Day 8--Cuenca via Acacana

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2013
Drive to Cuenca via Acacana  4:30 am breakfast; morning birding humid, montane forest on rocky road; Afternoon birding in warm, arid valleys then climbing to 11,000 feet and back to 8,400 ft; Cuenca for dinner
Night at Oro Verde Hotel, Cuenca

After a 4:30 am breakfast, we headed for another patch of treeline forest en route to Cuenca. However our plans to arrive at dawn for the Shrike-Tyrants’ dawn singing were thwarted by yet another landslide closing a road. The road was supposed to open at 6am but didn’t. The only alternative was a very long detour via Guayaquil, and so we waited. The road opened about 6:30am and we set off again. Our first birding area near San Lorenzo, netted us both Black-billed and White-tailed Shrike-Tyrants, as hoped. The two are quite similar, but the White-tailed spreads its white tail in flight and is unmistakable.

White-tailed Shrike Tyrant perched by Neil Osborne and in flight display by John Gallager

Black-billed Shrike Tyrant; photo Paul Gale

Our route took us through Saraguro, a city and area primarily populated by Ecuador’s indigenous Saraguro people, 15,000 of them living within a 20-mile radius of Saraguro. Rose Ann read us an article Harvey had prepared containing information about the Saraguro. We learned that the Saraguro were originally sent from Cuzco, Peru, to Ecuador by the Incas in the mid 1400’s in order to keep an eye on the local rebels (Palta) as well as to teach them Quechua. The Saraguro still speak a dialect of Quechua.

Willy explained that these are a clever people who grow corn, beans, potatoes, and supply southern Ecuador with most of its beef. For more than a century they have been driving their cattle over the divide and down the east slope to suitable grazing in order to fatten them up. Instead of fencing their cattle, they tether them to an area and move them to another area when the first has been grazed . . . and fertilized; thus, these non-roaming cattle are fat and healthy, their fertilized pastures lush.

The Saraguro manner of dress is noteworthy. The black felt and white, broad-brimmed hats they wear were forced on them by the Spanish. These hats are handmade in Saraguro of felted wool. Today the hat tends to be worn on special occasions such as the Sunday market or fiestas. The women’s dress is pre-Hispanic and is made up of woven rectangular pieces that are never cut. They are sewn together, and the colors on the seams indicate the owner’s community. Women also wear a rectangular shoulder wrap fastened by a shawl pin (tupu) often a family heirloom and made of solid silver melted down from early Peruvian coins. The men wear a tunic (kushma) and short pants (pantalones cortos). This style was also imposed by the Spanish who were wearing that style at the time of conquest.

Notice the bare feet of the women at right. We passed a barefooted Saraguro woman walking up  the steep dirt road in the cold rain. We were wearing boots and warn clothes.

Next we stopped at Bosque Natural Huashapamba, a local Saraguro reserve, and walked out across a marshy field to a strip of woods on the other side of the pasture. Here we heard the Red-faced Parrot, but never saw it. Our birding started out promising, but rain descended and the birds went into hiding. I’d carelessly left my umbrella on the bus, and my old rain jacket was not very waterproof. Eventually the rain drove us back to the bus and we abandoned the area before seeing the parrots or more than a few birds.

We moved on to Acacana, climbing up narrow Radio Tower Road to the top of the mountain. We had better luck here, and the sun came out (yea!). Part of the group, including Iris, saw a little Crescent-faced Antpitta, but the rest of us didn’t get a look. We did see, however, a beautiful Oscellated Tapaculo, Superciliaried and Black-headed Hemispinguses (Hemispingi?), a Blue-backed Conebill, a Variable Hawk, Mountain Caracara, and a Streaked Tuftedcheek, this one foraging among the bromeliads at Huashapamba. This I think was my favorite sighting of the day. The bird  looks like and old salt with a beard.

Streaked Tuftedcheek; photo, Thomas Grim

View from the top  of Radio Tower Road



Rose Ann, Lynn, and Sally spot a Blue-backed Conebill

Clockwise: Crescent-faced Antpitta, Pete Morris; Oscellated Tapaculo, Roger Ahlman; Streaked Puffcheek, Thomas Grim; Blue-backed Conebill, Carol A, Horner 

Black-headed and Supercilliaried Hemispinguses, both photos Nick Athanas

Mountain Caracara in field, LiorKislev; Mountain Caracara. perched on branch, Dick Daniels. We saw our caracaras mostly on the ground in short grass fields

Radio tower road, a narrow rocky, one-lane, snaking off in the distance

At the top of Radio Tower "road," Edgar, with Willy's  help, managed to get the big bus turned around without driving it over the side of the mountain, and we headed back down having seen some interesting birds

After descending radio tower road, we continued on, driving to our hotel in Cuenca. On the way through Cuenca, I was shocked to see some of Ecuador’s fast food. Ecuador has American fast food restaurants as well as their own fast food chains, but, there is also another fast food method. “Street meat” vendors offer anything from fruit mousse to slices of freshly roasted pig and guinea pig as well as fresh fruit, complete meals, and special treats. Below are several photos of delicacies that could be had streetside in Cuenca . . . most viewed from the bus. All but top right photo from Internet.

No not ice cream melting in the sun, but Espumilla, a traditional ecuadorian mousse or foam dessert made of egg whites, sugar and fruit

Various roasted whole pigs, and (ouch!) small roasted guinea pigs. One can select a guinea pig from a cage of live animals much like we do with lobsters. This method of selection, and also seeing the animal whole (and seemingly grimacing) makes me a little squeamish. The guinea pigs are killed humanely with CO2 I was told.

Back to the Field Guides birding tour. Our Cuenca hotel was so new that they were still building rooms. Iris’s and my room was lovely and seemingly comfortable but we learned that the thermostat was merely for looks. The room became breathless, despite our opening the window, which faced a parking lot and a city park. Also, there was no hot water.



The park behind the hotel from our room window; we will cross the street and bird a trail through it tomorrow morning; that's the bus and Edgar in the parking lot behind the building, too

Iris showered, but rather than take a cold shower, I cleaned up a bit but went to dinner in my grubbies. We FG birders were nearly the only people in the large dining room. We enjoyed a nice meal and then entered the birds we saw today on our bird lists. After that it was back to the room where I braved a cold shower and we sorted out what we would need for the next day’s birding at high altitude in El Cajas Park. We put these things in our daypacks. In the morning we will send the rest of our clothing and gear back to Quito with Edgar. I spent a sliver of time for some brief note-taking and then bed. Iris had an upset stomach and did not feel well all day.