Day 3 - Wild Sumaco Lodge

 After another lousy  night's sleep I was up just before 5am to shower and finish packing, ready to be leave straight after breakfast at 6am.  

Breakfast was a buffet, and even though we were there on the dot at 6am when they opened, pretty much everything that should be hot, was cold.  Even the scrambled eggs.  At least the coffee was good.

A slight change of plans due to the road closure yesterday, instead of the bus, we jammed into a mini-van, with a 2nd vehicle for all our luggage.  I got the duff seat in the back next to Kenny.  He started out engaging me in conversation, showing me pictures of his trip to Galapagos.  Kenny is from Scotland, near Glasgow, and had a pretty thick accent that I struggle to understand at times.  He is very deaf, and can't hear much, despite having hearing aids.  I think they must have been rotted by the smell of his breath, it was putrid.  I was monosyllabic with my answers, trying no to gag, and he eventually got the message I wasn't in a chatty mood and fell asleep.  

We stopped briefly for a photo of Cotopaxi as apparently it is rare to see it, usually it's covered in cloud.

Cotopaxi

The drive to Wild Sumaco Lodge, where we are staying for 3 nights, was long and windy, up some very steep passes and down the other side.  At our first stop, we could smell the brakes burning, they had been working hard.  

At the highest point we were at 13,000 feet. Then we descended down towards the Amazon lowlands.  The road was terrible, fill of potholes that were so big, the driver had to slow to a crawl to  navigate them. In some places, the road had completely washed away, with a big hole left.  Sometimes there was tape around the missing road, but mostly not.  You would certainly have to have your wits about you to navigate it safely, particularly in the dark!

We had a couple of comfort stops, when I checked my watch expecting it to be midday already, it was only 9am 🙄

Comfort stops

What the countryside looks like

We arrived at the lodge about 11.30, much quicker than anticipated, and it was straight onto the deck to photograph humming birds.  

They are TINY.  I knew they were small, but had anticipated something like a wax-eye, but these guys are about the size of my thumb, from beak to tail in length and diameter.  They also make a lot of noise, at first I didn't realize it was them.  It sounds a bit like a pig grunting, but obviously it's the wings moving a super speed.

After a delicious lunch of soup, spaghetti with meatballs and passionfruit mousse for dessert, it was back to the deck to contine photographing branches where birds had been sitting, and empty airspace after they had flown past.

We were joined by some monkeys in the trees in front of the deck, and some woodpeckers as well.

With a few tips from Guy I have actually been able to capture some humming birds in flight, fast flitty little buggers that they are.  Here's a zoom in of one of the photos on the back of my camera.

The colours are amazing.  Apparently we've seen 13 different types of humming birds so far.

Carole managed to drop her camera and large lens, in the foreground of the photo above, and has wrecked the camera body.  Fortunately she bought a spare, but that's a few thousand bucks down the tube. She is grateful the lens is still working, as she would be very limited without it.

Will post this as it will be dinner time in 10 minutes, then we are going on a night walk around the lodge.

My room

Dining room at the lodge.  The deck is outside the windows on the right hand side.

There's a fire going, even though we don't really need it.