rpics:last post

Hello. We're home. Didn't get time to do the last post from Quito. We did not go to Ambato but did catch a fantastic Carnaval parade in south Quito. No pics, however - fear of theft (tough section of the city) and getting the camera soaked with water/flour or spray foam. As it happens, we managed to avoid both problems. Instead, we spent our last day in the Casa de Cultura (excellent ethnography museum), and a botanical garden, which had lowland and upland flowers (lotta orchids)...

...a carnivorous plant house - Dana loved it, not sure why...

...a fresh water fish "garden" (most from the headwaters of the Amazon I believe), and...

... a "Vivarium", holding reptiles...

stuff at the outer fringes of the amazing biodiversity of this extraordinary country.

rpics: cotopaxi

We are back in Quito after an interesting visit to Cotopaxi NP. Took the image below this morning from the north entrance to the park, when she shyly showed a little of herself for about an hour.


Yesterday was a different story. We walked, hitchhiked and taxied to the parking area for the refugio high on the mountain and walked back to our hacienda from there, through driving rain at times - about 9 miles. Here´s D. making the best of the abandoned umbrella she found at our hacienda. We now know why it was abandoned.


After the last of the metal pieces had fallen off she used it to fulfill her drum majorette fantasy.

The park is full of ¨wild¨ (feral?) horses - possibly descended from stock left there when the Perez family, whose huge ranch included much of the land now in the park, ceded it to the government. They still graze their cattle there.

The family (now the 6th generation) owns several haciendas on their land, including this one, El Porvenir, where we stayed for two nights. It´s the real thing, possibly around for all six generations.

A toss-up between the inside and the outside as to which is more photogenic. I particularly liked the adobe floors, that were so smooth and soft they were as pleasant to walk on as the antique throw rugs that were strewn about.

Porvenir is a working ranch (with a real roundup), but also caters to dudes with excellent horseback rides into the park - complete with leather/llama chaps and woven ponchos.

The ranch also has llamas and alpacas. Kudos to the first to determine which of the two this little beauty is.

Today the weather was good enough for us to take a guided tour through the park. A highlight was Laguna Limpiopungo, the lake that appears at the back of the flat land in the foreground of this image.

It turned out to be a good place for birding. Here and elsewhere in the park we saw several endemic species, including the Andean hillstar hummingbird, which I believe lives only at around 15,000 feet - check the warm coat...

the Andean lapwing...

the Andean gull...

and the Andean coot, which looked to me to be about three times the size of the Oregon variety.
We might take in a Carnaval parade in Quito tonight, braving the spray foam that folks are now using in lieu of a water and flour mix that has been banned.

rpics: Amazonia

Hello. We survived Amazonia and are heading to Vulcan Cotopaxi tomorrow, and then maybe to Ambato to take in some Carneval festivities before flying out of Quito on the 9th. Sani Lodge turned out to be an adventure. Plenty of jungle stuff, but also some challenges due to the fact that the local indigenous community has taken over the operation and are learning as they go. They seem to be trying to bring a communal approach to running an all-service lodge, and I wish them well, however... Shots below of the lodge dock area and our thatch-covered tent platform, which was one of the positives. We had the camping area and this large platform (a nice view of the laguna) to ourselves.

This is a hoatzin, a prehistoric bird which has to be in the running for wierdest fowl on the planet. They were everywhere around the laguna and in the channels. They hiss a lot - the Jurassic must have been a very noisy place.

This was our mode of transport most of the time, with these guys paddling - long thin dugouts - although this one happens to be made of fiberglass.

We did a night walk our first night with an excellent insect guy. First shot is of a Katydid cleaning one of its own antennae - who knew they could do that? Second is of two spiders - actually only one, with its just-shed exoskeleton. The challenge is to guess which is which. The image is sideways because this damn computer has no program to manage photos.

This is the morning view from about 150 feet up in a huge Kapok tree. The Sani tower accesses it. It´s like a scene from Avatar.

Arachniphobes skip this next photo - of a resident of the tree who dropped by to greet us.


Yesterday we went to a ¨lick¨ where parrots and their kin eat minerals to neutralize the toxic substances in the plants they consume (whch protect the plant from predation apparently - nature playing tricks on itself). These parrotlets and parakeets took forever to work up the courage to go to the heart of the lick, and anything seemed to spook them, prompting several stampedes - on one occasion through the blind we were in. We all ducked, much like in a 3-D movie. Wish I´d gotten video of that.

This scarlet maccaw looked in but chose not to join the party. Did pose for some nice photos and video, however.

And of course what post would be complete without a shot of D doing something special, here receiving indigenous face markings with a dye made from a nut the guide found along the trail.

rpics: Quilotoa loop contd, Quito

We are now in Quito, ready to head for Amazonia tomorrow. Did a walking tour of the city today, pics below, after some extras from the Quilotoa loop. First, shots from a woodcarving school in Tsinlivi (sp?) named Don Bosco, where they train kids from poor families in wood working of all kinds, including artistry. The figures in the amazing relief on the right all look pretty Spanish.


Dana discovered a little girls dance troop in Chugchilan and got them to our hotel. They were quite good and very high energy. They used an excellent gimmick of dancing with the gringos before taking up the collection.

Yesterday we did a very strenuous but gorgeous hike around the Quilotoa crater lake. I think it rivals our southern Oregon national treasure.

National flag day in Quito today. Lotta folks out for the day, with cooperative weather.

They had an excellent Andean band accompanying these dancers.

And of course what Flag Day would be complete without a facist fun band. These guys were serious - the National Police Band I believe.


The flags were in evidence on La Ronda, the restored colonial street that has become the favorite night drag - nearly deserted on Sunday morning, however.

We also visited an amazingly gothic basilica, where you can climb into the steeples. Nice variation is that the gargoyles are Ecuadorian wildlife e.g. turtles, condors, boobies, pelicans, iguanas, and even a mating male frigate bird with its balloon extended.

Wow!

I just love this high Andes hiking and am so thrilled that I am able to hike at such high altitudes. Chimborazo Volcano is about 18,000 ft. We hiked through snow to 15,000 ft. where the mountain climbers spend the night at the refuge before attempting the climb.

We have just our small backpacks with us now and are hiking and taking buses around this loop. While Roger was at the internet today I did another scenic hike and then found a dance troop of 10 year old girls all duded up and followed them to the rather ritzy hostel on the outskirts of town where we are not staying and watched their performance. As we hike, we go through farms on the steep sides of the mountains and the people are very gracious but working hard hoeing and digging potatoes and other crops. It seems quite remote, but they all have electricity and the kids all go to school even if they have to walk an hour or more to get there.

rpics: Chimborazo, Quilotoa loop

We´ve been moving so fast I can´t remember the name of the town where we had a nice little hostal with a rather strange dog that seemed to be part cat.

I do know that we climed to the second shelter of the Chimborazo volcano, where we saw some vicuna herds.I

We then started the Quilotoa loop, known for its Andean village life, starting with this view of Cotopaxi.

We caught a local animal market...

.... where some of the animals did what animals do, despite the distractions...

There were actually seven markets going on in this town, with a lot of country folks doing some serious shopping.

After the market we hopped a local bus into the mountains, carrying 2 large hogs, a calf and a lamb in the luggage compartments and a llama on the roof. I have an excellent instructional video on how to get a llama on and off the roof of a bus, if that need should ever arise.

We did a gruelling but beautiful hike today and wound up in Chugchilan (sp?)...

Where they don´t have much - other than an excellent internet place. We´re shooting for the Quilotoa crater lake tomorrow, then back to Quito on Sunday to catch our plane for the Amazon on Monday.