Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve – October 17th and 18th, 2011

Highlights:

• Cloud Forest !!  Beautiful jungle scenery & wildlife viewing
• Seeing so many new (to us) species of birds
• Fun hike to & in a stream

Bellavista is an ecofriendly lodge built on a hillside near Mindo, a misty and mountainous part of Ecuador.  The main activity at the lodge is bird watching.  The lodge is visited by birders from around the world hoping to catch a glimpse of the rare Cock of the Rock, or a Plate-billed Mountain Tucan, or some of the hundred (or so) different types humming birds that frequent the area. 

The main building at Bellavista is a spherical dome made predominately of bamboo that gives one the feeling they are living in a bird house in the canopy of the surrounding trees.  This dome is where Gretchen and I stayed, in a room built above the dinning room. We arrived early in the morning at Bella Vista, had breakfast in the dome, and departed on a guided tour, walking some of the trails through the surrounding temperate rain forest.  Along our walk  we saw many interesting local birds including: a Masked Trogon, a Booted Racket Tail, a Cinnamon Flycatcher, a Rufous-chested Tanager, a Purple Throated Woodstar, a Masked Flowerpiecer, a Common Potoo...  Gretchen has a checklist provided by the lodge, which she has checked off some 40 birds we saw during our stay.

We returned to the lodge for a lunch and some time to take in all the birds that feed around the lodge.   -The lodge hangs hummingbird feeders, and keeps low wattage lights on at night.  The hummingbird feeders attract hundreds on hummingbirds and the lights attract moths at night, which thereby attract many local birds in the morning hours.

After lunch we joined another guided tour on different trails of the Bellavista property.  Again we saw many birds including: the Violet Tailed Sylph, the Collard Inca hummingbird, a Spillman’s Tapaculo, a Blue Capped Tanager, a Dusky Bush Tanager, a Crested Quetzal, and a Squirrel Cuckoo.

After retiring quite early by our standards (8:30pm), we arose to a chorus of bird chatter, and dressed for our 6:30 am hike through the cloud forest for more bird watching.  We then returned to the lodge for a breakfast and more te de coca. :)

After breakfast we chatted with Richard, the British owner of Bellavista.  Richard informed us of the different levels of hikes available to the guests of the lodge.  We ended up settling on the ‘suicidal’ hike.  We grabbed some rubber boots from the basement of the lodge and headed off up the ‘R’ trail, (‘R’ for ridge).  There was not much bird watching on the ridge trail due to the density of the jungle/forest.  It was so dense at times it was hard to see the birds we could hear singing just a few feet from us at times.  Even so, the trail was beautiful and very enjoyable.  We then caught the ‘A’ trail.

Along the ‘A’ we passed through some cattle grazing land and had a 10 minute viewing of a Plate-billed Mountain Tucan feeding just above us.

The ‘A’ led to the ‘S’ trail, (‘S’ for stream), and after a long winding descent we found ourselves standing in a stream in the thick of a the rainforest.

From here we waded upstream for about 30-40 minutes occasionally coming upon small waterfalls where wooden ladders and/or ropes were available to allow for portage.  Eventually we arrived at a waterfall too large to climb around.  The trail began again here winding back up the steep slope and connecting us with the ‘I’ trail.  Gretchen and I decided to take a skinny dip in the falls before our ascent.  The water was quite chilly and the main waterfall came down with such force it was painful to stand under, however the splattering and mist off to the sides of the main fall was very pleasant.

We took a slight detour on the ‘Y’ trail, which lead us back down the steep slopes to the stream above the large waterfall. We walked in the stream again, this time downstream, hoping to see the top of the falls.  We turned back, however, just 30 feet or so from the top, as it seemed the only way to view the top of the falls was to go over the falls.

We returned to the lodge just in time for our lunch before heading back to down the 12K gravel winding road that connects with the road to Quito.

Bellavista was a beautiful place, very interesting and very relaxing, and we saw many interesting plants and, of course birds, while staying there.

One interesting side note to the trip was that our travel partners from Quito, Jeff and Barbara, were from Bremerton, Washington.  There were numerous links between us: Barbara’s home-economics teacher was Gretchen and I’s landlord in Tracyton, Wa.,  Barbara is friends with Alvin Tim who I used to work with, and who also sold me his pick-up truck that was later smashed by a falling tree while living in the Tracyton rental house, Jeff and Barbara live a block away from my 9^th grade science teacher,  Barbara’s high school principal was also Gretchen and I’s landlord for our rental on the water in Bremerton,…

Here's a link to more photos.

Tips for other travelers and thoughts for a return trip:

• Stay at Bellavista for more than one night so you have time to enjoy the lodge’s grounds AND go on side trips to other Mindo-area spots such as Angel Paz, where you are almost guaranteed to see the Cock of the Rock and other fabeled birds.
• Fellow birders suggest this other Mindo-area lodge: Tandayapa
• Birders suggest these lodges in the Jungle (Oriente) area of Ecuador: Sacha Lodge and Napo Wildlife Preserve