Day 7: Paz de las Aves & Road to Termas de la Papallacta
As we deposited our luggage at the lodge’s main door, kitchen staff were already hard at work bringing out our breakfasts. Well fed and fortified with caffeine, and our bags now safely tucked into the belly of the bus, we bid farewell to Tandayapa. We would miss the friendly, attentive staff, the delicious meals and the jam-packed hummingbird feeders but I for one would not miss the daily climb up those concrete steps! We wondered if we would ever return…
Our next port of call: Termas de Pappalacta Lodge. But first we would get to meet someone who has become a birding legend, Angel Paz, the “antpitta whisperer”.
Turning off the main highway, Niko threaded the bus along a steep and heavily rutted dirt road for four kilometers, arriving at Paz de las Aves. The site, a small farm, consisted of a couple of buildings constructed of rough-hewn lumber. Angel, descended from the Inca, met us as we disembarked. A quiet man, he spoke his native Quechua language at home and Spanish or English to his visitors.
Angel had initially thought that when he wasn’t busy tending to his fruit vineyard and tree tomato field, an Andean Cock-of-the-Rock lek on his property would become the main draw for his fledgling ecotourism venture. But it wasn’t long before he was attracted to studying the secretive and shy family of antpittas, eventually learning to gain their trust by enticing what are normally shy and secretive birds, out into the open with the promise of mealworms. Word quickly spread in the birding world and the rest, as they say, is history. And why we found ourselves paying a visit to Paz de las Aves.
With the rules of engagement clear in our mind (Stay Close to the Local Guide, Do Not Use Flash When Photographing, No Electronic Playback, etc.), we started off along a wide path that soon narrowed to a precipitous series of steps, which dropped sharply into a remnant mountain rainforest (but not before adding YELLOW-FACED GRASSQUIT).
A rope handrail came in handy along some of the more challenging sections of trail. As we hiked, Angel from time to time would softly call out, “Venga, Venga, Venga (Spanish for “come” or “come here”) followed by a pet name for the particular antpitta he wanted to entice into view. “Maria” was the Giant Antpitta, “Willi”, a Yellow-breasted Antpitta, and “Esmeralda”, a Moustached Antpitta. Even with the promise of a free meal it was never a sure thing that the birds would respond. The couple from Virginia we had met at Tandayapa Lodge, stopped the day before and missed seeing all three. Alan and Ruth, the British “Biggest Twitch” couple saw only Maria on the day they stopped.
Antpitta are shy ground dwellers and masters at camouflage. Skilled ventriloquists, they easily throw their haunting calls and low whistles making them difficult to locate by sound. The most persistent and luckiest of birders ever get to see antpitta. At least before visiting Angel.
Hiking up onto an exposed ridge, we were verbally taunted again by one of my “must see” target trip birds: TOUCAN BARBET. After much calling and coaxing by José, a pair flew into view. Finally! And wouldn’t you know it, we saw the same pair several more times during our hike proving once reaffirming the old birding adage: once you see a hard to find target bird, you then see them everywhere!
As we dropped down into darker jungle, DARK-BACKED WOOD-QUAIL were heard. This is another bird Angel has been able to coax out of hiding on a regular basis. Around the next couple of bends in the trail, a small covey of Wood-Quail appeared, looking for a handout of mealworms. We took turns coming to the front of the line on the narrow trail to get excellent looks.
Where two trails intersected, Angel’s brother, Wilson, suddenly appeared and informed Angel that “Maria” was close by. Angel disappeared down the trail, calling “Venga, Venga, Venga, Maria”. When he reappeared he signaled for everyone to remain motionless. Not long after, Maria stepped out into the open, gobbling up mealworms Angel had dropped on the trail. Finally, after reading so much about this world renowned GIANT ANTPITTA, here she was in the flesh. Or rather, feather.
Leaving Maria to her mealworms Angel moved us up the trail to a small covered shelter where he asked us to stay put while he went looking for “Willi”. Angel melted from view into the jungle as we sat quietly on benches, chatting in whispers about our recent sighting of Maria. I can now safely report that no one took notice of a tarantula spider tucked under a corner of the roof above where we were seated (otherwise staying put would have been very difficult). After several minutes Angel reappeared to say that “Willi” wasn’t in the area – that he was likely further up the trail.
Moving on, Angel suddenly motioned for us to stop. Frozen, we peered into surrounding vegetation for any sign of movement. He had sensed or heard something we had not. After what seemed like hours, I caught sight of “Willi” approaching from the rear of our group. He hopped, stalked, and fluttered to within a few feet, eventually working his way up to where Angel was standing. Rewarded with mealworms, Willi feasted while everyone got great looks. Wow! YELLOW-BREASTED ANTPITTA. Two antpitta species in less than a half hour!
Other birds seen along our hike: A pair of RUFOUS-BELLIED NIGHTHAWK sitting beak-to-beak on a horizontal tree limb, UNIFORM ANTSHRIKE, TUFTED TIT-TYRANT, SCALED FRUITEATER, OLIVACEOUS PIHA, and in the “heard only” column: OCELLATED TAPACULO and ANDEAN SOLITAIRE.
We had now hiked full circle and had begun to retrace our route up the steepest portion of the trail while Angel was calling for Esmeralda. Alas, we would whiff on Esmeralda, the Moustached Antpitta. She was having nothing to do with us today. But knowing how other groups had recently fared, we were not terribly disappointed – two out of three ain’t bad! And the close looks that we got were extremely rewarding.
Re-emerging onto the relatively level open trail, we stopped to observe hummingbird feeders near a sheltered bench. Here we found what José admitted to being his all-time favorite hummingbird in Ecuador – the VELVET-PURPLE CORONET. We easily saw why – a stunning hummer to be sure!
A change in temperature combined with a lot of humidity caused my camera lens (along with other people’s cameras) to temporarily fog up - grrrr! The fogging finally disappeared after about fifteen minutes.
Back at the parking lot we assumed we would be departing but Angel had another surprise in store for us. He, his wife, his brother Wilsons, and his brother’s partner, ushered us onto a raised, covered deck where they served us coffee, tea and Bolon de Verde, a popular highland dish.
While we were enjoying our beverages and very tasty Bolon de Verde, Angel and his family wheeled out a selection of T-shirts which several of the group wound up purchasing. A clever entrepreneur with a captive audience.
Following the rolling gift shop, we again assumed it was time to depart. Silly us. Angel and his brother offered one more attraction: a nesting pair of ORANGE-BREASTED FRUITEATER. “Up there”, as Angel pointed to where the road sloped steeply upward. He said it would be about a 500 meter walk. Well, we had come this far and we were, after all, on a bird watching tour. We gladly accepted his invitation.
Unfortunately, it began to rain as we started up the hill. Fortunately, the birds turned out to be more cooperative than Esmeralda. At the top of the hill, we had great looks at one of the adults flying to a tree where it was feeding recently fledged birds, and a pretty good look at an immature bird.
Finally, it really was time for us to depart. After posing for group photos with Angel and his family, we made our farewells, boarded our bus, and took the bumpy rut road back to the main highway. Back on the paved highway, we headed toward Papallacta Pass, part of the old Inca Road.
North of Quito, just east of the town of Calacalí, we stopped to try for a few specialty birds. Exiting the bus we walked down to a trailhead on a ridge overlooking a valley where we thought we might escape threatening rain clouds pushing in from the north. Our escape was short-lived as the wind picked up and started blowing rain sideways. The storm forced a hasty retreat to the bus, but not before we got a good soaking. We whiffed on many of the target birds but managed to add an AMERICAN KESTREL, glimpse a BLACK-TAILED TRAINBEARER, and get a sneak peek at ASH-BREASTED SIERRA-FINCH.
Dropping down into the valley we managed to outdistance the rain. After a brief gas station pit stop and refueling we parked outside the gates of “Mitad del Mundo” - the Center of the World Monument in San Antonio de Pichincha.
When the sun comes out in Ecuador the temperature can climb rather quickly. With the sun now out, we unloaded the bus and attacked our box lunches, as we spread out on a sidewalk like turtles on a log. In no time at all we were dry and much more comfortable. After a brief stop at a shopping mall, we hit the road again. Jimmy Buffet was into something when he wrote, “Its these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, Nothing remains quite the same...” Was it the 0-degrees latitude or the sun that put a spring in our step? Perhaps both.
Driving on, we skirted the north end of Quito, continuing southeast toward Cumbaya and Pifo (the town where we turned off to go to Antisana on Day 2). As houses and buildings dwindled in number, the countryside transformed into huge rugged cliffs and large rivers. Spectacular scenery but not much in the way of birds. We half-dozed but kept an eye out for Andean Condor since this seemed to be prime habitat. It was to no avail.
After chugging up over the 13,500 foot Papallacta Pass, we dropped down into the village of Papallacta to find a major highway repair project detour that diverted us through sections of the town we might not otherwise have seen, eventually pulling up to Termas de Papallacta Lodge where we would spend the next two nights.
Checking in, we inquired about laundry services but were informed that the washing machine was “broken”. “Check back in the morning”. As we were escorted to our rooms, we found feeding in the flowers beside our room, a new hummer for the trip: SHINING SUNBEAM.
Our immediate plan after a long afternoon bus ride? Relax. Most met in the bar where the least expensive and most potent margaritas we’d experience thus far on our tour were found. Others were drawn to soak in the hot springs conveniently located right outside our rooms. We gathered for dinner at 7:00 PM.
After an excellent meal and much discussion of our amazing visit to Paz de las Aves, it was on to our daily bird list ritual (58 day total/12 new to trip total), which we accomplished using a quiet upstairs lounge.
Plan for the next day? Drive back up Papallacta Pass to try for target species and then bird a few areas just below the pass on our way back to the lodge. In the afternoon we would bird the grounds at Guango Lodge. Since Termas was unable to provide a box lunch we would have to return around 1:00 if we wanted to eat (this won much approval given how great the evening meal was and how much our box lunches had been lacking in appeal). José had negotiated a “box breakfast” (thus preventing a possible group mutiny) to take with us since our departure would be well before daylight and before the lodge dining room served breakfast. Or more importantly, coffee. A “box breakfast”? Time would tell.
We scattered to our rooms. Those of us who had not experienced a soak in the hot springs before dinner, did so before retiring.
EcoLuxury vs. EcoTourism: Termas Lodge wasn’t on a par with the ecotourism lodges we encountered on our tour. Although the grounds had lovely flower gardens and river habitat, it was devoid of bird feeding stations. The lodge’s main clientele tended to be Ecuadorians and other world travelers on holiday, not bird watchers. We also soon discovered that the lodge was not designed to handle early morning birding groups, either. José had to negotiate for coffee and tea to be available for our next day’s early departure. The hotel would not open up for breakfast when we needed them to - hence a “breakfast box” compromise. It no doubt helped that José represented a well known Ecuador bird tour company. But poor José. He was still suffering from a painful canker sore. Having to deal with added problems didn’t make his evening very enjoyable after we had long been tucked into our beds. Such is the life of a professional bird guide - and why we were so thankful to have José on the job!
Our lodge rooms were quite comfortable. A wide variety of food, when the restaurant was open, was appreciated. And, wouldn’t it have been great to have those hot springs everywhere we stayed?! The only concrete steps we had to maneuver were the few steps into and out of the hot spring pools. What luxury! Just not a lot of on site birding opportunities typically found at lodges that expressly catered to birders.
