Ecuador 7: Tapichalaca

We left the hotel early, took a taxi to the airport and caught a flight to Loja in southern Ecuador. En route we had superb views of the iconic volcano Cotopaxi as dawn broke above the clouds.

The legendary Mr. Schofield had arranged for a 4×4 pickup to take us for an incredibly uncomfortable (for me, at least) three-and-a-half hours to the remote Tapichalaca reserve. This fairly new reserve consists of around 9,400 acres of very wet temperate cloud forest ranging from 6,500 feet to paramo habitat at over 11,000 feet. It also has a new and well appointed lodge, Casa Simpson, which was to be our home for the next few days.

We arrived at the lodge, elevation around 8,000 feet, just in time to experience a cloudburst, another hummingbird fest and, most importantly, lunch.

We took a short siesta, watched the hummers for a while and finally, for the first time since we arrived, it stopped raining. In a couple of hours late afternoon we managed to find several great new birds – the globally threatened Golden-plumed Parakeet, Chusquea Tapaculo, Orange-banded Flycatcher and the smart Lacrimose Mountain-Tanager, amongst others.

Making our way back to the lodge, the cloud finally lifted and allowed us to see where we had ended up – the Valladolid Valley was spectacular!

We ended the day with a few beers, looking forward to exploring this exciting area and maybe seeing some more of its famous birds tomorrow. We added 22 new species to the list.