Adventures in Mindo

September 22, 2011

My mother is fond of homilies, and she often uses them to make a point. When she felt I was studying too much in high school, I would hear her say, “remember Albin, all work and no play make Jack a dull boy.” “Love makes the world go round,” is also one of her favorites.

Our recent two hour trip from Quito down to the little west slope town of Mindo made me think of another saying I often heard her use: “Variety is the spice of life.” It certainly is, especially if you enjoy watching birds as we do. Barely the size of Colorado,  Ecuador has some 1600 species of birds.  To put this in perspective, all of the United States has about 900 species. Ecuador has nearly 130 species of humming birds alone; California has about a half dozen.  This means that Ecuador is one of spiciest places on Earth, and the Mindo area is one of its chili peppers.

It is possible with a good guide to see a greater variety of birds here in one week than you would see in a year back home. The cloud forest around Mindo is the key. With pleasant temperatures, rainy afternoons, sunny mornings, and rich volcanic soils, the plants just grow and grow. Tall trees form a dense canopy with all manner of bromeliads and orchids growing on their mossy limbs. Vines climb  toward the sun from a rich understory of ferns and shrubs. Different bird species live in each of these forest layers.  In addition, as you change altitude, the forest also changes, and so do the birds. Go up or down a thousand feet, and you see new birds.

And what birds they are! Besides the mind boggling humming birds, there are many species of parrots, toucans, tanagers, pigeons, doves, woodpeckers, hawks, flycatchers, and finches. The tanagers alone are enough to fill a bird watcher’s dreams.  The late Ted Parker, a pioneering ornithologist in South America, likened watching a mixed flock of tanagers zooming through the forest  to a school of gaily colored fish swimming over a coral reef. There are also many other bird families not found in North America here in the cloud forests of Mindo- Puffbirds, Monkbirds, Nunbirds, Leaftossers, Flowerpiercers, Treerunne rs, Antwrens, Antshrikes, Antvireos- you get the point.

Many of the hummingbird names might seem overdone until you actually see these little gems on the wing, their extraordinary feathers diffracting the light of the tropical sun. Here is a short list of some of the species we saw. Pronunce the names slowly, letting each syllable roll off your tongue-Shinning Inca, Velvet-purple Coronet, Andean Emerald, Green-crowned Woodnymph, Violet-tailed Sylph, Black-tailed Trainbearer, Empress Brilliant, Sparkling Violetear, Purple-crowned Fairy, and Black-throated Mango.

 As you might guess, all these exotic birds are a magnet to eco-tourisst.  This brings us to another of mom’s favorite sayings: “Money doesn’t grow on trees”.  Which, in most cases, is quite true, but here in Mindo it seems that money does grow on trees. The birds bring the tourist, which bring the money, which creates a new economy, which protects the forest, which grows more birds. It is a perpetual motion machine that I hope keeps spinning and spinning.

It really helps to have an experienced bird guide with you in the forest. The birding is really challenging. Even with the tremendous diversity of species, it’s hard to find the birds amongst the leaves and branches in the filtered light. Our guide was Efrain, who was extremely talented at seeing birds when none could be seen, and hearing them when none could be heard. He was also very patient with us. Efrain also had a good sense of humor. When he showed us a male Moustached Antpita, a long legged ground loving bird, with a sawed off tail and big beautiful eyes, I asked him if the females of this species have  moustaches too. He paused for a moment, and with a twinkle in his eye, said, “Yes, but the males don’t seem to mind!”

 Erfrain, who was very bright and well-traveled, told us an interesting story from his youth. He came home from school one day with aches and pains and a fever. His mother knew just what to do and rubbed him all over with a live guinea pig. Just like that, his sickness was transferred to the hapless animal, which promptly died, leaving Efrain feeling fine once again. I could tell that Efrain was not joking this time; he was quite serious. To be honest, I don’t know what to make of this story. I am a natural skeptic and usually do not believe such things. But what if his story is true?

I will close with one more of my mother’s sayings. When she put us to bed at night, she would say: “Sleep well and don’t let the bed bugs bite.” It was just a funny little saying, with no particular relevance, so I never gave it much thought. Not much thought, that is, until Mindo.  It has been four days now since we left that nice little town, with its cozy cabin and the single bed I slept in. I have 18 nice big red marks in various places on my body, each about the size of a baby aspirin, and itching like crazy!  Jeri, of course, is going to write a letter to the owners of the cabin.  In the meantime, would any of you happen to have a spare guinea pig?

Our Casa Divina cabin

Birding in Ecuador

One of many Heliconius we saw

Cock of the Rock

Calling in the birds

Just two pages several pages of Tanagers found in NW Ecuador

Just one of several pages of Humming birds found in the Cloud Forest

Looking back at Quito from Mindo, part 2

September 18, 2011

So what did we learn in Quito? Quite a lot as it turns out, but don’t worry I’ll only mention a few things, just enough to paint a small picture of what we saw.  The Andes, one of the world’s great mountain ranges, runs north to south right down the middle of this beautiful little county, the second smallest in South America. At nearly 9,000 feet in elevation, in an elongated basin between two much taller ridges, sits the capital of Quito. To the west the mountains slope down through misty cloud forests to the coast, 500 miles beyond which lie Galapagos, the islands made famous by our patron saint, Charles Darwin. On the other side of Quito, past a dozen or more towering snow caped volcanoes (some of them active), the east slope of the Andes drops away to the equally famous Amazon Basin, with its jungles of tropical luxuriance and still wild tribes of Amerindians.

Quito enjoys a nearly perfect climate of perpetual spring-sunny mornings which warm with the sun, beautiful clouds in the afternoon bringing showers, giving way to chilly nights. The city is an odd mix of centuries old colonial buildings, not so pretty sky scrapers, and flat-roofed shacks of the poor climbing the hills. The Spanish took over the place a long time ago, in 1534, building the beautiful old town (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) on the backs of the local Indians and black slaves brought in from the Caribbean. Lovely plazas, arch ways, courtyards, and impressive chapels and cathedrals are the results of their labors. The Spanish also brought a new language and new customs. (Friends greet each other by kissing a cheek.) The city now has a European feel with whiff of the third world.  Its population is a mixed bag, ranging from fair skinned cosmopolitans of mostly Spanish descent, to pure blooded Indians, with a large middle class of mestizos in between.  For the most part, the people are quiet and self-contained, but once you make contact they are quite friendly, even sweet. Indian women wear their traditional fedoras, white shirts and full length colorful skirts. Most of the others are well groomed and dressed conservatively in dull colors. Blue Jeans are few, as are tattoos and mohawks!. An ample breakfast, a large mid-day meal of slow foods, with little in the way of supper, and lots of walking leaves most of the people trim and well-proportioned. The streets are clogged with slow moving cars, many of which are made in China. Pedestrians have no rights, but if you hit one punishment can be severe. Driving here is like playing poker- lots of bluffing and calling of hands. Horns are well, but seldom used, often accompanied by the appropriate hand gesture.

I limp along with my minimal Spanish but Jeri’s facility with this rapid fire language grows with everyday. The locals are wonderfully forgiving of our frequent errors.  We see hardly any other foreign tourists which gives a “first time” feeling to our trip. Taxis are reasonably priced and easy to use, and those of you know Jeri well won’t be surprised to learn that by consulting her map she often tells the driver where to go before he figures it out, proving once again that in former lives she was both a cartographer and a very capable executive.

I will leave you with an astounding fact- the prohibition against using a mobile phone while driving is actually enforced here. When the phone of one of drivers started to ring, he stopped in the middle of the lane on a rural road, turned the engine off, and proceeded with a conversation. I said it was astounding.  Maybe a better word would be sensible.

Colonial Architecture in Plaza de Independencia

Mother Mary with wings on Mt Pontecello

A street Siesta

Our Quito Hotel, Plaza de Sucre

The sprawling city of Quito with Volcanoes in distance

Fridada, a local Ecuadorian dish

Looking Back at Quito from Mindo, part one

September 18, 2011  

I like Jena’s response to The Big Event: “You mean you have only been in Ecuador for two days, and they have already tried to tear gas you?”  Yes, it’s true.

We were up on a hill taking in the view of old-town Quito,  looking at its 16th century Basilica, with its biologically correct iguana gargoyles, when our eyes began to sting and tear up.  First a little, then a lot. What an eerie feeling it was. Something was obviously wrong, very wrong, but we couldn’t imagine what it could be. I tried to diffuse the situation by making a lame joke about Gadhafi making his last stand in Quito, but my efforts were ignored by Jeri and the European couple next to us, who quickly bolted downhill, away from whatever it was that was after us. The locals we passed covered their faces with their arms or sweaters as Jeri’s face turned bright red and our eyes continued to burn. After a rapid descent of nearly two blocks, the symptoms lessened, and just like that, went away. But we still had no idea what had happened.

The answer appeared the next morning in our quaint little colonial hotel when our host explained (with a smile) that the police had been having trouble with rebellious students at the high school near the Basilica and decided to end the problem once and for all by tear gassing them.  

After spending a good deal of my life in a classroom, I thought to myself, what a simple and elegant solution!

The adventure begins

September  12

Squeezed into seats 24 A & B, we are flying east to Miami, into the sun and towards a new adventure.   It has been many years,  years of surfing and tennis in Hawaii, years of gardening and hiking at home, since we have set off on a big overseas trip.  Snow still lingers on the high ridges of Sierra Nevada as the rising sun works  its way over California. The lights are low on flight 552 as we nod off after days and weeks of preparation.  Jeri has earned her rest.  It is lighter now, most of the great basin has slipped under our Boeing 757, a vast expanse of dry lonely basins alternating with rugged mountain ranges running north to south across the American west.  Soon, the Red Rock country of southern Utah comes into view, Bryce and its neighbors magnificent in the early morning light. Over Texas and Mississippi we go, too high, thankfully, to hear the chatter from the tea party below.  

We land in Miami,  a city that has played a pivotal role in my mid-life crisis for it is here, I sent my beloved blue Porshe to begin a new life with a new owner.  Not seeing any sign of the 911SC, we leave the Miami airport terminal, whose major hallway is decorated with fantastic fish sculptures.  On board now we head for the tiny country of Ecuador high in the Andes.  I had read that Ecuadorians valued courtesy and good manners, but it did not sink in until our flight meal was served.  Sitting next to the window on the three seat side of the airplane, with Jeri in the middle, I reached in front of her to take the food tray from the flight attendant, a well groomed latin man in long sleeve shirt and tie.  He left my hand dangling and instead carefully placed the tray in front of Jeri, giving me a little glance. I laughed, as did Jeri,  and the glance turned into a good natured smile.   With arched eyebrows, he pantomimed slapping me on the wrist. Lesson learned.

There will be more to come after we settle in.