BIRDFORUM.net has been quite fun to read and very informative. I appreciate everyone's efforts. I've learned much. I just wanted to write a few thoughts about Ecuador. My wife and I spent 3 weeks there in Dec of 2002. Without trying to hard we saw 522 species of birds. If you haven't been, it's everything and more. 57 hummers, 71 tanagers, 12 toucans, etc etc. What we witnessed was amazing. Flocks with perhaps 50 species within. Orchids, pink dolphins, monkeys. Rich cultures, very friendly people. My true purpose for writing is to say that when we were guided, it was by Ecuadorians. In fact, I planned my trip with Ecuadorians I met via the Internet. To say they were professional and expert would be an understatement. But what was best was that we were brought into families. Our personal experiences were equal if not greater to the birds. Also, by doing this trip they way I did..........we actually could afford it. Costa Rica gets 4 times the tourists of Ecuador. And the latter is Condors, Galapagos, Amazon, over 1630 species of birds! Go figure. I know there's plenty of excellent trip reports on the Web describing areas we were (east and west of Quito, and Kapawi on the Rio Pastaza). I'd go nuts just writing down the different Quetzals, trogons, motmots, jacamars, yada yada....... I just wanted to say that supporting this sort of sustainable enterprise not only made us feel good, but really made a difference in what we saw and experienced. If anyone would like more detail on things, feel free to Email me. With the way the world is getting today I know there's some who'd like to go to a country like Ecuador but are cautious. If I can be of any help and also be of assistance to a small bio-diverse dream like Ecuador, it would be my pleasure............Chris
Hi Chris Great post, and very good of you to offer advise to any thinking of going, Thanks.
Hey, well put Chris
places like Ecuador are now on the map for most people to visit. Fears of foreign parts are greatly misplaced on the whole and it's as safe as most places to go birding. Plus Spanish is quickly learnt to a reasonable level. You can visit countries like this with little (or no) forward planning these days and a small amount of cash goes a long way. When i've been away over my six weeks hols in the summer I've managed to actually save a bit of cash. The flight is the only real expense....
let's hope this persuades a few people to get over there and experience hummers, jacamars and motmots etc.....
thanks for the inspiration Chris