Introduction. In 1986 Nick Preston and I decided to visit
Ecuador during the summer. We had
previously been to Peru (1984) and Costa Rica (1985) so Ecuador was an obvious
choice. Where to go when we got there
was less so. We were keen to visit sites
in the Andes and the Amazon but couldn’t afford to hire a car for the former
and stay at one of the expensive lodges in the latter. We decided to split the trip into two parts,
two weeks with a hire car mainly in the Andes and two weeks at Amazon sites
easily along the Rio Napo that could be reached by public transport. Viasa, the Venezuelan airline, was the cheapest
and we left London on the evening of 26 July.
This blog recounts the trip, it is based on scant notebook entries and unreliable memories, some corrected or enhanced by Nick. It is illustrated with digitised slides of generally poor quality - photography in the forest was almost impossible which is my excuse for so few birds.
Arrival and Limoncocha (27-31
July). After stops in Caracas, where we changed
planes, and Bogota we arrived in Quito mid-morning. Our attempts to hire a car failed miserably
as none were available from the airport so we switched to plan B and got a bus
into the centre of town and another to the main bus station. Here we got tickets on the overnight bus to Lago
Agrio and Coca and then sat around for five or so hours before it left. Neotropical birding at its most
exciting!
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| Quito Airport |
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| outside Quito Airport, distant volcano just about visible |
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| waiting at Quito Bus Station |
The bus was tedious (a 14 hour
journey including waiting for the ferry at Lago Agrio) and uncomfortable but we
arrived in Coca at 09:00, in good time to catch the river ferry ‘Zulema’ to the
inappropriately named Grand Pompeya. It
left promptly at 10:00 and as we approached Pompeya three hours later we were
loaded into a dugout and run ashore to a small jetty.
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| Rio Napo and the Zulema taking on passengers from Grand Pompeya where we had just been dropped |
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Impressive efficiency that put the need of a
contingency plan well to the back of our minds.
Sadly we were not to see it repeated.
Pompeya appeared almost deserted but we soon found the trail to
Limoncocha and set off with great expectations.
These were soon dashed as it wasn’t immediately obvious where the trail
was. The most obvious trail soon became flooded so we returned to try another. After a few false starts on
other trails that petered out we returned to the original one and were joined by a dog who seemed to have a better idea of
where to go than we did. When we got to the flooded area the dog started swimming and we followed wading through water at least two feet deep. I don’t usually like
dogs at all but this one had a lot of character and knew where it was going. After a few more uncertain moments the flooding subsided but we soon came to
the next obstacle, a swollen river that was clearly too deep to wade across. There was a house on the far side and a small
dugout pulled up beside it so we shouted.
This attracted the attention of a young girl (she looked to be about 6)
who dragged the dug-out into the river and paddled over to collect us. The boat could only take one of us at a time
and even then looked like a disaster waiting to happen but our ferrygirl seemed
confident and Nick went first and made it, with under an inch of freeboard to
spare. I was a bit heavier than Nick and
had an anxious crossing, glad the girl wasn’t any bigger.
We paid a minimal amount for the crossing and
continued walking to Limoncohca seeing very little (Plumbeous Antbird and
White-bearded Manakin were best) but without further adventures. We arrived at dusk to a welcome of general
apathy, struggling to find accommodation or anyone interested in putting us
up. We were thinking about where to put
up the tent when we were given a room above a very poorly stocked shop. No-one in the village wanted to provide us
with food so we were limited to buying tins and biscuits from the shop (fortunately
they didn’t have sell-by dates) and the few supplies we had brought with us. It was going to be a tough place to stay.
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| the poshest building in Limoncocha - we were not staying there |
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| Lago Limoncocha - a missed opportunity for a local to make a bit of cash and take us out on it |
We
spent two days birding the main trail at Limoncocha. The first was very quiet, the second much
better but without really seeing anything that made the effort of getting to
Limoncocha really worthwhile. Highlights
were Hoatzin, Dark-billed Cuckoo, Long-billed Starthroat, White-chinned
Jacamar, Yellow-billed Nunbird, Scarlet-crowned and Lemon-throated Barbets,
Black-faced Antbird and Plum-throated Cotinga.
The village was on the edge of a lake which we had hoped to get onto as
Bare-faced Fruitcrow was a possibility.
We found a leaky boat but no-one around was at all interested in taking
us out in it, Limoncocha was the most disinterested place I’d been to. We could have tried borrowing the boat ourselves
but with no paddles and uncertain how lake-worthy it was it didn’t seem worth
the risk. Perhaps there was something in
the water and we were catching the Limoncocha apathy bug too? Unfortunately our visit coincided with an
all-night party based outside the ‘shop’ below us. It seemed to consist of loud music, loud
speeches and even louder cheering.
Perhaps it was a political rally?
Whatever it was (we were not interested enough to find out) it did
little to enhance our feelings towards the place. Birding was disappointing and we were running
out of food so we decided to move on. We
left Limoncocha in good time to be at Pompeya for the Zulema’s return to
Coca. We made good time, being
distracted by a pair of Blue & Yellow Macaws doing summersaults on a dead
branch in a tree-top, and were ferried back across the river. Fortunately the flooding on the trail the other side had reduced somewhat.
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| I went first this time and was able to watch Nick's crossing without the worry of it being my turn next |
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| just as well we'd not over-eaten at Limoncocha |
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| Nick almost across |
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| Nick on the flooded trail on our return with the water at about half its original depth. Unfortunately we didn't have the dog to guide us on our return but managed to find our way without too many wrong turns |
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| waiting for a boat at Grand Pompeya |
Primavera (31 July-7
August). On arrival at Primavera we were quickly
welcomed by the lodge owner’s wife (he was away), given a room (with beds!) and
the promise of meals. Brilliant, and
what a contrast to Limoncocha. A before
dusk venture down the main trail produced a Ruddy Quail-Dove which was even
better. We spent five whole days on the
trail at Primavera, often birding on our own and meeting up irregularly during
the day. The trail went through good
flat forest and headed north-east away from the river. We never reached anywhere on the trail and
saw very few locals along it although we probably never went more than five
miles from the river. We would often
wander short distances off trail after interesting sounding birds, most which
remained unseen or turned out to be rather ordinary – a complete lack of
knowledge of tropical forest bird calls was a serious disadvantage. On one occasion I was tempted off trail by an
interesting call and went in too far. I
had not been paying attention to where it was leading me and by the time I’d
lost it and started heading back I realised that I wasn’t sure which direction
to go. I tried walking 100m in a
straight line in the direction I thought I should go but didn’t hit the
trail. I retraced my steps and tried
100m in another direction with similar results.
I was now in full panic mode and shouting in the hope Nick might be in
earshot only confirmed that he wasn’t. I
needed to think clearly and calm down.
Despite being in covered forest I could tell where the sun was and
although almost on the Equator I had a good idea where south was. Heading west should take me to the trail and
I just needed to hold my nerve and head in that direction until I hit the
trail. That I did, with fingers firmly
crosses, and after a few minutes was mightily relieved to be back on the
trail. Usually I’ve a good sense of
direction but it deserted me then. I now
always carry a button compass, although don’t always remember to check the
direction of trails or bend over saplings when I leave them. Nick was more circumspect them me and after
hearing my tale was even more careful. We
also adopted a policy of leaving a hat or something by the trail whenever we
went off it, something we still do today to give a starting point should one of
us disappear. The birding was great with
Sapphire Quail-Dove, Blue-crowned Motmot, Many-banded Aracari, Cuiver’s Toucan,
White-chested Puffbird, Rufous-breasted Piculet, Tawny-throated Leaftosser,
Faciated and Black-capped Antshrikes, Scale-backed, Black-faced and Spot-backed
Antbirds, Black-faced Ant-thrush, Purple-throated Fruitcrow, Blue-crowned,
Wire-tailed and White-bearded Manakins, Musician Wren, Violaceous Jay and Green
and Gold Tanager. On one of our last
days Nick saw a Collared Puffbird sitting quietly above the trail. Much to my disappointment I was not with him
at the time. We had better luck in being
together when we saw a huge eagle with massive feet perched below the canopy in
a nearby tree. It looked at us for a
couple of minutes before flying off. At
the time we thought it might be a Harpy but on reading up the black in front of
its eye suggested Crested Eagle.
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| Rio Napo at Primavera |
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| Atlas Moth at Primavera |
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| ant highway |
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| sunset on the Rio Napo at Primavera, most days finished with us sitting on the riverbank enjoying the tranquility and the view of Volcan Reventador |
We
were having a great time at Primavera and were well looked after with good food
although bananas with everything were not to Nick’s liking. Nick also literally went bananas one evening
when we got back to our room and he discovered the lodge owner’s son, aged
about 3, had scribbled over some pages in his copy of Dunning’s South American Landbirds which he’d left
on his bed. I was quite shocked by his
reaction although perhaps I shouldn’t have been given that he had made a little
box/cover to protect the book. He’d
showed me this at the airport and was somewhat aghast when I pulled out my copy
of de Schauensee’s Guide to the Birds of
South America from which I’d removed the cover (and useless plates) to save
weight, and the plates I’d removed from the same author’s Guide to the Birds of Venezuela annotated to show which birds were
likely to occur. In 1986 these were be
best books available.
With
the owner of the lodge still away and no other boats at Primavera we had to plan
our departure to coincide with the Zulema.
This mean leaving a day or two before we were perhaps ready to, although
we were being looked after so well another week would have been nice if there
weren’t other places we were keen to visit.
On our sixth evening we were told that the Zulema was due sometime the
next day and we were sitting on the riverbank soon after breakfast just in case
it was early again. It wasn’t. It wasn't on time either, in fact it didn't show at all. We couldn’t wander far as it would only send
in a motorised dugout if flagged down.
We waited all day with no sign of it or any other traffic heading up
river. Very frustrating when we could
have been on the forest trail. I might
even have seen the Collared Pufbird. Very
few birds were seen with Pauraque and Troupial the best I managed. Both were easily eclipsed by the views of
Volcan Reventador which emerged from the haze at dusk.
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| telephoto views of Volcan Reventador during our morning boat vigil |
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| we and it were still present late afternoon, but no boats |
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| sunset on the Napo |
We returned to the lodge where we were almost
expected. Relying on the Zulema being a punctual
service was now looking to be a big mistake.
This was brought home to us even more the following day when, after
sitting on the river bank from soon after dawn, it chugged past at 13:00
without sending a dugout. What now! We continued to sit and at 14:00 a motorised
canoe arrived at Primavera bringing a visitor from Coca. We established that the boatman was going straight back to Coca and engaged in a negotiation
with him although initially he wanted a ludicrous amount to take us there. It was not as if we had a lot of options but
I was pretty sure he didn’t know that and could be brought down to something
much more reasonable – he was going back anyway so anything from us would be a
bonus. Nick wasn’t quite as keen at
hold out but we prevailed and were soon back on the river. Barely ten minutes out of Primavera, and just
out of sight of it, we passed the Zulema, it appeared to have run aground -
what a shame! We arrived back in Coca,
bought some supplies and quickly found a bus to Lago Agrio. Here we transferred to the overnight bus to
Quito although we were only going as far as Cascada de San Rafael (Coca Falls).
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| back on the riverbank, still no boat |
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| Zulema ahoy, but it was to sail right past us! |
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