Month: October 2024

Today was a day of birdwatching and relaxing. Since I don’t want to bore you to death with the bird stuff, suffice it to say that from yesterday’s and today’s morning and evening walks with the Buglas owner Fabricio, plus birds seen on the grounds of Buglas, I’ve seen more than 43 species, most of which were new to me (“lifers”). so it’s been a fantastic place to see birds. And Nathan has taken a lot of photos.

The day started at 6:45 with a walk to a platform overlooking a ravine where manakins and other forest-loving birds are. We didn’t see much there, but walking on the trail we saw lots of birds feeding on seeds high up in one tree, so we stayed there quite a while.

We returned for a great breakfast of scrambled eggs, fruit, bread, ham, cheese, blackberry juice and tea. While eating we talked with an English-speaking couple, who were the only other guests, about the changes in Ecuador, the power outages, and Nathan described his motorcycle trip around South America.

Then we just relaxed, Nathan in a hammock and me walking around looking at more birds. Since I’m no good at taking bird pictures, I’ll show you some of the birds via a “cheaters” method:

We ate another delicious meal at 2, consisting of cream of broccoli soup, plantains, grilled chicken breasts, potatoes and a little chocolate ice cream. About 4:30, Fabricio and I went for another walk down the trail and this time we saw blue-crowned trogons, one of the very colorful and treasured birds here. That was a treat. We returned at sunset at 6 pm. Nathan and I saw fireflies flashing after sunset from the deck outside our room, which was another treat.

The power outages today were for about 4 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon. There will likely be about 4 hours of outage overnight, like there was last night. Sometimes Fabricio runs his car and powers the place from the car battery. He doesn’t have a generator.

Monday I started my second trip to Ecuador by flying from Seattle to Los Angeles, then overnight to Panama, Tuesday morning to Quito and finally to Cuenca. The journey took almost 24 hours and was really tiring. My friend Nathan met me at the Cuenca airport and we took the Tranvía light rail to his apartment to drop off my baggage.

Then we walked a couple blocks from his apartment to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. There was a party going on in the entrance to the restaurant building with about twenty small boys dressed in costumes with painted faces for Halloween. They were cute.

Back at Nathan’s apartment, he packed his camera gear and clothes in a backpack for our departure the next morning, while I relaxed. But I couldn’t stay awake for long after so much travel, so I went to sleep early while Nathan continued his preparations.

This morning, Wednesday, I was up before 6 and getting ready for the next leg, a bus journey. Breakfast for me was leftovers from the Mexican dinner. Then we gathered our backpacks and set off via taxi for the Cuenca bus terminal. Taxis are really cheap and abundant in Ecuador. It cost $3.25 for the ride to the terminal. Then we bought bus tickets to the town of Limón Indanza, which is on the eastern slope of the Andes, for $7.50 each. Nathan also bought breakfast of chicken and rice from a stall in the terminal. After he finished eating, we explored the many little vendor spots there, then walked outside to our bus. It departed right on time on 8:45 a.m.

Limón, as it’s commonly called, appeared about 3 hours later after we had descended into the wet, warm, humid side of the Andes. We walked around town, first to find a pharmacy so Nathan could buy anti-malaria medicine (I already had mine) and then to find lunch. The power was out in town, so lots of generators were running on the sidewalks. We found a little restaurant that offered their lunch of the day: minestrone soup followed by chicken and rice.

A few yards outside the restaurant there was a taxi waiting. We asked to go to Buglas Guest House, our destination for two nights. It was a 10-minute ride on a dirt road outside of town. Fabricio, the owner, met us immediately and showed us to the room and invited us to explore the trails and feeders for birdwatching. We relaxed in different places around the grounds, looking at hummingbirds and many other kinds of birds.

At 4:30, owner Fabricio took us down a path to the Cock-of-the-Rock lek that’s on the property. About 8 males were already starting their twice daily displaying. In Mindo last year, I had seen red Cocks-of-the Rock, here they were orange. Still outlandish looking.

Nathan and another photographer, Andy, took lots of pictures while I marveled at them through binoculars. Then Fabricio guided us to other places around the grounds to see a few more birds it began to get dark. We stood around outside and talked in Spanish and English for a few minutes. While we were talking, I felt something poking me around the waist, then going down my pants. It was some type of small ant, biting me! Thankfully, it wasn’t painful and not a large bullet ant. I smashed it through my pants, ending its trip.

The power had been out at Buglas all afternoon and was still out after sunset. Nathan and I pulled out our headlamps to see inside the dark room. We were served dinner at 7 p.m. outside, just after the power returned. Dinner was a traditional potato and corn soup, salad, rice and chicken, plus hot hibiscus tea and a small piece of cheesecake, all prepared by Fabricio’s wife. It was very good.