11 August: You crazy – the fall will probably kill you!
First thing in the morning a family group of five Sayaca Tanagers was hopping about on the spaghetti of wiring on the powerline post opposite the window of Room 107. I didn’t want to photograph them in such a setting but watched with interest until they flew off to a more likely foraging area.
Breakfast was sophisticated and for once didn’t involve los huevos: ham and cheese toasties!
We just had time to check out before our driver to the Refugio appeared with his 4WD. It was to be good roads all the way to the Refugio entrance track so although the car was not spacious it was an easy trip: every filling station we passed in or out of the city had trucks, tractors and diesel cars queuing for fuel.
Ruben Beltran, our driver up to the Refugio, had the resort’s logo on his car so was clearly not just a taxi driver but a Refugio employee or contractor. He drove us up the steep 4WD track to the mirador at the top of the ridge (Steve began to say something as we proceeded up the first long straight but I told him at once not to say anything and he obliged, for which I was grateful as I clamped my jaw on my nervousness even when the wheels got a little squirrelly on a damp patch). Then we changed to Refugio’s Mitsubishi 4WD truck to go down the steeper track to the Refugio with lots of tight hairpins – scary! Happily the driver undertook his three-point turn backing towards the several hundred foot drop before inviting us to board, for which I was extremely grateful. However, he was then going to slide the back bench seat forward to make room behind it for all the bags, inevitably making me sit just behind him – I told him I was going to sit right in the back where I couldn’t see out very well! I was not helped by Steve, judging his gagging order over, helpfully warning me not to look at the road…. Updated by our taxi driver’s translation the Refugio man shrugged and left the seat where it was, heaving a suitcase in next to where I would sit. Much appreciated, gracias.
Actually I continued to find that concentrating on the surface of the track just ahead of the vehicle controlled my irrational fear with perhaps the exception of going into a few hairpins where the chap had to swing wide towards the edge to get round smoothly – oh Lord…..! After only about twenty minutes we were on the flat floor of the valley and I was hoping there would be no rain before we left – I had no ambition to try that track in the wet.
We disembarked and looked around at one of the most stunning views I’ve ever seen from a hotel. We were in a complete bowl surrounded by wooded slopes leading up to huge sandstone cliffs (not sure where the “volcanes” aspect comes in) on mostly rounded peaks, some of which were wide and flat enough to have grasses, scrub or woodland on their summit plateaux. The sky was brilliant blue and the sun shone in almost friendly fashion.
Our en suite room was on the corner of a single-storey block with wide shallow roof projecting far enough beyond the walls for a tiled veranda with a low retaining wall from which rustic wooden columns supported the eaves. Very Spanish New World architecture. Inside was not as large as Room 107 but it had three beds, making one of them a natural suitcase shelf for those intending to live out of the case (for less than a week, that definitely means me.) Part of the bathroom floor was wet and as we came in and out over the afternoon we noticed this was spreading: there was a leak somewhere below the floor tiles. But was it from the clean or foul water system? Perhaps our room had been empty and untended for a couple of days because the staff took the news without surprise, despatched someone to immediately dry it up and thereafter it didn’t really recur.
The local long-haired domestic cat checked out the new arrivals and ignored our suggestion that it should go somewhere else. We soon afterwards found it playing with a lizard that was skidding about on the tiled outdoor area and no doubt annoyed it by shooing it away and removing the lizard to a safer place out on the lawn. Despite this blatant interference with its habits the cat seemed to take the long term view that any company was better than none and continued to seek us out as well as accompanying us on any trips from accommodation to the dining area and back. While looking around on our own we found a
Lineated Woodpecker on a tree growing out of the open lawn, not part of the surrounding forest, not far from our room.
A little later Steve, outside while I was rearranging kit indoors, called that he had a
King Vulture and I got out just in time to get sufficient on it for a tick. I was definitely hoping for a return match later in the week though, with this one of the birds I especially wanted a decent view of due to its wonderful head colours.
We added
Military Macaws – Steve’s key species at this location, though not his only target – flying across the face of one of the great faces of red rock looming over us, as well as
Black-billed and
Rufous-bellied Thrushes bouncing around the short turf along with the now familiar Creamy-bellied.
We were introduced to Rocky, our guide for the week. He was a lean, wiry bloke a bit shorter than me (and I’m not tall) but possessed of great energy and in combination with his phone and its apps, more than capable of finding us the birds of the area. However, his tendency to reach a known stakeout and immediately resort to playback to attract the bird definitely wasn’t Steve’s thing and to be honest it’s not how I bird normally either: I’d rather find as much as possible by human senses and if something needs a little encouragement then perhaps give it a burst. Still, there’s no denying that the technique works and with limited time in thick forest with not great light, it was generally effective. Where individuals didn’t respond you did have to suspect they were hearing the recordings and going “Yeah, heard it all before, that’s track No. 3 from Xeno canto”!
John
Refugio Los Volcanes from the mirador at the top of the entrance track
Ditto long lens version
Going down the entrance track - such photos always flatten out the steepness!
Refugio (our room)
The mirador from the Refugio clearing
I do have one book for Ecuador and have used it to try to get to the genus but I really have never dedicated enough time or developed any field skill with thim.
