5 weeks in January/Feb (1 Viewer)

[ebwilderae]

Could use some input here on our itinerary. We are not die-hard birders hence we are spending many days doing other things and part of our strategy is to stay put in order to make our money last to match our time. We are in touch with Marcelo Arias for guiding service.

We arrive in Quito.
we tour Quito.
Quito on our own.
Papallacta and Guango Lodge, nt in Baeza
Cabanas San Isidro nt back in Quito
we walk around Quito
another day in Quito
THEN Yanacocha reserve, Nono-Mindo old road nt at Yellow House (Mindo)
Milpe Reserve - Yellow House
we just walk around Yellow House trails
another day at Yellow House, walk around Mindo ourselves
THEN Mashpi reserve nt Yellow House -
Refugio Paz de las aves nt Yellow House (
we just walk around Mindo & Yellow House
we hang around Mindo & Yellow House again
THEN Rio Silanche, nt Yellow House
Bellavista Reserve nt Yellow House
Yellow House
Yellow House
Yellow House
Yellow House
leave for Cuenca/Loja

So we can afford the two weeks at Yellow House and it allows us to walk to and around Mindo as well as their own trails, etc. We then spend a few days in Cuenca playing tourist (could use birding tip here) and then to Copalinga for 3 nts and a few nights at Hosteria Izhcayluma nr Vilcabamba and maybe Casa Simpson at Tapichalaca below that.
I envision this will give us an enormous amount of birding and birds without our reaching the point of saturation that a more intensive 6-10 day birding tour would create. We are in our 60's and can get about well enough but try to avoid the straight up straight down trails we encountered in Sumatra.
My sense is we can't afford to do the Amazon this time and might save it for Peru or another journey anyway.
Your thoughts appreciated.

 

[gdhunter]

My sense is we can't afford to do the Amazon this time and might save it for Peru or another journey anyway.
Your thoughts appreciated.

Experienced members of this forum will undoubtedly provide helpful responses. I'm leading a small group (coincidentally from the same age demographic) to northeastern and northwestern Ecuador next year, and our planned destinations overlap to a significant extent those you've listed.

My own sense is that Ecuador offers Amazonian access that is more logistically friendly and affordable than Peru, and we are allocating a total of ten days to the western Napo lowlands (including the upper Rio Napo and the nearby Sumaco-region foothills). While in the lower tropics we hope to stay at Arajuno Jungle Lodge, which adjoins the highly regarded Jatun Sacha Reserve. There will indeed be some downriver specialties we will miss, but diligent birding SHOULD produce a very gratifying list of Amazonian lowland species. We'll spend much more money per day than we will spend at Yellow House, but less than we would for comparable time downriver.

Gary H

 

[ebwilderae]

Thanks Gary. Your itinierary is one I will hang onto for another time, it sounds great to me. My sense is that we get kind of 'wowed' out after a certain length of time any more so we limit time and destinations. We have the 5 weeks b/c our place here is rented out so we have to be somewhere for 5 weeks I did not really post a question I am thinking so will retry here. Not sure we can afford all six guided days around Mindo, need to drop one day. So are some of these practical to combine and if not which one might folks forgo? We are not targeting the hardest to find birds and will be thrilled with scads of tanagers, woodcreepers, hummers and such as we were in Costa Rica and I have absolutely no hesitation to watch feeders with camera and bins in hand. Also are there other nearby places that we might wander into ourselves near Mindo using taxi most likely. Thanks.