It is often very difficult to find the time and motivation to work on things such as uploading pictures or writing blogs after a long trip since you always come back and are swamped with an inbox of 1000s of emails, work to catch up on and just the whole settling back into regular life after living a dream. This has definitely been the case since my trip to Ecuador so rather than split it up by day like I usually do I am cramming everything into three parts.
OTAVALO
After the flight landed in the brand new Quito airport we got a $60 taxi (more expensive than usual because we got in at the middle of the night) to Otavalo and stayed at Riviera Sucre. The hostel was very nice with a garden of potted plants and very nice breakfasts. We even had a black-tailed trainbearer (hummingbird with a really long tail) visiting the flowers as we eat.
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| Spices for sale in Otavalo markets |
The Otavalo market at Plaza de Ponchos is the big draw for tourists to visit the area which specializes in textiles. I bought two blankets made from synthetic alpaca. Most people will insist that their products are alpaca but they are not pure and are combined with other polyester type materials. If you pull a piece of hair off and burn it it should turn to ash if real and pure but will melt/ form globs if not real.
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| Textiles in Otavalo |
The real and traditional textiles for the most part are found in the towns outside of Otavalo and are just a quick taxi or bus ride away. Their blankets, ponchos etc are all dyed with natural sources (such as mushed up mealy bugs or plant roots) and don't have the bright colours that you see in most of the main markets.
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| Textiles in Otavalo |
COTACACHI
Unfortunately a late start in the day meant we didn't get to Cotacachi Lake as early as we would have liked. This volcanic lake is set in paramo, a habitat that is high elevation, rocky with mostly low lying plants and few trees growing in the valleys between hills.
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| Cotacachi Lake |
There is a trail that loops the lake and they say it takes 4 hours to walk it but if you are a biologist or plan on stopping at all to actually look at things plan on taking the full day. It has gorgeous views and amazing wildlife to see so it is worth spending the time. We barely made it 1/3 of the way!
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| Cotacachi Lake |
At the beginning of our hike it was starting to rain and by rain I really mean pour down water like someone just dumped a bucket on your head and continued that for about 30 minutes. Amidst the rain I could hear at least two species of frogs calling back and forth but the rain made it impossible to locate a single one and when it stopped so did they.
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| Cotacachi Lake |
The birds and reptiles came out when the rain stopped and those were much easier to find. My favorites were the scarlet-bellied mountain tanagers, black-chested buzzard eagle and sparkling violetear.
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| Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanager |
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| Sparkling Violetear |
The trail loops around the top of the mountains and some birds are harder to see since they are down in the shrubs and trees hidden in the valleys. The best way to see birds is to just sit in one of those spots and watch for a while.
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| Another View of Guinea Pig Lake |
As soon as the sun was out the reptiles came out and were scrambling around in everything that had thorns. Good protection from birds or anything else grabbing them but it did make it difficult to get a good look. One species was a skink but I have no good pictures and this was the best could get of the lizard.
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| Lizard at Cotacachi |
The plant life was definitely one of the most interesting things. The diversity of orchids alone was amazing and they covered more space than I have ever seen before. It sometimes looked like there were fields of them mixed in with bromeliads growing on the ground, ferns, Lycopodium sp., Equisetum sp. and few other wildflowers.
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| Masdevallia sp. |
CASCADA DE PEGUCHE
The "Septembre 8" bus took us to the town of Peguche where you can find some good quality textiles but we continued on to the waterfall down the road.
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| Female Blue and Yellow Tanager |
We went down a trail behind the washrooms in order to avoid the crowds of kids going up to the waterfall. It was definitely a mistake to visit this area on a holiday. But it gave us a chance to see some birds in a quite area before walking up to the falls. The river below the falls had canals running into town that collected water. The grass is low lying and seams almost groomed but shrubs and trees surround the valley sides.
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| Rufous- chested Tanager |
The waterfall was spectacular. Lush green everywhere and mist rolling off the falls towards the rocky areas beneath. Yet again the downside was the hoards of children spraying foam and throwing chalk at each other since that is what they do on holidays. I really hope it all got cleaned up since the mess was disgusting.
Again this trip, I come to be reminded that sometimes just listening to and watching nature has immense rewards and you see things you never expected. I was watching a male kestrel land on a branch with his meal and I expected him to start eating it but instead he started calling. The female came down and grabbed the gift and took it up to her nest.
Later at night the falls had very different wildlife. The areas was quite except for calling frogs. These represent the two different varieties I could find but potentially could be the same species of rain frog since they have a lot of colour variation.
