Ecuador
by Warwick Lister-Kaye
Eco-tourism
and Ecuador
Ask any naturalist to name the number 1 wildlife location
(after Hayling Island) and the answer may well be
Ecuador, which encompasses the Andes, the Galapagos
Islands and the Amazon Rainforest. Ecuador, means
Equator. Quito the capital, is the centre of the earth
- but you can see the Andes from here, within 20 miles
Condors can be flying overhead.
There is nowhere like the Galapagos. The only predators
are the short-eared Owl and the Galapagos Hawk, thus
the animals and birds are fearless (Why no eagles?
Answers please). There are abundant fish all year
round, consequently birds do not have to migrate,
nor indeed even fly, thus evolution has developed
the only flightless Cormorants in the world. (Do certain
birds actually enjoy flying? Has this no consideration
in functional evolution?) Although advised not to
touch the animals, they may touch you, but normally,
they don’t even bother to ignore you. Despite
being on the equator there are penguins. It is - -
- - unique.
Here
Warwick, describes a holiday he led in 2005. Downsides:
other side of the world, 8-hour flight delay, then
I had all my valuables immediately stolen from the
hotel check-in. To the displeasure of others, I sang
without conviction, ‘Things can only get better’
and they did. All the naturalists agreed it was the
most perfect 3 weeks of a lifetime.
Warwick
runs Rolling Earth Travel, unusually he always travels
with the groups, and as with all nature holidays,
the company employs professional guides who know when
and where to locate the wildlife. Some say that eco-tourism
does as much harm as good to the environment, what
with airline emissions, but the reason the Galapagos
is a National Park is due to tourism. Most of the
islands are off-limits anyway. If you decide that
one day you will go there, ensure you go for at least
a week, 3 or 4 days are insufficient if you wish to
see everything.
We
all know of the Amazon possessing the highest numbers
of life-forms on earth, how it is being diminished,
and even though Ecuador embraces just 2% of the forest
(although 30% of the species can be seen here), even
this is being dramatically reduced. Eco-tourism is
one of the lifelines.
If
you are into ‘roughing it’ there are alternative
travel companies that specialise in this. Nowadays,
even in the heart of the Amazon jungle, there is in
truth unexpected luxury, electrical generators and
certainly, no ‘hole in the floor’.
There
are holidays galore both abroad and here at home,
whale-watching, birds, butterflies, photography, from
the Peak District, to Cumbria, Wales, Ireland, anywhere
here or abroad, just browse through the internet or
nature magazines. A nature holiday may be more expensive,
as they employ guides, but the memories will last
a lifetime. Yes, many travellers are total beginners
who simply love nature and scenery.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ecuador:
Amazon, Andes & Galapagos Islands
In November 2005 twelve nature lovers travelled to
Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Our aim was to
explore the key eco-systems of this tremendously bio-diverse
country from the high volcanic peaks, down through
moorland, cloud forest and Amazonian jungle to the
unique evolutionary crucible of the Galapagos Islands.
Every day brought many and varied highlights; too
many to describe but I will mention a couple of particularly
magical moments.
We
spent a day amid the cloud forest of Mindo; a moist,
cool, lush forest of trees, epiphytes, mosses, lichens
and ferns where shrouds of mist drift slowly across
the steep slopes hiding and revealing peaks and saddles
in the mountains. We settled onto benches in a woodland
grove and spent an hour watching hundreds of hummingbirds
feeding at man-made feeders. When we arrived we were
aware of thrumming noises in the air around us and
the occasional streak of vivid colour but as we settled
down with our bins trained on the feeders, the most
extraordinary sight unfolded.
The
air thrums and where there had been empty space there
appears a hummingbird. Its body is held perfectly
still next to the feeder while its wings beat so fast
as to be a blur about its back. Its eye is a tiny
pinhead of dark intensity as its tongue flicks back
and forth into the hole in the feeder, glistening
with false nectar.
They
move in a blink from one space to the next, never
still for more than a couple of seconds and one replacing
another like a conjuring trick. An ever changing array
of tens of tiny birds dance in the binocular's optic
and all the while our guide sat beside us whispering
wonderfully exotic names; “There’s an
Andean Emerald, that’s a Violet Tailed Sylph,
that one’s a Fawn Breasted Brilliant, oh look
there – a White Whiskered Hermit!” And
so the iridescent dance continued with mesmerising
intensity until we were forced to break the spell,
stand up and walk away.
A
few days later we were staying a Sacha Lodge in the
Amazon rainforest. The lodge is small and comfortable,
beautifully situated on the edge of a lagoon in the
jungle. Every day we walked out on the network of
narrow trails that stretch out into the dark expanse
of vegetation that crowds all around. Our superb guides
brought the jungle floor to life, showing us tiny
Poison Arrow Frogs, or medicinal plants, or the nest
of Leaf Cutter Ants, the buttress roots of a Kapok
Tree, Salamanders, Pygmy Marmosets, an Army Ants’
bivouac or how the Quechua Indians set a trap for
Agoutis. The real joy for me, though, was to return
from the walk, sweaty and sapped by the humidity and
plunge into the soft, sweet water of the lagoon. It
was the most blissful, revitalising experience to
swim slowly away from the landing stage and enjoy
the sound of the frogs’ chorus as the sunset
spread red light across distant anvil-head thunder
clouds.
The
last week of the trip was spent island hopping in
the Galapagos Archipelago. Zodiac dinghies transferred
us from our comfortable cruise boat to sandy bays,
where we stepped off barefoot and waded ashore onto
beaches crowded with Galapagos Sea Lions, Marine Iguanas
and the startlingly scarlet Sally Lightfoot crabs.
The
wildlife of the Galapagos is legendary and we watched
it all – Giant Tortoises, Blue-footed Boobies,
Fur Seals, the famous Darwin Finches, Greater Flamingos
and ‘Magnificent Frigate’ birds. The sea
lions are very endearing, with their soft fur, Labrador
faces and intelligent eyes. They are also fearless
and regularly break the national’s park ‘no
touching’ rules as they trundle over to relaxing
tourists to sniff and nuzzle curiously.
They
appear ungainly on land but when we snorkelled
with them we witnessed their aquatic ballet. Regularly
we found little gaggles of females playing in five
feet of water. Like frolicking puppies they would
encircle each other, chase and hide; their flippers
flying them through the water with breathtaking agility.
They would roll, tumble, loop the loop and porpoise
for air and all the while they were aware of our smiling
faces just feet and inches away. If we dived amongst
them they would include us in the game, circling around
us or rushing at us in a startling feint, just to
dart away again, streaming bubbles from their nostrils
in mirth, (or so I imagined.) It was breathtaking
to watch their sleek torpedo bodies twisting and sliding
through the water. But, more than that, the feeling
of mutual trust and enjoyment with an intelligent
animal was heart-warming; bringing one of the ladies
in my group to tears in her mask.
Towards
the end of our Galapagos cruise we had all congregated
on deck late one afternoon to celebrate crossing the
equator for the fourth time and to enjoy a couple
of sundowners. Quite suddenly a vast school of Common
Dolphins appeared all around us. As far as the eye
could see to port and starboard, fore and aft, they
porpoised in the same direction as us. At any one
moment there were a hundred dolphins clear of the
water. We estimated that there were between five hundred
to a thousand individuals. They escorted us for over
an hour as the sun raced toward the horizon and the
sky turned orange, then red and darkened and our straining
eyes could no longer pick them out. Pure magic.
Warwick
Lister-Kaye
www.rollingearthtravel.com/
Back
to Articles
