Our 2008 bird and nature photo tour to the Andes Mountains and Amazon headwaters in Ecuador features a day-long visit to the highlands of Papallacta Pass, 4 nights on the east slope of the Andes, 4 nights on the west slope of the Andes, and 3 nights at Napo Wildlife Center in the Amazon Basin. We'll be staying in fine accommodations and enjoying excellent meals throughout the tour.
PAPALLACTA PASS
The road east from Quito rises in elevation and traverses a variety of bird habitats, topping out at about 13,000 ft in elevation at the pass before descending to the lowlands of eastern Ecuador. We'll be stopping en route as photo opportunities present themselves. With the help of our expert birding guide, we'll be looking for opportunities to photograph special birds such as Giant Hummingbird, Brown-backed Chat Tyrant, Red-crested Cotinga, Giant Conebill, and several species of very colorful mountain tanagers. At the crest of the pass, we'll take an access road up to a mountain-top above the pass where several radio towers are located. Here we usually have excellent opportunities for photographing Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe, a high elevation bird with very localized distribution in the Andes. The tundra vegetation at this site is simply scenic and itself offers superb photo opportunities, as does the stunning panorama from this vantage point above the pass. On occasion Andean Condors can be seen soaring overhead and on occasion come close enough to be photographed as well. We'll have much of the day to make photographs before continuing on to Guango Lodge near the village of Papallacta not far downslope from the pass.
GUANGO LODGE AND RESERVE
During our 2 nights at comfortable Guango Lodge a few miles downslope from the village of Papallacta, we'll have numerous opportunities to photograph a variety of notable hummingbirds, including the extraordinary Sword-billed Hummingbird, Chestnut-breasted Coronet, Buff-winged Starfrontlet, Tourmaline Sunangel and the flashy Collared Inca. These and other hummingbirds stage nicely on perches near the many hummingbird feeders located in the gardens just outside the veranda and entrance to the dining area.
A variety of birds can be photographed in the gardens adjacent to the lodge, including Masked Flowerpiercer, Capped Conebill, Black-eared Hemispingus, and several species of tanagers. Our guide will assist us with finding photo opportunities and also identify the birds we are seeing and photographing. The nearby white-water river offers additional photo opportunities. There we hope to photograph Torrent Ducks, Torrent Tyrannulets, and White-capped Dippers.
CABANAS SAN ISIDRO AND RESERVE
After departing Guango Lodge, we'll continue downslope to Cabanas San Isidro, owned by the same family that owns Guango Lodge. Cabanas San Isidro is famout for its gourmet cuisine and is also a great place to see and photograph birds. Numerous feeders draw in a variety of hummingbirds, including species not found at the higher elevation Guango Lodge. Among the possibilities are the spectacular White-bearded Hermit as well as other beautiful hummingbirds such as Fork-tailed Woodnymph, Glittering-throated Emerald, Fawn-breasted Brilliant and Chestnut-breasted Coronet.
Another notable photo opportunity at San Isidro is the antpittas that a local guide has trained to come out onto into the open for food. These extremely secretive birds are normally quite hard to photograph, but it is now quite easy to make photographs thanks to the efforts of this guide. Thus, while at San Isidro we will spend some early morning hours making photographs of the Chestnut-crowned Antpitta and the especially secretive White-bellied Antpitta.
The roads and forest trails around San Isidro provide many opportunities to photograph a wide variety of bird species. Among these are Masked Trogon, Crimson-mantled Woodpecker, Powerful Woodpecker, Green-and-black Fruiteater, Inca Jay, Turquoise Jay, Blue-gray Tanager, Saffron-crowned Tanager, Golden-naped Tanager, Blue-necked Tanager, Yellow-rumped Cacique, and Russet-backed Oropendola. We'll also have some time to walk in the forest looking for the more difficult to photograph but extraordinarily beautiful Crested Quetzal as well as a variety of other birds found in the forest interior.
WESTERN ANDES
After spending a night in Quito, we'll drive to wonderful Bellavista Lodge located in a privately owned reserve above the Tandayapa Valley in the western Andes. This lodge was recently profiled on NBC's Today Show and offers superb opportunities for photographing hummingbirds at the many feeders as well as some special cloud forest birds from the veranda of the lodge. Hummingbirds that come to the feeders include Green-crowned Woodnymph, Fawn-breasted Brilliant, Empress Brilliant, Buff-tailed Coronet, Gorgeted Sunangel, Booted Racket-tail, and Violet-tailed Sylph. Other birds of special photographic interest include two colorful endemic species found only in the western Andes, namely Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan and Toucan Barbet. We'll have nearly 2 days to photograph birds from the vantage points offered at Bellavista.
After leaving Bellavista we'll continue on to beautiful Septimo Paraiso Lodge near Mindo. There, we'll have excellent opportunities to photograph as many as a dozen species of hummingbirds such as the beautiful Violet-tailed Sylph, Collared Inca, Andean Emerald, Fawn-breasted Brilliant, and Empress Brilliant around lodge feeders. We'll spend part of one day downslope at a restaurant in Los Banos where feeders draw in a variety of hummingbirds as well as colorful tanagers, flowerpiercers, and other fruit-eating birds.
Certainly a highlight of our stay in the Mindo Valley will be an unforgettable visit to Finca Angel Paz. Our host is a local farmer who has preserved the rainforest on his land so he can make his living through ecotourism. Here we will view and photograph the extraordinary and brightly colored Andean Cock-of-the-Rock displaying on a communal display ground in the rainforest. These birds do not form pair bonds and rely on gaudy shows of color and elaborate displays to attract mates to their display perches. Our host has also developed an uncanny ability to lure secretive antpittas out onto a trail deep in the rainforest where they can be readily photographed. We'll have the rare opportunity to photograph Giant Antpitta, Yellow-breasted Antpitta, and Moustached Antpitta, all endangered and highly localized denizens of the rainforest understory that are normally very difficult to see or photograph. Everyone must remain very quiet at this time so as not to disturb the birds coming out onto the trail.
ECUADORIAN AMAZON
After returning to Quito, we'll fly to the town of Coca on the Napo River in the eastern lowlands of Ecuador. From there we'll be taken by powerboat 2 hours up the Napo River and then transfer to dugout canoes, where our guides will paddle up a tributary of the river to our lodge at Napo Wildlife Center. This segment of our tour is not at all strenuous, and although we'll have the sense of being far from civilization, we'll be enjoying very comfortable accommodations and excellent meals at our lodge.
Napo Wildlife Center is almost beyond superlatives. During our stay at this amazing place, we'll visit an extraordinary parrot clay lick where hundreds of parrots congregate to gather mineral salts from an eroded hillside in the forest. This is a superb place to photograph Dusky-crowned Parakeets, Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlets, Blue-headed Parrots, Mealy Amazons, and Yellow-crowned Parrots. We'll also visit a second clay lick where Cobalt-winged Parakeets, Orange-eared Parrots, and sometimes Scarlet Macaws congregate.
On the way to our lodge and during our stay we'll have numerous opportunities to see and photograph secretive herons such as possibly the rare Agami Heron and the very secretive Zigzag Heron. We'll have opportunities to photograph much more common birds such as Hoatzins and Black-capped Donacobius from our boats, as well as a variety of other birds and perhaps endangered Giant Otters which sometimes appear in the nearby rivers. We'll also make photographs from an observation tower at the lodge, where it's possible to photograph Yellow-rumped Caciques nesting in a nearby colony tree.
