Our adventure starts at Ciudad Mitad del Mundo– the City in the Middle of the world. Near Quito, this park is home to the Monument of the Equator, and visitors can have photo ops standing in both hemispheres at the same time!
16 March
We left Buffalo at 7am for a day of travel and stops in Chicago, Miami and finally landing in Quito. After clearing customs and immigrations, we met Louis, who will be our tour guide from Advenuture Life. Then we took a bus from the airport to the hotel, Hotel Eugenia- it even has it’s own armed security guard. Also learned the hard way that the hot water shuts off at 8pm.
17 March
Veronica from Bella Vista picked us up from Hotel Eugenia to start the day’s adventures in a cloud forest. We would be returning to Hotel Eugenia in a few days time, and left the majority of our gear in storge there, traveling lighter for our excursion to Bella Vista. On our way North through Quito, we stopped at the equator monument, which featured an orange line painted on the ground to represent the placement of the equator- so we could take photos straddling both the Northern and Southern hemispheres! Since this was a birding group, birding soon commenced, and the first bird of the trip was a beautiful vermillion flycatcher. The site was also teeming with rufus-collared sparrows, which seem to be the South American equivalent of house sparrows.
The next stop on our journey was Pululahua Crater- one of only two inhabited (but extinct) craters in the world. Since it’s last eruption 2500 years ago, the volcano has since collapsed. We were soon back on the route to Bella Viasta- a journey that including stops took about 3 hours. The last hour of the trip seemed particularly precarious- a mountain road with frequent twists and turns and most notably, lacking a guardrail between gravel road and steep cliff edge.
We arrived at Bella Vista around 1230, and of course stopped to see a couple of waterfalls on the way. This lead us to another neat bird sighting- a Masked Trogon. Lunch at Bella Vista was quickly served, and consisted of soup, fresh water trout, rice, vegetables and a raspberry cream desert. Then we were cut loose to unpack for our stay. The accommodations was not unlike a treehouse, with several levels, a dome-shaped room at the top, with slanting ceilings, and a wrap around porch, and incredible views. The bathrooms small- it would be entirely possible to shower while seated on the toilet- but we’re hardly roughing it! After exploring the rooms, we went downstairs to wait for Gabriel to take us on a hike. We were able to observe several hummingbird species drinking at the feeders as we waited.
Around 3pm we hit the trails to hike with Gabriel, using both the road and trails marked “A” and “R”. We observed bird and learned a lot about local plants. The high humidity allows the area to be very rich in lush plant species, including bromeliads (like pineapples!) and fern trees. We also noted a species of tree that commonly had human-made slashes in it’s flesh. The red sap of dragon’s blood trees is valued for antiseptic qualities and can be purchased at Eucadorian pharmacies.
We came off the trails just in time for 7pm dinner, consisting of popcorn, soup, pasta with beef and veggies and a pear dessert, with tea. As the darkness fell, Gabriel went outside with a spotlight with hopes to catch the eyeshine of a potoo, but the rain made it hard to distinguish.
EQUATOR: 65° Scattered clouds -rufus-collared sparrow -vermillion flycatcher -(Peruvian) American kesterel) -sparkling violetear
PULULAHUA CRATER -black and white sparrows -black-tailed train-bearer
BELLAVISTA: 60.3°F 88%; overcast with occasional rain. -booted racket tail hummingbird -green violatear hummingbird -collared inca hummingbird -bufftail coronet hummingbird -purple-throated woodstar hummingbird -plain breasted hawk -montane woodpecker -golden-crowned flycatcher -great thrush -smoke-colored pee wee -plate-billed toucan -masked trogon -blue-winged mountain tanager ***-millipede