through, so much so that we had to use an emergency shelter to prevent us from becoming wetter and to provide some much needed warmth. Day 3 brought little more than disappointment. The hazardous weather conditions prevented us from completing our ascent; the ridge we were supposed to be trekking through was hit by strong winds making the journey extremely dangerous. The only sensible solution was to descend to our previous night’s campsite, before giving ourselves a head start on the final descent the following day. Although this was a devastating blow to us all, there was one redeeming factor, the spectacular view from our tents. We filled ourselves with the leftovers from the previous night’s dinner before setting out, returning to day 2’s campsite by mid-afternoon. Day 4 brought our final descent back to ground level and the return of our coach taking us back to Riobamba. We spent our final night in Riobamba, relaxing and showering before travelling for a further 8 hours south to Tena and our overnight stay before a day of rest and relaxation. We had been in Ecuador for nearly 2 weeks and sadly had seen very little wildlife, let alone parrots, but the jungle phase of our trip was approaching and I was hopeful to see and photograph at least a few animals and birds. The itinerary for our Ecuador trip had been meticulously planned and time divided up to give a blend of challenging treks, community work and Rest and Relaxation days. Day 14


08 22 BIRD SCENE


in the country provided the opportunity to do some white water rafting. We were split into three teams, each with a team leader and local guide and spent the day rafting down the fast flowing waters of the Amazon basin. Our guide had us complete all sorts of tricks including the very scary ‘death’ spin which was fantastic fun and exactly what we needed to recover from the El Altar assent. The sun was shining; the surrounding views beautiful and we were all in a much happier mood, ready to tackle another 6 hours of travel to Macas for the start of our rainforest trek.


The Rainforest


Macas was much hotter and humid than we had been used to and these conditions were ideal for mosquitos, so the whole group started taking malaria tablets and using lots of insect repellent. As with previous treks we spent the first day exploring the town, buying supplies and meeting our local guides, Merutio and Sunki. The first day in the rainforest was a long trek, but we did stop regularly to look at the different types of trees, lots of creepy crawlies, tree frogs and lizards, but sadly no parrots! We spent the evening at a local tribe’s cabana and having eaten, were guided to a local waterfall to shower and cool off. The setting was like nothing I have ever experienced before; the tall tree’s providing perfect cover from the beating sun and a chilled mist from the waterfall cooling our faces. The following day we had the opportunity to try out a blowpipe, the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48