Ecuador Cloud Forest - 2018

About 2 hrs drive roughly north west of Quito are the cloud forest where we had booked a 3 night stay at Bellavista.  The last 45 minutes of the drive is on dirt but we arrived in time for breakfast.

From Quito to and into the Cloud Forest

Bellavista has multiple walks of various grades of difficulty through the cloud forest and the first walk is scheduled at 6:15am when the birds are most active, back for breakfast, another walk at 9:15am then yet another at 4:00pm, each walk lasting a few hours.

In the mountains very near Bellavista

Our accomodation in the cloud forest on the ground floor

Hiking through the forest

In the cloud forest it usually rains most afternoon/nights and true to form on our first 9:15am walk, it was clear, warm and humid weather as Carlos our guide showed and described many different plants, whilst spotting a few birds and a poisonous caterpillar.

In the tree canopy above us, we could see lots of bromileads growing on the branches of trees, many small, but so large they may cause the trees to collapse.

Poisonous caterpillar

Native quinoa plant

Booted ratchet-tail hummingbird

Over lunch we asked if a very special bird could be seen around Bellavista… short answer from Carlos was “no”!  We could possibly see it if we took a specific ½ day tour or we could do a full day tour and try to spot an additional special bird.  We opted for the full day tour!

Why do we do this to ourselves because it meant a 5am start… the sun hadn’t even risen.  Into the darkness of the cloud forest we drove along dirt roads for an hour before stopping on the side of the road.

Local squirrel

Then it was a climb through a narrow gate in the gloom, downwards along a still moist slippery path through the forest till we reached a large purpose built hide to wait for our first quarry.

We could hear them in the trees a 50-70m’s ahead and as the sun just started to rise and light fought its way through the dense forest, their activity picked up.

Suddenly one of these birds appeared directly in front of us… wow, its weird bright red head in massive contrast to the foliage around it. Then another, and another, with some doing a bit of an Irish jig on tree branches.

 First Cock of the Rock appears

These were male ‘Cock of the Rock’ birds, found in this location on just one tree, who were all trying to court 1 female… all 20-30 of them!

Very colourful in a cloud forest

With the sunlight increasing and resulting photographs improving, these spectacular looking birds increased the sound accompanying their dances for about 30 mins before suddenly, they all took off, silence descending on the forest.  It was all over for that morning.

For the next few hours we were taken for various forays into different locations, looking for specific birds, the local guides running the tour knew would be present.

Turquoise Jay

Potoo with baby under chest feathers 

Crimson Rumped Toucanete

A very different and nice Ecuadorian breakfast made of plantains that look like bananas but don’t taste like them, was provided back at the local guides home, where they also had many bananas located to attract even more birds in.

We stayed here for a few hours clicking away at all sorts of species coming and going, many with very colourful markings. 

Toucan Barbet

We said farewell to the local guides and were driven to yet another location, famous for hummingbirds and hopefully the 2^nd bird we wanted to see.

As we arrived, the owner of this location rushed out to meet us, excitedly pointing to a large fruit laden tree and mumbling something in Spanish to Carlos.

“Hurry” Carlos said, his binoculars already up to his eyes and then he was pointing to the next special bird we were after, a different species and very shy Quetzal sitting on a branch in the distance.

Golded Headed Quetzal

We had first seen Quetzals in Costa Rica with the male having very long colourful feathers like a tail flowing behind them.  These feathers had been used by the Aztecs to make headdresses for the kings.

We had only heard of Quetzals being in Ecuador from Veronica, but this species does not have the long flowing feathers but were still great to see nonetheless.

Again we stayed here watching many varieties of hummingbirds flitting in and out to feed, many species of other birds joining them at the feeders or bananas, again also laid out for them to feed on.

Golden Olive Woodpecker

Roufus Tailed Hummingbird

Rob created a new record for her for one day of photographing with 910 photos taken and around 80 selected to keep.  This had been a very enjoyable and rewarding day.

We were up again at 6:15am for our first walk on our final day, heavy rain having fallen overnight, making the tracks very slippery and dropping the temperature significantly.

Carlos kept us around the lodge, as there were plenty of birds coming and going, with the sun warming this part of the forest first. 

Masked Trogan - male

Masked Trogan - female

Our 2^nd walk had us heading into the forest, again learning even more about various plants in the forest and a stunning viewpoint of the valley and mountains before it was finally time to depart and head back to Quito.

CLICK HERE - Link to more photos in the cloud forest

Next morning we had to fly out to yet another location and adventure in Ecuador.

Go well!

Brazil Pantanal – 2018

For a few years we had been keen to try and see one of the more elusive large cats on the planet, jaguars.

This desire motivated us to include a trip to a more remote area in Brazil called the Pantanal; it is the world’s largest tropical wetland, covering over 181,300 square kms— right in the centre of South America.

Blue section on map is The Pantanal

Brazil can lay claim to most of the region, but the Pantanal spills into neighbouring Paraguay and Bolivia and though the Amazon rain forest to its north is more well known, the Pantanal quietly boasts the highest concentration of wildlife on the continent.

After the wet season (Dec to early April), the Pantanal becomes a massive wetland filled with lots of wildlife and as the waters drain the bird numbers reduce through migration and the numbers of marsupials and mammals increase, including jaguars.  The Pantanal is also home to the green anaconda… the largest snake in the world.

Our original itinerary was planned in conjunction with a local company Wild Pantanal Safaris had us travelling deeper into the Pantanal along the mainly dirt Transpantaneira Highway.

Start of the Transpantaneira Highway into the Pantanal

We were meant to stay at a more rustic lodge at the end of the highway for 4 days/3 nights, specifically to search for jaguars.

Jaguars are the dominant predator weighing up to 136 kg in weight and whose prey includes caiman, which are similar to but smaller than crocodiles, captured by leaping off the bank into the water, crushing their throat or skulls and dragging them back out onto land.

Unfortunately for us, late and unseasonal heavy rains flooded the rougher and final sections of the road and areas around the lodge and leading to the jaguars moving north and away from this area.

This meant a rapid change of itinerary only a week out from our arrival.  We were naturally disappointed, but the Pantanal had plenty of other wildlife to search for.

We had to reach a city called Cuiabá and after travelling from Rio via Sao Paulo where whilst waiting for the flight to Cuiabá, Rob decided to use the airport toilet, only for its door to fall off its hinges.  She caught and handed it to the attendant as she left, much to that lady’s bemusement.

Flights from Rio to Cuiabá

At 7am next morning we were heading into the Pantanal with Jon our driver and guide Flavio, an indigenous Amazon Brazilian with a lot of stories to share and things to teach us.

The new itinerary had us staying in one lodge for 2 nights and another, deeper into the Pantanal for 1 and over the next 4 days it was non stop wildlife searching, including during our drive along the ‘highway’ to and from lodges.

There was an upside to the late rains… birds, lots and lots of birds and it wasn’t long before we were seeing some familiar ones like the kingfishers but also a mass of new ones.

Kingfisher flying across a river

Spoonbills at sunrise

Snail kite eating a crab

It was both hot and humid in the Pantanal, but that didn’t deter Flavio having us out searching for wildlife within 30 mins of checking into the first lodge and soon found ourselves standing right next to a 2m caiman sunning itself on land.

First caiman we saw

So for our entire time in the Pantanal we were either doing pre-sunrise walks into the forest, day and night drives or boat drives and there was plenty to see as the photos that follow will show.

At both lodges there was also plenty of evidence of the presence of our elusive quarry in the form of very fresh tracks of jaguars, at the first lodge a mother and cubs and at the second lodge a large male.

Fresh jaguar paw prints but alas no sighting of one

Flavio constantly amazed us by both his shared stories and his ability to spot animals either during the day or night, for example during our pre-dawn walk in the jungle and just after the sunrise, he found a porcupine sleeping at the top of a tree!

Tree climbing porcupine... who would have thought

The staff in both lodges were very warm, friendly and despite our lack of Portuguese, made us feel very welcomed indeed. The food was plentiful and good, especially the piranha soup.

We really enjoyed our multiple boat rides where we experienced a few new things like…

...birds

Hyacinth Macaw

Small toucan

...monkeys

Black & gold howler monkey

Brown capuchin

...agouti

Azaria's agouti

...capybaras

Patiently waiting to enter the 'capybara cafe'

...marsh deer

Marsh deer

...caiman

Caiman in the wetlands at sunset

...snakes

...parrots

Click on this link - More photos in the Pantanal

During one boat ride we even went fishing for piranha and yes I did take one off the hook, much to Flavio’s concern, especially when you see their teeth.

Me hanging onto a piranha

The business end of a piranha

A jumping caiman called Lucy who swam up so close to our boat Rob was warned to keep her hands away from the side.  The fish she jumped for was piranha!

Lucy the caiman jumping for a piranha

Another piranha was thrown into the water for a hawk to swoop down and grab, which was another surprise for us.

Hawk making off with its piranha

During 2 night drives Flavio found pygmy owls hiding in trees, crab eating foxes, including 2 young ones following and harassing a caiman walking down the highway, something Flavio had not seen before.

Pygmy owl at night

Crab eating fox

2  young crab eating foxes pestering a caiman on the main highway

We also managed to see 2 giant anteaters that appeared out of the bushes on to the road briefly before again returning.

Giant anteater appears out of the bushes one night

In only 4 days and despite only seeing jaguar tracks, we achieved much during our time in the Pantanal, again due to the skills and attention of both Flavio and Jon.

Map of our route within the Pantanal

Sunset over the Pantanal's wetlands whilst in boat

Thank you Wild Pantanal Safaris for a fabulous time and perhaps one day we will return to the Pantanal to finally see the elusive jaguar.