32

Final Thoughts (Mark): We had planned this trip not only to return to a wonderful part of the world and bird, but also to give this agency, Tropical Birding, a try. Overall the trip went very well. Staying in one lodge for this extended length of time was nice from the standpoint of not having to pack up and move every couple of days. But it also limited the variety of habitats, and therefore birds that we were able to access. I don't know that I'd do it again. 

I think that the key to a trip like this is the guide, and José was outstanding. I'd give him an A+.  Just a great person to spend time with, and certainly talented and knowledgeable about the birds. 

Tandayapa Lodge has an outstanding set of bird feeders and I really enjoyed the photo opportunities.  Overall the lodge was fine, but given everything we'd heard about it prior to the trip I expected it to be just a bit nicer. 

The food was probably the biggest surprise of the trip for me. We'd heard plenty about the amazing, gourmet food served here, but it was below-average compared to most other places that we've stayed. 

I came away thinking that Tropical Birding did a fine job with the trip, but in terms of logistics, lodging and food they really weren't that different than other agencies we have used in the past. They do offer some amazing trips, so perhaps we'll try them again. 

This concludes our 2021 Ecuador trip.

If you enjoy the blog please click the “follower” button.