Lori's Travels

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.

The atmospheric river that had hit western Washington in recent days made its way to the Colville area by this morning, Monday. We drove southeast starting around 9 a.m. and it rained the whole way to our first stop, Mount Spokane State Park. I didn’t take any pictures because of the poor visibility and miserable conditions from rain, wind, and low-hanging clouds on the mountain. We didn’t stay long.

We hoped to hit two parks at once at our next stop, which was closer to the city of Spokane. The Centennial Trail and Riverside State Park overlap each other over a stretch of mileage, so we looked to take advantage of that overlap. As Dave reminisced about the years he lived in Spokane and the weather cleared, we drove to the part of Riverside Park called Bowl and Pitcher for the rock formations in the Spokane River. In that campground is a suspension bridge, the Swinging Bridge, that lets you off at the Centennial Trail. We walked to that spot and celebrated checking off the final two parks from the trip list by eating our lunch at a table next to the trail overlooking the river.

Afterwards, going into downtown Spokane, we found a reasonably priced hotel called The Centennial by Davenport that’s on the riverfront opposite from the main part of town. It was early afternoon and the weather was partly sunny and quite windy. After registering, we dropped our stuff and walked through the riverfront area where Expo ‘74 had been held, a nice park that stretches along the river.

We ambled through the park enjoying the views, then walked a few blocks into the downtown business area. Dave found a restaurant that he remembered from his youth, The Onion, where we dined on the onion rings that it’s known for, plus salads. Then we headed back across the river to the hotel.

Tomorrow will be our return trip home, straight across the state via Interstate 90.

It was sunny in Colville this morning while we ate the hotel’s breakfast and got underway. We saw a group of six Harley Davidson motorcycle riders in the breakfast room too, talking about their day of riding ahead. Our destination was northeast from Colville to one of the most remote parks, Crawford State Park, very close to the Canadian border.

Leaving the hotel about 8:30 a.m., we drove north and first visited a place along the Pend Oreille River called Peewee Falls near Boundary Dam. It was a very peaceful and pretty place about 90 minutes away that we had all to ourselves. Not very many people in this part of Washington. While we were at the falls, we saw a bird that was new to both of us, a Red-naped Sapsucker.

We then backtracked a little bit, driving through the small town of Metaline Falls to get to Crawford State Park. The weather was cloudy by then, but temperatures were still pleasant, in the 60s. In the park, we learned from a ranger where the trailhead was for a half-mile trail to the Canadian border. I wanted to do that short hike and it took us through the forest to the border, marked by a sign.

The ranger also told us that both black and grizzly bears are seen in the park, as well as cougars, elk and moose, so she recommended that we make noise as we walked so they would hear us and stay away. Dave and I talked during the entire hike to insure we were heard by any and all wildlife.

The clouds looked somewhat threatening by the time we returned from the hike, so we chose to eat our picnic lunch in the truck. There were mosquitoes that helped us make that decision too. We stayed in the park after lunch for the experience we had reserved two months prior: a free tour of the park’s Gardner Cave, which was set for 2 p.m.

The lady ranger, Sandy, who we had talked to before, led our one-hour tour. There were maybe 10 other people taking it at the same time. She gave us some background about the discovery and initial use of the cave, then she led us down into it.

We walked down metal stairs and walkways into the well-lit cave while Sandy provided very interesting geological, historical and biological information about it. When we had walked a ways and were at the end of the walkway, she turned out the lights for a few minutes so we could experience total blackness, then she turned on a black light flashlight so we could see what the various types of rock and other materials in the cave looked like in that light. It was all quite interesting and a great tour, especially for free.

After the tour ended around 3 p.m. Dave and I decided it would be best to head back to the Comfort Inn in Colville, which we had liked, rather than drive a longer distance toward Spokane and perhaps end up in some small town along the way that didn’t have a decent hotel. And it was raining steadily. So we returned on wide open Highway 20 to Colville, after which we again enjoyed the hotel’s free happy hour and a picnic dinner from the grocery store next door.

Gray skies greeted us this morning in Winthrop. After a 7 a.m. breakfast in the hotel’s lobby, we took off eastbound on Highway 20. Our first stop was Conconully State Park, northwest of Omak. It was a relatively small park next to a small lake and nothing too special. There were a group of off-road vehicle riders there shooting the breeze as we drove around the campground. We didn’t stay long in the park, instead driving back to Highway 20 and continuing east. It was a pleasant drive on a scenic road with very little traffic. This is definitely a less-populated corner of the state.

Our next stop was Curlew Lake State Park near the town of Republic. This was a nicer park, again on the shores of a lake. We walked around on a short trail, spotting a Common Loon on the lake and other birds. Three deer crossed our path not far away. After we saw them, we wondered if there was a chance of ticks being in the area. We walked back to a picnic table and before eating lunch, we checked ourselves for ticks. Sure enough, there was one on my pant leg, which I quickly flicked off. We didn’t find any others, so we enjoyed lunch. But just before exiting the park, after I had Dave take a photo of me next to the park sign, I found another one on my pant leg that had apparently come from my walk through tall grass to the sign. I flicked it off too. Yuck!

Highway 20 east of Curlew Lake took us over Sherman Pass at 5575 feet. We saw a few wildfire areas along the way, both older ones and more recent. On the way down from the pass, we were stopped so a large herd of cattle could go by. They were being herded by several men and women on horseback. It was quite the sight and sound experience!

We crossed the Columbia River at Kettle Falls and continued driving into the city of Colville. We decided to stay at the Comfort Inn there and discovered it was a great choice when we heard the registration clerk say there was a free happy hour from 4-6 p.m. in the lobby with beer, wine and snacks. Jackpot!

Dave’s truck had been spattered with cow manure after driving where the cattle herd had been, so we went to a car wash in town to clean it off. Then we picked up some cold dinner things from the grocery store next to the hotel and took advantage of the hotel happy hour offer, which even included my favorite hard apple cider as a drink.

The clouds that had been present all day finally cleared off and the sun came out after we ate our cold dinner. And great news came in the evening when I got a call from a ranger at Alta Lake State Park saying my camera had been turned in to the office there and they were willing to mail it to me at home. A very good day!