Route from Vilcabamba to Quito along the Troncal Amazónia – the road from Loja to the Colombian border. I made reservations: the same mistake I’ve made before. What seems like a reasonable drive on the map turns into a long,...
The road over the pass to Cuenca, our next stop, is high and winding. From sea level in Guayaquil the road climbs to 11,155 feet before descending to Cuenca’s 8,200 feet. In 2017 excessive rains caused a huge mudslide, burying the highway. The road was completely closed for a few years and is now only partially open.
Leaving Baeza, the rainy season kicked into gear. Maybe early this year?
Back at the Quito airport we are reunited with our luggage! Then off for new adventures in Ecuador.
Clay lick in Ecuador’s Cuyabeno with Mealy parrot and many Orange-cheeked parrots. The reason we returned to Ecuador was to see parrots on a clay lick. In 2016 when we were nearby, the tours we found were too expensive. When...
Hoatzin group – exciting new birds for me. Pronounced “What seen” Note where the Cuyabeno area is in eastern Ecuador. We were on the eastern edge, near the Peruvian border. Most of the “Oriente” is covered by the Yasuni National...
Water hole wonders. Leaving Juan Solito we drove the entire day. It took us nearly 6 hours to Yopal: The guys at the reserve say they make the drive in 3…can’t imagine how they do that, although we did stop...
I’m going to spend the entirety of this chapter talking about an amazing private nature reserve owned by the Berragán family on the banks of the Ariporo River on the plains of eastern Colombia…the Ecolodge Juan Solito. It’s located in...
According to Google directions we were supposed to leave El Paujil, drive north to Cimitarra and have only a few more hours until we reached Villa de Leyva. Ho, ho, ho. There is no road north of El Paujil: so...
Green mountains of the interior, east of Medellín. Note: This post is formatted for a narrow screen. Pull sides in if pictures are wildly out of order. Back to Colombia. Getting our rental car turned into an ordeal not to...
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