Galapagos: the budget is blown

As the plane circled the islands we peered out the windows, keen for a glimpse of 'The Enchanted Isles'.  They looked very brown and volcanic, with steep cliffs and the odd white sand cove.  

The temperature was 28C as we straggled across the tarmac into the open sided terminal.  A bus-boat-bus ride later we made it into the largest town on the islands, Puerto Ayora.  After sorting out somewhere to stay we grabbed some lunch then set off to Tortuga Bay.  Supposedly a half hour walk it felt extremely long in the intense heat and humidity. But it was worth it to get a beautiful white sand beach with rollers crashing in.  We had to walk up the beach to find the sheltered swimming spot, whereupon I lost Ben to the lure of photographing marine iguanas and crabs and a reluctant heron.

Lava lizards were plentiful



The walk back was mercifully cooler at 6pm and for dinner we splurged on lobster - delicious! 

The next day we strolled around the town and came across the fish market.  The resident sealion was a great hit with the tourists.

We caught a short water taxi across the harbour and walked to Las Grietas. This is an amazing canyon-like swimming hole, over ten meters deep with a white sand bottom.  We both tested jumping off the rocks and staring at the big fish swimming round.  It´s still a mystery to us where the water comes from as it was so fresh and clear, but there didn´t seem to be any way of it coming in.

The cactus on the islands have a rather unusual adaptation in the form of a very tough tree-like trunk. This has evolved to prevent the giant tortoises from eating the juicy leaves.

On the way back from town we had to stop for another swim at a little bay, before catching the water taxi back again.  Dinner was ceviche and encocado fish, eaten on the street tables in the warm evening air.

Puerto Ayora comes alive in the evenings with everyone out to enjoy the cooler air.  The wharf buzzed with locals and tourists alike, craning their necks to see the sharks and rays around the wharf.  It would seem like a normal seaside town except for the sealions, marine iguanas, pelicans, boobies, frigate birds, sharks and rays.

Birds and butterflies abound in Mindo

With only 4 nights to fill before flying to the Galapagos we decided to head to Mindo, birding capital of Ecuador.  Neither of us are mad keen birders as such, but it sounded like a nice town, and only 2hrs on a direct bus, so easy to get to.

The bus trip was the first time Ben has been in the northern hemisphere!  It wasn´t for long, as the road crosses it and then crosses back . . .

The road drops steeply and winds it´s way down through ever thickening vegetation.  Mindo lies at 1250m in a temperate cloud forest zone.  It is a tiny town and midweek it´s very, very quiet. The most exciting thing that happened while we were eating lunch was a chagra riding his horse around.

The birds and butterflies here are quite phenomenal.  We hadn´t booked any accommodation but had two places in mind and our first pick, The Yellow House, was where we ended up.  It´s a 10min walk from the bus stop, though it took us considerably longer as we kept stopping to look at butterflies and birds - and that was only the driveway!

We ended up in the river cabin, which was a short walk from the main house and the other cabins.  It was wonderful, so quiet and peaceful, the garden full of birds and butterflies. It felt like a world away from the noise of Quito. There are hummingbird feeders hanging off the porch and three feeding platforms that toucans, tanagers and other birds visited regularly.

Toucan near the feeder:

We decided that a visit to the Mariposaria (butterfly house) was a good idea, but did begin to regret it as it was a good 4km walk from town in the blazing sun.  It was worth it though, with an incredible range of butterflies that they breed to be released back into the forests.

After returning to the Yellow House in the heat again I decided that a swim was in order so off to the 'swimming hole,' which turned out of be an artificially made square pond.  It was a little unnerving walking down into the still brown water but the temperature was divine - fresh and crisp after the humidity.

During the evening the fireflies in the garden put on a sparkling light show for us, flashing and dancing through the plants. The river plashed whilst the insects chirped, buzzed and zinged us to sleep.

5:30am the alarm woke us for our private bird watching trip.  As the sky slowly lightened we walked up the road with our guide, Julia.  Common flycatchers and lemon drop tanagers were the first birds we spotted.  As the road climbed we spotted different varieties of tanagers - Mindo alone has 45 species of tanagers and over 450 species of birds.

Then excitement - a toucan!  Quickly followed by white headed parrots, red beaked parrots, other toucans, more tanagers and flycatchers, then woodpeckers and a hawk.  At one point we saw a red flash, Julia assured us it was a female cock-of-the-rock. Plus of course lots of hummingbirds and butterflies.

Three white headed parrots:

A very small hummingbird nest:

Hawk, leaving:

The second day we set off at 7am to walk up through the private paths that belong to the Yellow House.  There was a great veiw point over looking Mindo and the further we got  the more pristine the vegetation became.  It reminded me of the forest in the Waitakeres with big trees and palms like the nikau palm.  Of course the Waitakeres doesn´t have all the amazing varieties of birds and butterflies.  I saw one cock-of-the-rock but he flew away before Ben could get there with the camera.

We didn´t see as many birds on our own but were happily making our way along when we spotted something on the forest floor - an armadillo!  We were so excited and kept very, very still and quiet.  He seemed completely unconcerned by our presence and whuffled his way close to our boots.  Even when we started talking he completely ignored us.  Armadillo means 'little armored one.'

Mindo also has butterflies with transparent wings!

And very friendly ones, even in the forest

Then it was time to pack up, amble back to the bus stop and back to the bustle of Quito.

Quito

Onwards to Quito, capital of Ecuador, high in the Andes, complete with a stunning historic center and reputation  for pick pocketing and mugging.  We´d been in  for the day to organise our Galapagos tour last week, but heading in with all our possessions was a different story.

Luckily for us we managed to get a ride right to where we were going with Daniel, a Costa Rican who is working in Quito and happened to be visiting the hacienda the morning we wanted to leave.  We stored our bags for the day and headed out to see the sights.

The historical center of Quito truly is beautiful.  Gorgeous churches, plazas, streets lined with balconies . . . We only went into one church: Iglesia de La Compania de Jesus.  This is also known as ´The Gold Church´ because inside it is impossibly ornate and covered in 22 carat gold leaf.  Ben was bitterly disappointed that he wasn´t allowed to take photographs inside it . . .

From the historic centre at 2,800m we took a taxi to the base of the Teleferiqo - an amazing cable car that takes you up to 4,100m above the city.  It is an incredible panorama with the volcanoes all around.  The altitude difference was quite noticeable with a bit more breathlessness and a definite drop in temperature.

Back to the centre of town to pick up our bags, then to the north of the city to stay with Gabriela.  In Baños we´d met a French couple who highly recommended an organisation called Couchsurfing.  The idea is that you stay with local people, or host other travellers if you´re at home and that it´s supposed to be a bit of a cultural exchange.  It felt little odd, contacting someone out of the blue to ask if we could stay the night, but Gabriela had some great recommendations.


I´m glad we did.  Not only is Gabriela incredibly kind, welcoming and fun, she has two gorgeous cats.  That night we were up late repacking our bags and it took considerably longer than it should have as we kept being ambushed by the kitten.  Far too cute! 

Last days at Hacienda La Alegria

The four weeks at the hacienda have flown past and while it has been a great place to stay it´s now time to move on and see some more of Ecuador.  We have decided to go to the Galapagos Islands - not a cheap addition to the trip, but we are so close here . . .

I had a great last ride on Sunday with Ramon and Bob from the US embassy in Quito.  Both were good riders so we moved quickly, cantering at every opportunity.  Up to the base of Corazon, to see stunning views of many of the volcanoes, then a traverse across it and finally back to the hacienda.

Not only was it great riding but we saw an eagle gliding very close to us and best of all an Andean Fox.  He was running in the field next to us, only 30m or so away.  He was much larger than I expected, about the size of a border collie.  Beautiful reddish coat, Gabriel said he must be relatively young, as they darken as they get older.

Here are some more of Ben´s photos, including the obligatory Cotopaxi shot

Hummingbirds in the garden

Some of the other local birds

Rodrigo trying some llama racing.  He was having much more fun than the llama . . .

Now on to Quito for a night, then Mindo before we fly to Galapagos on Friday.

Pasochoa

We have spent a lot of time looking across the valley to Pasochoa and wanting to make a trip there and Saturday was the day.  Nadine from Australia came with us as she's a mad keen photographer and we hoped to see plenty of birds.

The decision was made that we needed to leave the hacienda at 7am to be there early enough to see some birds.  In a straight line Pasochoa is very close, but it's a surprisingly long way by car - the last 6km are incredibly rough.

Pasochoa means "Lonely Widower" and is an extinct volcano with a collapsed crater in a long semi circular shape.  There is a track all the way to the top but apparently the last part is very steep and involves a lot of scrambling - plus we didn't have that long as we wanted to ride the horses in the afternoon.

The crater itself is a wildlife refuge and due to it's inaccessiblity has some of the last original high mountain forest  in the area.  Unfortunately there is a lot of introduced bamboo in the park.

As we set off we could hear a huge number of birds, but seeing them proved to be more of a challenge.  The path climbed part way up the crater wall, so you can look into the tops of trees lower down.  We had seen some small, fast moving birds and were sure there would be more when Ben spotted something in a tree top.

It was a gorgeous hawk, who obligingly sat there for a very long time before soaring off to find some breakfast.  Even with a 300mm zoom he was right on the edge of range, and very hard to focus on with all the branches.

We walked for about three hours, saw plenty of birds - but many weren't so obliging for photographs.

A slight diversion into a little grassy clearing produced some nice shots:

Some kind of tanager:

Scarlet Bellied Mountain Tanager:

                                                 
And of course there were hummingbirds, but they proved to be quite ellusive to photograph.  The Saphire-vented Puffleg below obliged us by sitting on a low branch just above the trail and allowing us to get very close.  He was very pretty, with blue feathers above his beak, nicely complimenting his lovely irredescent green plummage.

                                 
Ecuador has an enormous amount of biodiversity, due in part to it's geographical diversity - everything from the remote Galapagos Islands to the coast, the cloud forest, the temperate forests, the Andes and the rainforest .  An astonishing 18% of the world's total bird species live in Ecuador!  There are 1800 species of birds - even though we're not really bird enthusiasts it's not hard to be impressed - especially when there are so many gorgeous kinds.

Horses

The horses enjoying the evening