Back to Quito - August 5, 2010

After almost a week in Ecuador, many nights of waking up before 5 in the morning had conditioned us to wake up at ungodly intervals before dawn. Thus, although our alarm was set for the blissful hour of 5:35, we both woke up at 3, and 4, in the morning. Finally, we crawled out of bed to pouring torrential rain. We struggled to the dining room, a short walk from our cabin, where many cups of fresh hot coffee awaited us. After lingering awhile, we put on our jackets and hit the trails, rain be damned.

orchids are scattered about the cloud forest

Birding was slow, but a few beautiful flocks full of saffron-crowned and beryl-spangled tanagers (what names!) danced in the canopy overhead. After trying our luck birding the entrance road, we went for a walk through the mystical primary forest that envelops the property. Every limb was festooned with absurd quantities of epiphytes--a truly shocking amount of greenery. The rain started to let off, and we were treated to shafts of light piercing the canopy, highlighting the amazing complexity of the forest, with layers upon layers of leaves and vines, branches and flowers, some in shade, some pierced by sun, all wreathed in mist and cloud. Then the sky darkened over again and rain returned. Time for lunch.

Emily in the beautiful cloud forest of Cabanas San Isidro

As anticipated, lunch was spectacular: eggplant lasagna, fresh ravioli with basil, salad dressed with fresh naranjillo, and perfect plantain fritters. After gorging we walked the road once more, spying some perky flycatchers, beautiful trogons, and a toucanet, all hunkered down in the rain. As the rain picked up once more, we headed back to the cabin. It was time to return to Quito.

We gathered our gear and piled into our driver Miguel’s 10 seater van. Emily sat up front, and managed to keep up an intermittent conversation entirely in Spanish for the length of our 3 hour ride back up the Eastern slopes. The steep ascent to the high pass was graced with waterfalls that were now crashing through every sheer forested slope, flush with the recent rain. We picked our way up the road, avoiding the few rockslides that the weather had unleashed. Eventually, we entered a land of cold fog and tawny tussocks--a spitting image of County Donegal in Northwest Ireland, with alpacas replacing sheep. Finally we crested and started down into the inter-Andean plateau. As we dipped below the clouds we were greeted by hundreds of sun rays alighting on the valley below, with the sparkling edifices of greater Quito glinting in the distance.

entering the inter-Andean plateau from the East

Making our way to Quito, Miguel took us along the old Camino de Francisco Orellana--the same route that the Conquistadors, Incans and Quechans before them had used to travel back and forth from Quito’s lofty heights and the Oriente. The narrow cobbled road was lined with hand crafted rock-walls that might have been laid before Columbus was born. We stopped to look out at the sun slipping behind the volcanoes, and then headed in to the bustling traditional heart of Quito.

Miguel stopped and took Emily to buy some fritada, a luscious dish of deep fried pork, potatoes, corn, lima beans and plantains (our $2.50 serving was more than enough for two). I waited in the van so it would not be broken into--a task I doubt I was well suited for. The food was superb, however, and we made it to our hotel already full, and ready for bed. The next day we would enter the Amazon Rainforest.

looking back down the Camino de Orellana