Las Peñas to Ayampe

A little bird stopped to say hi and at first glance I realised he wasn't listed in my book. The voice in my head said 'who the fuck are you?' My heart raced. He sat on a twig and stared at me and as soon as I reached for my pocket camera he flew. I new by his features that it was a specie of cuckoo. Back at the hotel I Googled 'colombian cuckoo' and a picture of the bird appeared. Dwarf cuckoo! According to Roger Ahlman this was the second record for Ecuador. The first cuckoo seen was in the same area in 2012. A great way to start the year. I have seen more than 750 species in Ecuador. I love this country.
Las Peñas seemed pleasant enough at first. After almost a week there I was growing tired of the muddy streets and eating the same food-shrimp and fish. I packed up and caught a bus heading south. They dropped me at the entry road to Mompiche. I asked a taxi driver to take me to a 'nice hotel with AC. He dropped me at Balcones Mompiche. A got a top floor corner room with AC for $25 a night. Mompiche is a surfer town for young Colombians and Ecuadorians. There were a lot of Colombians. Colombia dosen't have much of a Pacific coast. It is a very long coastline but dotted with few towns and no sandy beaches. It is mostly forest and mangrove, from what I can see on maps. Mompiche is a bay and the surfers have to walk around to a small cape to catch the larger waves. Tides were very high and low. The road along the beach had been washed out a few times. I had a beer, or four, at a shack on the beach with waves nearly reaching my feet. Much better than Las Peñas. I couldn't lock the door to my room and the staff pretended to be surprised. They told me not to worry. I didn't worry. I met an lady from California who invited me to see her tall house she has lived in for ten years. She was especially anxious to show me her bedroom. Top floor and open to the breeze. No windows in this house just bamboo with holes cut to allow a breeze and view. She really wanted me to stay. REALLY. She was so desperate to have me. I laughed and told her I was hungry for a burger. I found my way back down the stairs and headed for beach burger. She came by my hotel looking for me that night but I wasn't there. I had met a gringo working for Petroecuador and we sat and had many drinks at a bar. I was feeling sick from a cold but that didn't slow me down. The next day I was feeling sick in my stomach. I had to take a 2 hour bus ride back to Atacames to use an
ATM. On the ride back to Mompiche I nearly ejected my stomach. I broke out in a sweat and thought I would pass out. Something bad inside me. I held it in and made it back to my hotel. The worst had passed. This was bad. I had some spaghetti for dinner and that seemed to help some. Aspirin helped. Then I realised I had some doxycycline I could take. I caught a van service to Canoa. It was raining and there were ten of us in the van. Windows up and hot. If you don't say something nothing gets done. The windshield was steamed up and the driver could barely see the road. I thought he would surely turn on the defrost. There was a towel blocking the defrost. Ten people and no one speaks.
Finally a girl from Argentina yelled at the driver. Defrost came on, towel moved, windows cracked.
Idiots. Sometimes I get so frustrated with the stupidity displayed. I have started to speak up lately.

Canoa and it is raining. I walk a block and check into a hotel for $10. It has AC and weak WIFI. I drop my bags on the bed and walk to the beach and within 5 minutes find a bar with gringos. US gringos. Cheeseburgers and chicken wings. So I am like oh my god do you like have onion rings too cuz that would be so awesome? David Bowie songs are playing. I had cried that morning when I found out he was dead. A couple from New Hampshire welcome me to Surf Shak Bar and Grill. Ahhhhhhhhh. Beer please.
Within an hour I meet 8 new friends. Everyone was so helpful. Elizabeth owns a hostel down the road and tells me all the news I need to know about Canoa. The waves are much bigger here than in Mompiche. Not as many young punks running around. Few Colombians. The next day I move to a better hotel for $10 a night. I stay a week. Elizabeth arranges for me to go to the finca where she keeps her horses. I buy rubber boots for $11. She arranges a driver to pick me up at 6 am. I go birding and have to slip a fiver to a guy at the farm to leave me alone. He wanted to show me all the birds with pretty colors. A very nice fellow but I wasn't going to get my birds with him yaking. He finally walks off but his dog follows me the rest of the morning. No new species but a lot of good birds. My driver picks me up at 9:45am. Nice day. The doxycycline made me hypersensitive to the sun. Burned. Drinks. I feel better. Elizabeth has another driver pick me up early the next day and he takes me to La Segua marshes about 30 miles away. I dip on the white-throated crake. I get a lot of birds again but nothing new. I pay the driver $40 for the 4 hour tour. Drinks. Cuba Libres 2 for 1. I'll have 6 please. Feeling better. I put $5 on the Super Bowl pool. I tell Cathy that I won't be here but if I win give the money to the local kid's charity. I also donated my rubber boots to Elizabeth's hostel. I have a $3 breakfast in the morning and catch the bus to Manta. At the terminal I ask for a bus direct to Manta.  The trash along the side of the road is enough to make me angry at Ecuadorians. Damn they need to learn not to throw their trash out every vehicle window. Filthy. In Jipijapa I catch the bus to Manta. The buses are so frequent that I rarely spend much time in a terminal waiting on the next bus. I am in Manta by 11 am and take a taxi to the hotel I have stayed at before. $60 for a 1-bedroom on the ocean. KFC 2 blocks away. SOLD! Beer on the beach. Love me some KFC. Slaw. Original please. Bed.
In the morning I have a slowly prepared breakfast and I go back to the terminal and ask for a bus to Ayampe. They lie and I get diverted to Jipijapa where a bus takes me to Puerto Lopez. I am in Ayampe by 12 noon. I gets hugs and kisses at La Buena Vida. This is my third visit with Keith and Marilyn in Ayampe. This is the best spot on the entire coast. Whales have moved south but will be back in June. I tell everyone I meet to come visit Ayampe and LBV. There is a Jocotoco Reserve just up the hill where the dry scrub becomes a lush rain forest. The Esmeralda hummingbird is a rare endemic and found here this time of year. Keith drops me off at Las Tunas and the home of a lady with a garden of verbena. I pay her $5 and wait 1 hour but a male in bright plumage arrives and feeds for several minutes. Bird number 1,238! I start to walk the 2.3 miles back and a bus finally comes by.
I sleep so well here. I may come back in April and rent a beach house. It is just too hot now and it is season so prices are a little high. I took a German lady up to the the forest yesterday to see birds. She seemed impressed. It is hard to tell what Germans are thinking. I had a shrimp dinner and the local cat sat on my lap pawing at my plate. She ate well last night. A group of California 30-somethings showed up last night. They came from Cuenca and had been on a 'retreat'. An ayahuasca retreat. I guess they found their inner selves. So they said. This morning they bitched about what they were going to do today. I guess their inner self was still sleeping.
I saw a scaled pigeon this morning. 1,239. I saw a tidal pool with small shrimp and anemones and urchins. I found a perfect cone shell. I will go back up to the forest at dusk to look for owls. I talk to the forest. There are jaguarundi's in the area. I call them. A full moon coming again. I talk to it too. My inner self gets up when I do. We talk all day.

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Otavalo to Las Peñas

I arrived in Otavalo at about 2pm on the 21st. I had forgotten how much I had liked Otavalo the last time I was in Ecuador. I went to the hotel I was at last year and he gave me the same room overlooking the Imbabura volcano.  I went to the Daily Grind coffee stand and met the owner Bonnie. She hails from NYC but keeps her horses in Virginia. She was an advertising consultant and now gives children the food and educations they require. A very sweet lady. I also met a very handsome gentleman named George who was in Ecuador to climb Cayambe. He aspires to visit every country in the world and climb the highest peaks on each continent. He has accomplished much of that already and will climb Everest this year. He wanted me to confirm that a picture he had taken was, indeed, a condor. It was. I got my bird too. A much smaller tropical doradito which is difficult to find among the reeds of Andean lakes.
I finally bought a Panama hat in Otavalo. The markets are fascinating. The fabrics and colors brighten every corner. I also bought a Quena, which I will learn to play. A musician told me I paid too much and should have bought the bamboo instrument and not the one made of wood. Live and learn.
Christmas was very special in Otavalo.The children's parades and the music was enchanting and calm. I spent the evening listening to Andean music and drinking a local wine.
Birds were on the agenda and one of Ecuadors top birders, Roger Ahlman from Finlandia, told me  where I should visit. The area is called the Chocó region and has birds found only in the NW corner of Ecuador and SW Colombia. Last year the FARC's were farking around and mines were exploding with people on top of them. Things have calmed since then and so I took the bus to Ibarra to spend one night before I set off in a bus for San Lorenzo. Ibarra is very different from other parts of Ecuador. The people seemed very tense and unhappy. The locals asked me if I spoke Castellano, as they do. What? The further north and west I went the more difficult it was to understand them. One night was enough. Let the birding begin!
I took the 8am bus to Gualchan and arrived at Hacienda Primavera by 10:30am. The driver was waiting to take me the rest of the way to the hacienda. The same family has owned the lodge for the last 90 years. $92 a night includes all meals and free horseback riding. A few Germans invaded and broke the tranquility. Alexander introduced himself then his wife, from Iceland, complained that she expected the hacienda to be bigger. She mentioned something about an embassy so I Googled his name and sure enough, he was the German Ambassador to Ecuador. He had been Ambassador to Japan. We had a nice conversation. His wife said there were only two people from Iceland in Ecuador and that the other one lived in Vilcabamba. I told her I had met him and she seemed astounded.
Alex the manager, spoke English and drove me up to the cloud forest at 5:30am. I asked that he come and retrieve me at 11. I made the mistake of starting to walk back instead of birding the upper elevations. I dipped on several species of bird that I might have seen had I stayed up top. I did see plate-billed mountain toucans. And the Germans drove by and stopped to chat. "Did you see any big
pretty birds?" one asked. I wanted to tell her there were beautiful seagulls in the trees.
After my biding walk, Alex drove me to Lita and I checked into a little hostal for $10. I intended to explore this area but needed a driver, The owner's nephew, Alejandro, drove me around  to explore a little and afterward I bought him a few beers and we chatted. He was 30 with 3 kids but he lived alone. He was amazed by Google Map on my phone. It is incredible that people in rural areas have no idea what a map is or how to read one. I know more about Ecuador than they do and I have been told that by several people. I know where I want to go but depend on them to get me there and when they can't be shown on a map I have to convey detailed descriptions. It usually works out.
I left Lita on the 9am bus toward San Lorenzo. I had directions for the driver to drop me at Tundaloma Lodge on the Tululuvi River. The bus was crowded. We passed homes which most folks I know would not use as a shed for their tools. The closer we got to San Lorenzo the culture changed. It was mostly black folks descended from a slaves which had colonized here as a result of their ship running aground. Or a mutiny. Who knows. These folks were among the poorest I have seen. And the most overweight. I could barely understand the Spanish they spoke. The bus drooped me at the lodge and a skinny kid and his wife and baby met me to carry my bags. I carried the heavy one. The lodge was on the river and set in the forest. Perfect for the birds I was seeking. $34 a night for a cabana. My first bird was a white-tailed trogon! Black-cheeked woodpecker was next. I birded the entire time. I must have sweat off 5 pounds. Hot was not the word. Sweltering. No breeze. Humid. Birds everywhere. I awoke to my favorite bird calling. A common Potoo. In 2 days I racked up 11 new species. As the new year was coming I needed to beat Noah Stryker who was doing a big year around the world. His stay in Ecuador was in March and he ticked off 625 species. I was at 604. I finished 15th out of 100 for the year on eBird. I have seen 724 species total in Ecuador and have a life total of 1225. I am happy with that.
San Lorenzo was like nothing I have ever seen. A quick trip to town to get seabirds, all of which I have seen before. The shanty houses are over the water on stilts. They have no bathrooms. They were all getting ready for New Year eve. At the cash machine most were taking out a $20. Most had to have help using the machine. They could not read. I took out $260 which is more than they live on in 2 months. Boats were ferrying folks to Colombia for $10. I was tempted to go for a ride. For birders, this is one of the most dangerous areas of Ecuador. The taxi driver warned me of thieves. I do not blend in well. Some girls wanted to look through my binoculars. I held the strap and let them peer though. They loved it. All eyes were upon me. Time to go back to the lodge.
Next day rain. It's the holiday so not many buses running. A taxi driver took me to the terminal where there was a bus ready to go to Esmeraldas. Drop me in Las Peñas, por favor. So here I am. I had rum drinks and beer and watched people dance to some great Latin music. Mostly Colombian bar owners. A thin, Iman look-alike took a shine to me and made my drinks strong.  Blue eyes pay off sometimes.
The hotels are packed and I had a $10 room which sucked. I just got a much better room for $15, right on the Pacific Ocean. All the people will leave tomorrow and I will have it all to myself.  The Holiday is over. It is raining. The dirt road is lined with beach shacks which serve as restaurants and bars. I like it here. In a day, or two, I will pass through Esmeraldas and go to Mopiche.  I have a sore throat but that won't slow me down. I don't have to sing for my meals or drinks. But I could! I hope I make it through this next year. Saludos amigos.  


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