Gary and Dona's, and Ram and Dawn's, and Joe and Esther's
Amazing Birding Trip to Ecuador
March, 2011
Part 7: Quito
We left Tandayapa and headed back to Quito.
Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy,
so we still didn't get any good views of the Pichincha Volcano.
Pichincha is one of several active volcanos in Ecuador.
Quito is very close to it and according to
Wikipedia
it is the only capital directly menaced by an active volcano.
Along the way we crossed the equator, as Quito is about 25 km south of it
and Tandayapa and the other places we were visiting to the northwest
are all north of the equator.
There is a park of some sort on the equator,
but we didn't stop there because we were hoping to get back to Quito
in time to do some shopping at the artisan's market.
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| Near Equator |
One thing I loved about Quito was the murals / paintings on the walls around the city.
Even in run-down areas there would be great artwork on the walls.
Kind of like the boxcars on freight trains in the United States.
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| Painted Wall |
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| Painted Wall |
We made it in time for the market,
where some of us spent all available cash.
Afterwards we had some great hot-chocolate
or coffee with chocolate bars.
For dinner we went to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant near the hotel.
It was genuine Ecuadorian food.
Everyone except Dawn ate.
Everyone except Dawn got sick.
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| Outside Wall of the Artisans' Market |
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| Artisans' Market |
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| Ram and Dawn by Bella Vista Painted Wall |
Dawn, Ram, Esther, Joe, Dona |
The next morning we wolfed down a quick breakfast from the hotel
and then headed east.
As we left Quito, we passed over a river that looked like it was the discharge pipe
for a huge washing machine.
It was nothing but suds.
I hate to think what was actually in that water.
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| Quito Landmark |
Guayllabamba River
One Reason Why You Don't Drink the Water |
Quito sits in a high valley between two ridges of the Andes.
It's 2850 m (9350 ft) above sea level,
but we did nothing but go up for quite a while.
Our van and driver were from the Guango Lodge
where we would be staying.
The lodge sits at 2700 m on the east slope of the Andes,
but we weren't going there directly.
We stopped at an escarpment overlooking a river valley
to look for the elusive trainbearer hummingbird
and a few others, to no avail.
Then we continued onwards, and still upwards.
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| Above Quito |
Black-Tailed Trainbearer
How Do They Fly With That Thing? |
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| High Above Quito |
High Above Quito |
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| High Above Quito |
High Above Quito |
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| High Above Quito |
We took several side roads on our way up,
stopping to look for birds.
I don't know if it was the weather or something else,
but we were not very successful.
It was a long drive,
and we all got a little sleepy.
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| Tired Esther |
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| High Above Quito |
High Above Quito |
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| High Above Quito |
After we crossed over the continental divide,
we came down through the resort town of Papallacta,
and then a few km further on we arrived at Guango Lodge,
our home for the next few days.
