Ecuador 15: Guango

After yesterday’s washout we had to make the most of our remaining morning at Wildsumaco, so we were again out bright and early and heading for a new trail. We’d heard it was quite muddy, so took up the lodge’s kind offer of wellies (rubber boots). Good decision! Another good decision was leaving the still steamed-up camera in the room.

After just ten minutes of hacking along the muddy trail, we connected with our tenth antpitta – a Plain-backed. And then the heavens opened once more and the trail turned into a knee-deep quagmire. We pressed on regardless, as the rain continued to teem down. For the next three hours we slogged through the mud, hoping the rain would stop. It didn’t.

[thumb:4007:r]Finally defeated, we left the forest and rejoined the road, at which time it abruptly stopped raining and the sun came out! We were completely done, though, so trudged back to the lodge to dry off and pack our bags. There was just time for decent views of Channel-billed Toucan as it called loudly from a nearby lookout tree.

Wildsumaco is probably the nicest overall lodge we visited – comfortable, great food and the best (working!) showers in Ecuador. But this morning’s downpour added another 3.5 inches to the total, making it a whopping eight inches of rain in two days, the same as Tucson expects (and doesn’t always get) in an entire year! If I was to return to Wildsumaco, I’d stay for longer to give myself a chance of avoiding the showers, and I’d be more flexible and get out there every time it looked like stopping. This intriguing area deserved better coverage than we were able to give it.

We enjoyed a final lunch at Wildsumaco and started on our journey back towards Quito by retracing our route through the roadworks, past the Cabanas San Isidro and eventually to its sister lodge, Guango. This proved to be the most charming of places with the only downside being its proximity to the main road. Even that wasn’t a problem, though. Arriving late afternoon, we had a our final batch of new hummingbirds to sort out, including such gems as Tourmaline Sunangel and Mountain Avocetbill, plus another remarkable Sword-billed Hummingbird. The hummers here were the tamest yet and even though the light was dire making photography tricky, they allowed approach down to a few inches in some cases.

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[thumb:4009:r]The security guard then sidled over and told us it was antpitta supper time! It was a familiar story… trained by our man Angel Paz, the guard climbed into a hole in the vegetation right by the main road, and as we fired photos from the roadside and the trucks thundered by a few feet away, a gorgeous little Chestnut-crowned Antpitta hopped out and enjoyed a wormy feast. Antpitta no. eleven for the trip, and this one went straight into my top three.

We only added seven new species today but one or two of them had been pretty special.

360. Tourmailne Sunangel 361. Mountain Avocetbill 362. Plain-backed Antpitta

363. Chestnut-crowned Antpitta 364. Eastern Wood-Pewee

365. Chestnut-bellied Seedeater 366. Golden-collared Toucanet