Day 11 - Mindo to Quito

Our earliest wakeup yet, 4am for 5am departure. This morning we were hoping to see the local variant of Cock of the Rock, this one is red rather than orange.  We arrived at the wrong entrance at about 6am after yet another long narrow windy goat track full of potholes.  After about 15 minutes, someone turned up on a motorbike and lead us to the correct entrance about another km further up the long windy goat track.  So we almost missed them, as they come and "compete" for the attentions of the females, and once they are done squawking and preening, they all fly off to have breakfast. There were plenty there that made a raucous noise, but were mostly hidden in the back behind lots of leaves and twigs, making it almost impossible to focus on the suckers.

Back on the bus again for another location within the same property, this time to see the Antpitta. By now I was hungry, and keen for the loo, and the 1st location the bird did not show for ages. I gave up and went back to the bus for our takeaway breakfast, and of course he turned up about 3 minutes after I left.  Meh.  It was a brown bird in a dark location. And we had seen another really colourful one on a wire before that, which I thought was much more interesting. Guy said to me sotto voce "you didn't miss much".

Then another spot for yet another brown bird in a dark spot.  It's not all lovely humming birds you know.  I took some terrible shots at really high iso because I hadn't bothered to take my tripod.  By now I was a bit over the faff of getting on and off the bus. I walked back up to the humming bird viewing area and managed to snap a bird that we had not seen before and is specific to this location.  Amazing how there is so much difference in varieties over such a small area.

As we walked out, we were shown a black and white owl, hidden deep amongst the branches but very pretty looking. 

We had a snack at this bird watching place, something called bolones, which are balls of green plantain, in this case filled with cheese and chicken, and then deep fried.  Delicious. 

Bolones

This was followed by a massive empanada and really strong, but great coffee.

Back on the bus heading for Quito.  It didn't seem very long before the rain forest petered out and we were in what looked like a desert.  The area immediately surrounding Quito is really dry.  The first day we drove through here on the way to Mindo it was really dusty, Frank said they use the soil to make bricks and concrete.

We got caught in a massive traffic jam as 3 lanes merged into 1 due to road works. 

Jammed

Taking advantage of the stationary or slow moving traffic were dozens of hawkers selling their wares.  The stuff on sale ranged from food and drinks, to sunglasses, sunshades for car windows, music on flash drives, and even a kite.

Food?

Sunshade?

Soft toys?

A kite anyone?

Plenty of people too advantage of the jam to catch up on social media.

We checked into the hotel just after 3pm and after a quick turnaround to change and freshen up, we headed out to Old Quito for dinner.  The restaurant has a spectacular view over the city.  If you thought Wellington streets were steep and windy, it ain't got nothing on Quito.

Initially we went the wrong way, and Irwin our driver had to reverse down a street as steep as this one, that was barely wide enough for the bus, and then go back up and turn a really sharp corner.  He remained calm throughout, though I was quietly packing it, just a little.

The old town looks really interesting but we were told it's not safe to wander around, especially with cameras and phones. What a shame.  

This was the daytime view from the restaurant where we had a very nice meal, and spent some time on the top of the building taking some shots of the view.

Quito by day

Quito by night

Terrible phone photos, hopefully the camera ones will be better.

At dinner, I overheard Rhona having a whinge to Carole about the seating arrangements on the bus.  It was configured with two seats on one side and one on the other.  Those lucky enough to nab a double seat could have their camera bag and tripod next to them, and those of us with the single seats had to put our gear at the back. After my experience with Kenny's breath the first day, I was very keen to get a single seat so no-one could sit next to me, so I ended up at the back.  Despite having his camera bag next to him, Jeremy always took forever to get himself organized and get off.  And Kenny ...  well Kenny's faffing was off the scale.  

Ali was quick to lay claim to her two seat spot behind Guy with the threat that she would get carsick if she had to sit further back. 

Rhona initially claimed a double seat, but after being late to the bus on day 3, Carole had gazzumped her, so she was stuck with a single seat.  Her whinge to Carole was that because her gear was at the back, she was last off (100% not true, it was always me that was last off) and that meant when she got to the photo spot, all the best possies were taken.  Sounds like an excuse to me for being a shit photographer 🤣  In response to Rhona's whinge, Carole said "well I'd have been happy to swap but everyone was already on the bus when I got on".  These guys couldn't lie straight in bed, honestly. 

Anyway, I was most amused to overhear Rhona's complaint.  By the last day I'd had a complete gutsful of the whole whinging lot of them, and much tongue was bitten to stop me telling them what I really thought!

We left the restaurant and headed down via a slightly less terrifying route than what we came up.  This took us through the newer part of Quito, and it was worlds apart.  This Quito was like any other modern city.  We dropped Frank off at his home with a huge pile of camera gear, said our goodbyes and continued to our hotel, where we all had  a nightcap, said farewell to Paulo who was leaving on a 6am flight the next morning and arranged to meet for breakfast at 9am.

I emptied everything from my bag and put things into piles to assist with packing next morning.  The dirty laundry pile was more of a mountain.