Rest Day in Quito
Monday, July 18, 2011: I had originally planned to see a bit of Quito today, but with all the travel lately (and still coming), I've decided to spend most of the day catching up on writing my trip report.
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| Dawn Light on the Pool |
I did walk a bit on the hotel grounds, adding Black Flowerpiercer and Sparkling Violetear to my hotel list. I then wrote up one more day before having breakfast. The breakfasts at the Sebastian were pretty meager. I don't remember this in the past, and it may be that we were just too early. The breakfasts at the Quito are a different matter entirely.
Breakfast was in the Techo del Mundo restaurant, which occupies the top (7th) floor of the hotel. There's a great view of Quito, and a fabulous buffet. Fruit, cereral, juices, bacon, hams, eggs (scrambled or custom), cheeses, potatos, a tamale dish similar to that we had at San Isidro, a variety of breads, a stew-like beef dish, and other items were available.
After breakfast, I again walked the hotel garden, this time with binoculars. I added a pair of Brown-backed Chat-Tyrants to my hotel list. The Chat-Tyrants, Flowerpiercers, and Violetear were all feeding in bottlebrush. This gave an opportunity for prolonged viewing of these birds, something that is not always possible with the group.
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| Hotel Garden | |
Most of the rest of the day has been spent organizing and writing the draft Ecuador trip report. I got done around 3:30.
I met up with much of the group at dinner. Paul Greenfield recognized me almost immediately, although he wasn't sure about my name. I also met two of the three Galápagos leaders. One gave me a name tag, the first time I've seen them used on a birding trip. Of course, it is a much bigger group than the typical birding trip.
I stayed for the birdlist. Today, they visited Milpe and Séptimo Paraíso (where they stayed). There was a lot of overlap with our trip. Afterwards, Paul showed us a couple of his prints and some of the original artwork for the field guide. I noticed that the colors are not quite the same as in the book.
Hotel Quito, Quito