Northern Ecuador September 2022 (1 Viewer)

[Dortmundbirder]

Excellent report

I always like to ask...if there was anything you would have done differently, what would it have been?

Thank you.
Difficult to say what would I have done differently. Because in general i was very happy and it surpassed my expectations.
I think the easiest would be to add 1-2 more days in total. Especially in the Bellavista area we could have spend a bit more time as well as a full day in Guacamayos. But we were committed to the schedule in total of days and I think it wouldnt have been worth to take any day off anywhere.
A little bit more info about the guayabillas road could have definetly helped though, because that would have been an easy target for an afternoon after visiting Amagusa.

 

[Dortmundbirder]

A fantastic report and very much enjoyed report! Thanks for the work put into keeping track of all your activities and birds.
Identification of those exotic species would be nearly impossible for myself. How did you manage that?
To plan a trip of my own, I’d like to map where you birded and stayed. It seems you had a great deal of pre-trip information on sites to visit.
I’ll take your repeated advice to learn some Spanish. What little I ever knew is in the dust bin these days.
As I am just recovering from Covid caught on my on recent trip, I’d like to know if Ecuadorians are taking that seriously.
Thanks-
Steve

Thank you.
IDing was a lot of preparation. I have almost 2 hours to spend in trains everyday so i used this to prepare in field guides and on trip reports. Best trip Report to prepare is the amazing one of Sjoerd Radstaak. In addition to that I did a lot of ebird research and we were lucky to get some first hand advices by our guide Heike who we used in Rio Silanche.
Some basic Spanish is probably enough. Only way where it was really necessary was at the car rental and in the police checkpoint. The rest is doable I guess, with a bit of english and signing.
Covid was taken more seriously than here in Germany definetly, in some areas mask was mandatory but I think that was rather localised. We were lucky to not catch anything there.

If you need some more information about your planned trip, Iam very happy to help.

 

[Hamhed]

Thank you.
IDing was a lot of preparation. I have almost 2 hours to spend in trains everyday so i used this to prepare in field guides and on trip reports. Best trip Report to prepare is the amazing one of Sjoerd Radstaak. In addition to that I did a lot of ebird research and we were lucky to get some first hand advices by our guide Heike who we used in Rio Silanche.
Some basic Spanish is probably enough. Only way where it was really necessary was at the car rental and in the police checkpoint. The rest is doable I guess, with a bit of english and signing.
Covid was taken more seriously than here in Germany definetly, in some areas mask was mandatory but I think that was rather localised. We were lucky to not catch anything there.

If you need some more information about your planned trip, Iam very happy to help.

You are too modest! I can spend time reviewing books but having much of that stick in my memory is more hope than sure thing.
I will take you up on your offer and PM you when I am ready to take notes.

Thanks-
Steve

 

[lockbreeze926]

Excellent report, thank you.

I was interested to see you obtained secondary insurance for the car rental. How did you manage that? Was it in Ecuador or through a German company?

 

[David Swain]

Excellent report, which you were posting when I was in Ecuador. I posted an eBird Trip Report on a parallel thread on birding from Mindo. Really nice overlap between yours and the Mindo area reports and my experience, but I especially liked your details down the East side. We did not get past Guango.

 

[Dortmundbirder]

Excellent report, thank you.

I was interested to see you obtained secondary insurance for the car rental. How did you manage that? Was it in Ecuador or through a German company?

We did it via "Allianz" they basically cover the excess for you. So first you would have to pay and then get this one back from the insurance. We didnt need to do that luckily.
Allianz had this option for around 170 countries. and the additional insurance and instead of I think 1700€ offer from Europcar to cover that fully, we paid like 90€ for this excess cover. I suppose you could get that in UK aswell.