From Quito to Mindo

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Matt and I each had rooms at the Hotel Quito. The hotel was nice for the price, the staff was courteous and professional, and everyone at the desk spoke at least some English. I would recommend paying a little more for the better class of rooms, from Matt's description they were significantly nicer than the cheaper one I stayed in.

In the morning I had breakfast at the hotel restaurant on the top (7th) floor. The following are some of my notes written down during breakfast:


Huevos revueltos=scrambled eggs, taste better than they sound (or look)
Spectacular view of sun rising over city. Naturally no camera. If I was just looking at the inside I could almost convince myself I was at the Top of the Hub in Boston.
cafe con leche=what they would call a flat white in Sydney


After breakfast I met the rest of the members of the expedition in the lobby of the hotel.

Larry was a retired professor from a Southern university. He was a veteran of many Earthwatch expeditions, including several with this Investigator. Eric worked at a zoo in the upper Midwest. Laura and Jennifer were both from the same city but had never met before. Frank was an IT professional from England, and Sarah was a high school student and the youngest volunteer on the expedition. In terms of age we ranged from mid teens to mid sixties, which put me more or less right in the middle. As it turned out I was the only volunteer who was either married or had a child.


Matt had taken a course in Spanish the previous year and he turned out to be the most fluent Spanish speaker among the volunteers. Larry was also pretty comfortable. Eric and Sarah had each taken some Spanish previously but Eric in particular was not very confident with it. I had taken Spanish I starting in 1976(!) and Spanish II in 1981 and hadn't used it since. The other volunteers pretty much had no knowledge of the language.

In terms of bird obsession again Matt probably led the way, even though he had never been to Ecuador before his book knowledge of the birds was quite impressive, and he also had very good eyesite and an excellent memory. Larry of course knew many of the birds from previous trips. Frank was a birder and as I found out later had an awesome pair of binoculars. Next came me, mostly a casual birder in North America and two short trips to Australia, with a fair amount of book knowledge. The rest of the volunteers were not birders per se, but had a general interest in wildlife. Eric in particular was interested in reptiles, amphibians and insects.

Dusti Becker was the Principal Investigator. She is American but grew up abroad and has travelled and worked all over the world. She has run many such expeditions in Ecuador and is listed in the acknowledgments in Ridgely as a contributor to the book.

We travelled in a van over decent paved roads to the village of Mindo, about two hours away. When we got there we checked into our comfortable lodge and had a couple of hours to check out the birds in the neighborhood. We also had a short meeting where Dusti went over what we would be doing on the expedition.

Partial list of birds seen on July 26th:

Lemon-rumped Tanager
Blue-gray Tanager
Variable Seedeater
One-colored Becard
Pacific Hornero
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Elaenia
Yellow-bellied Seedeater
House Wren (Note: this is the same House Wren we have in New England, but the South American birds had a noticeably different "accent" in their song!)
Shiny Cowbird
Masked Water-Tyrant
Red-faced Spinetail
Cattle Egret


Larry, describing an aquaintance of his: "He was like hundred-grit sandpaper. Not real abrasive, but he'd wear you down after awhile." (you have to imagine it being said in a Southern accent).

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