his brother singing in native tongue, a song about a Toucan.
Even during the day the forest birds remained elusive, probably due to the noise made by our large group. My camera was always ready, but I was unable to photograph any parrots. Parrot watching is I believe quite specialist and within Ecuador there are three main regions that house a lot of the bird species, the first and largest of which is the Orellana Province, which contains the Yasuni National Park. Here can be found various Parrots and Parakeets, including Scarlet Macaws and Blue-headed Pionus parrots. Another popular location for bird watching is the Podocarpus National Park in Zamora-Chinchipe Province, home to the rare White-necked Conure which appeared on the front cover of the February magazine (see appendix for further details).
Our final day in the rainforest was spent visiting a nearby hollow, one which legend has it, used to contain a tribe of giants who would walk side ways due to incorrectly positioned feet. We returned to camp, packed our kit and boarded a bus back to Macas where we would spend our last evening before travelling west to Cuenca.
The 8hr journey to Cuenca was one of the more enjoyable ones as we navigated mountain roads with breath taking views. The town was very modern and far removed from the rainforest villages we had been staying in. We had a very enjoyable meal in a
26 BIRD SCENE
local restaurant then settled into our hostel for an early night. The next day we visited Inca Prica and the 13th century Inca Ruins, they were much smaller than we had expected but still very interesting and thought provoking.
Community Project
The following day we again travelled west, first to Guayaquil, then on to the coastal town of Puerto Lopez, where we were to spend the next week on the community project phase of our trip. We were greeted by our host a local Pastor and shown to a school classroom that would provide our accommodation for the week. The Pastor was our DIY construction supervisor and over the course of the week we refurbished much of the school. We painted desks, benches and fences, built playground equipment including swings, laid a concrete floor in the schools kitchen, plastered and painted walls and generally tidied up the school grounds.
One of the last tasks was to paint a mural on one of the outside walls, which would hopefully, remind the community of the time we spent with them and the work we completed. We were all very sad to leave the school and the local community who had made us so welcome, but it was time to move on to the Isle de la Plata, the ‘Poor Man’s Galapagos’ Island. We arrived at the coast and boarded a boat for the very bumpy 90 minute crossing to the island. The crew had
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