Ecuador and volcanoes

Due to causes mentioned here this trip has unfortunately been cancelled.

Just having come back home from Borneo (an update will be arriving when I have sorted my photos which will take a while) it's obviously time to start planning the next trip. I have had a trip in my sights for a while; the Annapurna circuit in western Nepal. But then a chance to go to Ecuador to climb three volcanoes suddenly appeared. The trip to Nepal would be 3 weeks and the trip to Ecuador only 2 weeks, but as I'd like to have a couple of vacation days to spare for later the decision was almost made for me.

So here we go!

18th - 19th of November

Flight to Quito and spending time getting used to the altitude (the city is at 2850m). This also includes a visit to the equator, just north of Quito.

20th of November

Early departure driving to Pasochoa NP where we start the first real acclimatization and climb the first volcano on the trip, Pasochoa, which is 4164m tall. After summitting we go south and end up at a hotel in the Machachi village at app. 3000m.

21st of November

We start the day with a 4 hour drive to Zumbagua where we dismount and start the day's walk. Horses and porters handle our luggage so we only need to take care of personal daypacks. The walk will be a short 3-ish hour walk, taking us from 2895m to camp Los Pinos at 3300m in the Mulatullo area.

22nd of November

Leaving early and heading towards the village Yayachanchi using a path which is being used by the locals as a trading route. The village is located at app. 3900m, and after a break we will continue towards the waterfall Pigua where we will set up camp at 4073m.

23rd of November

The morning will be used to get us to the highest pass of the trip at 4466m and from here we will have a clear (hopefully...) view of the next couple of days' goals. Going down again we will be passing through an isolated valley  filled with small Indian villages. We'll end up at a road where we will be picked up and driven to the Quilotoa lake. Here we will be having lunch and spending the night at 3884m.

24th of November

From the crater edge at the lake where we camped we'll start descending down towards the Guayama valley and the village itself. From there we will continue down towards the bottom of the valley at 3995m before we start a slow ascent that takes us to the Chugchilan village at 3198m. From here we will be picked up and driven back to Machachi.

25th of November

An early start will bring us by car up to 3900m from where we wll walk to Refugio Nuevos Horizontes at 4650m. From here we have a steep ascent towards the summit of Iliniza Norte at 5126m before returning to the parking lot and being brought back to the hotel late at night.

26th of November

Rest day in Machachi.

27th of November

A 3 hour drive brings us to the parking lot at 4500m at the foot of the final volcano, Cotopaxi. We will walk to Refugio Jose Rivas where we will have a lunch break, and just above at 5100m we will be doing our glacier training in preparation for the climb of Cotopaxi. Back with the bus we'll go to the Tambopaxi hut at 3800m. An amazing view of the volcano can be had here, the weather permitting.

28th of November

Late departure and travel back to the Jose Rivas refuge. The distance from the parking lot to the refuge will be the only part of the trip where we will be carrying all our own equipment ourselves. Early dinner to have a decent sleep before the summit attempt tomorrow.

29th of November

Departure at midnight and start the long climb to the summit of Cotopaxi. Everything is on a glacier and with only a few steep passages the climb should be doable. A magnificent view from the summit at 5897m. Again - if weather permits. After coming down we have a break at the hut before continuing down to the parking lot and drive back to Quito.

30th of November - 1st of December

We will be departing late afternoon so it's mostly just killing time before we go to the airport and fly back.

27th - 28th – Return home

Saying goodbye to most people in the morning we were three left who ended up going to the Sabah museum in KK. We had all expected a small museum with a few dusty items on display but the place was actually quite large with a large amount of interesting areas; quite a lot of history but also showing the development of materials and the like in Borneo. They also had a large exterior with buildings simulating former villages.

We managed to spend a couple of hours there before going back towards the center and having lunch. At this point we said goodbye to one and the last two of us ended up hanging out at the hotel (we were given access to their hotel room for the day without having to pay extra!) before being picked up and driven to the airport.

Flight home was fine, uneventful as usual. Nothing new in the entertainment system but despite limited sleep the last couple of nights sleeping on the flight still came quite difficult.

After coming home I sent the sun bear sanctuary the requested photo and it didn’t take long before I got a mail back from the founder with a big thanks and “Brilliant!”. That made me happier than I expected. 

Big thanks to Lisa, Elaine (again…), Pia, Pauli, Sidsel, Anne, Kathi and Nicole, our guides Arkin and Hasna and driver Lawrence. You guys where awesome, we had a fun week and I hope to meet you again some time.

26th – Selingan -> Sepilok -> KK

As planned we left the resort at 0900 (once again without much sleep, but mainly due to being social) and our first stop of the day was a Chinese Buddhist temple. Less than 30 years old it still felt fresh and new and as with other Buddhist temples the colors were vibrant.

View from the temple.

A small and very angry bird on the stairs in front of the temple. 

Refused to move when passing by and just chirped very angrily at me.

We kept going and spent some time at a market. There wasn’t much to do and frankly it was clear it was just a matter of killing time before flying back to KK.

Last stop was the war memorial in Sepilok; Japanese soldiers doing terrible things to locals and allies in general during WW2 (Australia lost 8000 men during the war here as POWs, approximately half of their total losses during the war) and the memorial contained detailed descriptions of what had happened and especially quotes from the very few survivors were horrifying/haunting.

A very short summary of the atrocities. 

With that experience over with we left for the airport where we had a light lunch and flew back to KK where we were picked up and brought back to the hotel where we arrived around 1600. From then on it was plan-less while waiting to meet up for dinner at 1900. Last dinner with delicious cheap local food, and while I will miss it I am also looking forward to eating something that doesn’t necessarily contain rice. 

Tomorrow I don’t have a flight until 1940 so most of the day will be spent in KK trying to kill time. Except for one leaving at 0500 all are leaving during the day making it a day full with goodbyes. 

25th – Turtle Island -> Selingan

Breakfast was at 0630 with departure off the island half an hour later. I got up earlier like most of the group to take a short walk on the beach before breakfast in the hopes of seeing a late turtle on her way back into the sea. Curse my slow mornings; I met most of the rest of the group who could inform me that I missed a turtle by 5 minutes.

The boat ride back to the mainland was uneventful and we were soon on our way towards the orangutan rehabilitation center. Arriving we walked around on the board walks and saw the “kindergarten”, where they had the youngest running around among each other – behind glass, though, so camera visibility was so-so.

Orangutan keeping an eye out.

Young one that refused to lift up the food when eating so every bit was taken by bending down and eating from the floor.

A black squirrel appeared at one point.

At 1000 the main attraction started; feeding time. The feeding platforms were out in the open with no glass so visibility was great. A lot of people, though, and while we were there only 3 orangutans appeared (2 adults, one with a 1-year old). But the area they are in is where they live free and do what they want so it is very different from time to time how many you get to see. After they had all left again we went back to the main buildings and went through their info center/museum where we also got to see a short documentary about the animals and story behind the rehabilitation center.

Lunch and afterwards we crossed the street (well, road) and entered another rehabilitation center, this one for sun bears. It’s the smallest bear species in the world and very little is known about it on a scientific level which in turn means that it is also very little known among the public. It was just a short walk around with a platform where several enclosures could be seen. The bears were seemingly struggling with the heat and as we were above them it was near impossible to get a good view of the markings on their chest.

Sun bear.

You can see the marking on the chest, present on all the sun bears.

While looking I suddenly saw a large red thing come falling through the air to the bottom of a tree close to the platform. It wasn’t until it started running up the trunk I realized it was a flying squirrel. I managed to get a quick shot of it on its way up the tree before it disappeared. The ranger on location was surprised as I – especially considering they are nocturnal – so she called her boss over the radio, who was also the founder and CEO of the center. He came running after a moment still wiping his mouth from lunch, confirmed and named it (Thomas’s flying squirrel), and impressed from the fact that I actually managed to get a shot of it he made me promise to send them a copy of the photo when I got home. It had a very young one in its mouth so he suspected that it might have been escaping from a possible python attack, hence the movement during the day.

Thomas' flying squirrel.

Most wild life places we have been at there has been a small 10 MYR (2-3 USD) fee if you wanted to take photos which I have been fine with. But here that wasn’t the case. Unless you had a 500+mm lens, which in that case you were to pay 1000 MYR (yes, that’s a thousand ringgit). Needless to say I left my 50-500mm back in the bus and only brought my walk-around lens. I should thank them, though, as if I had been using my big lens I doubt I would have been able to move the camera fast enough to get the flying squirrel as I did. A perfect example of a blessing in disguise.

1000MYR to bring my large lens? No, not really...

All this was followed up by checking in at tonight’s resort only a couple of minutes’ drive away before some of used returned to see the afternoon feeding of the orangutans. This time there were fewer tourists but a few more orangutans showing up so things were a bit more interesting. It only got better after they left when a group of short-tailed macaques showed up on the feeding platform and ate some of the leftover fruit. Apparently the alpha male almost attacked someone somewhere else in the park as it had felt threatened; showing teeth or making eye contact were two massive triggers so the rangers and our guide reminded us several times to be as discreet as possible when they were nearby.

Northern bushy-tailed jird appeared on the feeding platform after the orangutans had left.

Here the bushy tail is obvious.

The macaques appeared for the fruit after the orangutans disappeared.

When done we were kicked out as they closed around 1600 and the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent relaxing at the resort. We will be leaving at 0900 tomorrow where we’ll get to see the Sunday market, a war memorial and temple before catching a 45 minute flight back to KK.

The housing on Turtle Island was acceptable; we would walk past the resort’s various buildings and they looked really nice until we ended up in the far back at a similar house but obviously much older and a bit run down. But shower and AC worked without a hitch so there were no issues. Here I am placed in a room, albeit with a double bed, with a working shower but NO AC! And the building seems even worse for wear than the one yesterday. They did bring me a mobile AC unit, but it was horribly noisy and it wasn’t possible to lower the temperature. It annoys me a little considering the rest of the group has been placed in new tip-top conditions. I know G needs to maybe cut a few corners if possible when someone needs their own room when not paying for it (it’s possible to pay extra to be guaranteed your own room as opposed to here where I am getting my own room as I am the only male in the group travelling alone) but damn I feel a bit disappointed. It’s only one night, but still. And it’s my own room, but still…

24th – Myne Resort -> Turtle Island

Last night close to midnight our guide took a round of our rooms and informed us that the plans had changed. Instead of going to Selingan and the orangutan rehabilitation center we would start off with going to Turtle Island and after that going to the orangutans instead. This also meant that to be able to catch the boat to the island we would be leaving at 0630 with breakfast at 0600.

Despite it being early we all made it from the resort in an orderly fashion and around 0900 we arrived at the jetty. After a short wait we boarded the small open 12-passenger boat (despite having room for as many as the ones we were sailing on the river at Myne resort it was a fair bit larger) and an hour later we arrived at the island. We had some time off before lunch at 1230 and had planned to go down to the beach with the rest of the group to do some snorkeling. Unfortunately when hitting the bed I fell asleep immediately, and didn’t wake up until 15 minutes before lunch. Pretty lucky, actually, considering I never got to set the alarm. We had lunch and afterwards I joined the others on the beach. A couple of snorkel swims later some of us returned to our rooms to have a quick shower before taking a walk around the island, a walk that didn’t last much longer than 20 minutes at a slow pace.

Houses along the coast.

We were introduced to their info center/museum at 1830, saw a short documentary (which, honestly, felt a bit flat after having seen several beautiful BBC documentaries voiced by Attenborough. Not hearing him feels… wrong) and dinner at 1930.

Turtle nursery/hatchery.

Sunset.

From then on it was purely a waiting game before the rangers would pick us up to give us a live tour of what we had come to the island for. At 2100 it finally happened and we were all (all tourists on the island at that time, app. 30. Not due to low popularity but capacity isn’t much higher) rushed along to see a turtle laying her eggs. On the way there we had to be careful where we walked as we clearly passed by a couple of other turtles laying their eggs.

We saw her lay her eggs in darkness except for the rangers’ flashlights and it did feel a bit crowded with all the tourists trying to get a shot, while a ranger collected the eggs as they were laid so they never got buried by the mother. It was soon over and we were rushed along to see them take the eggs to a controlled environment where they were buried. Having seen that we were once again rushed back to the beach to see them releasing a batch of turtles that had just hatched within the last couple of hours. Again immensely crowded. After that had been taken care of it was all over. 35 minutes from laying eggs to releasing new turtles – a process that normally takes 2 months.

Turtle laying eggs.

Turtle being measured after the egg-laying. 

This was a new one on the island so it got tagged and registered accordingly.

A bucket of 60 golf ball-sized eggs.

A new load of hatched turtles ready to be let go.

I don’t know how to feel about it all; it was great to see it live but I feel that they should have split the tourists into two groups instead of the one. They apparently do so when the resort is completely full (around 40 visitors) but I wonder why they didn’t also do it in this case. It was stressful with everyone trying to get a shot of the action pushing forward without catching the ire of the rangers. And I can’t help but think how the egg-laying turtle feels about it; we were only allowed to stand behind it while it was laying its eggs but afterwards they opened up for the chance to take selfies with it up front. That was a bit too much for me. At least they were good at silently yelling at people not understanding the simple order that flashes were banned (and they fully understood the difference between flashes and the cameras’ guide lights which per experience is rare that happens). I had hoped that the sinners got moved away. The flash can be a real issue with the newly hatched as they can potentially be blinded by them.

Coming back to my room I had a shower and noticed that it had gotten obvious that I hadn’t been putting sunscreen on my back. My back had turned to a beautiful – though painless – red color.

Due to the darkness on the island after sunset I went to use my 18-35/f1.8 on the night’s activities. It was easier to get clear shots but there was absolutely no chance to get a close up of anything. Had I known of the clear flash lights used I might have chanced it with my 50-500/f4.5-6.3 instead which I have been using on all the other night activities to get some potentially amazing close-ups of the little ones going into the sea. Oh, well.

23rd – Myne Resort

We were a couple that stayed up last night talking so it got late enough that our pre-breakfast morning cruise started with 4½ hours of sleep. But there is nothing like potential wildlife sightings that wake you up! It also helped a bit that from the main building of the resort a gibbon could be spotted far away in the top of a tree.

Gibbon far away.

We sailed around for a bit more than 2 hours and sow more kingfishers, birds in general a more monkeys (though no orangutans).

Monitor lizard.

Storm's stork.

Stork billed kingfisher.

Macaque.

Blue-eared kingfisher.

Pied hornbill.

Storm's stork.

Female and male rhino hornbills.

On return we had breakfast and at 1030 we went out for a 2-hour walk in the area. Nothing really sighted except for an orangutan which was first missed by half the group which was then called back when the back half spotted it. It had apparently been sitting 4 meters above the path and just observing when we had walked underneath it, but as we had been busy keeping an eye on where we put our feet looking up was not a priority (which it should always be when wildlife watching!). It was a male estimated at around 30 years and even when getting away it did it very elegant and gracefully, it never felt like it was in a hurry.

Orangutan.

Lunch was had at 1300 and then we had some downtime until 1600. Some of us talked about wanting to have another walk around but the idea was quickly shot down as we were informed that there easily could be elephants in the area. Nobody felt it worth the risk of standing face to face with an elephant just to get a potential extra sighting of something. So relaxing was had until we went back out on the river. The sightings were the same mix as we were getting use to by now.

Return for dinner at 1900 and at 2000 we went out a final time for a night cruise, the final activity when here. We ended up seeing a few crocodiles, a couple of birds, a few swimming elephants in the distance and that was mostly it. But with total darkness except from what the moon on a clear sky gave us it was limited how much could be seen with a single spotlight. It has to be said, though, that the driver/spotter was quite good at locating what was out and put the light on them. Everything considered it was a nice trip though it would have been luxurious to spot pythons and cats of various kinds. But alas, there is a limit to our luck.

Borneo crocodile.

Black crowned night heron.

The 4½ hours of sleep was felt on the way back on the afternoon cruise but a couple of cans of coke during dinner ensured keeping me awake during the night cruise. But I expect that the moment I lie down on the bed I’ll crash immediately.

We are leaving tomorrow at 0730 to make it to the 1000 feeding of the orangutans at the rehabilitation center we are visiting, and spending the night close by enables us to also see the feeding in the afternoon at 1500. I think it’ll be great.

22nd – Poring Hot Spring -> Myne Resort

We departed as planned at 0630 and less than an hour later we were ready to give our orders for breakfast at the tea farm. Every meal we have had the waiters have been in full control and managed to keep track of orders and often also who ordered what. But that changed here. It took several attempts after only a few orders had been handled, wrong dishes etc. Also, because the power suddenly went out they weren’t able to supply their special pancakes which just increased the chaos.

Kinabalu. Which we didn't climb.

Flowers at the breakfast place.

After this slight catastrophe we were to have a tour of the processing plant; another group was being toured when we arrived so we had to wait 15-20 minutes before it was our turn. I wasn’t impressed; it was interesting to see the process but it was too noisy to hear anything the guide said, and the short moments you actually hear a word or two his accent was so heavy you didn’t have time to adjust before the noise overpowered him again.

Tea fields.

We left and headed towards the day’s final destination. Our deadline was 1330 as lunch would be removed then, but when arriving at 1415 we found that they were fully aware of our delay and had left the food out. Hurray!

At 1600 we mounted a small 12-passenger boat to take us up and down the river passing by the resort. The cruise lasted app. 2½ hours and we managed to see quite a selection of wildlife despite the heavy foliage on both riverbanks. According to the list our guide compiled after returning, among other things, we saw hornbills, kingfishers, long tail macaques and silver leaf monkeys. And the cherry on top; 33 pygmy elephants and 2 orangutans, a young one and its mother. While it was great to see the elephants they felt much less impressive than expected, likely due to having seen and being used to large males walk close by the vehicle in Africa. And these being of the pygmy variant were quite a bit smaller. A peculiar difference, apart from size, was the fact that these have much longer tails which reach almost to the ground. The orangutans were almost as one would expect; high up, climbing around and at all times at least partially hidden by the foliage. But they were popular; like in Africa if one vehicle sees something interesting soon several appears seemingly out of nowhere. While they don’t have radios here it did get quite crowded on the river and it was obvious from a distance that there was something interesting to be seen. My lens also garnered more attention than usual and someone in another boat give me her email address with a request to send a copy of my photos of the orangutans as they didn’t have the necessary reach themselves. That was a weird situation.

Brahminy kite.

Green crested lizard.

Crab-eating macaque.

Female proboscis monkey mid-jump.

Female proboscis monkey.

Prized kingfisher.

Great egret.

Pygme elephants. Ears are smaller and tails are longer/larger than on other elephants.

Orangutan.

Ropes/wires were set up across the rivers to let monkeys cross safely.

Male proboscis monkey.

Coming back to the resort we had dinner at 1900 and at 2030 we left for a 1½ hour drive in the dark to see if we could spot any nocturnal animals. Apart from darkness and shadows we also got to see a monitor lizard, jungle fowl and a slow loris. With regards to the last one I have no idea how our spotter managed to see it considering its size and hanging on a tree trunk away from the road.

Lights at the resort.

Buffy fish owl (that looks like it's had too much caffeine). 

Slow loris.

A jungle fowl of some kind.

Monitor lizard.

You can see the tail reach down to the split in the trunk.

Due to having my own room I think I’ve hit jackpot here. The rooms are of same size which means that I have my own double bed, two singles and a folding bed available. I think I have just enough space in my room.