Andes and Cloud Forest of Ecuador
9th - 16th June 2024
Video of the Cloud Forest at Bellavista
After a tough, but mostly successful three weeks in Brazil, I decided to spend a final week in Ecuador before returning home. My previous visit to the cloud forest and high Andes in February 2023 had been disappointing, particularly in terms of mammals, so I was hoping I'd have more luck in the warmer June weather. Again, the results were rather mixed... but with some notable successes.
High Andes, Papallacta
I have to admit right from the start that Ecuador's high Andes is my least favourite place in the world for photographing wildlife. That's a bold claim, but I stand by it. There are two National Parks, both with entrances near the small town of Papallacta. Antisana is the slightly lower in altitude of the two, and as far as I'm concerned is just a huge, boggy, upland farm. I've now spent a total of four days wading knee-deep through the muddy, flooded landscape and the only mammals I've seen are the numerous cattle, ranchers on ponies with their dogs and a few people out fishing.
Cayambe Coca National Park is an improvement. It covers a huge area with some superb walking trails, and the high section has special paramo plant and bird life as well mammals like spectacled bear, Andean fox and Andean tapeti... but it is almost permanently shrouded in dense cloud. In the five days I've spent exploring it over two separate trips, I've never had more than half-an-hour of continuous good visibility.
Cayambe Coca National Park is an improvement. It covers a huge area with some superb walking trails, and the high section has special paramo plant and bird life as well mammals like spectacled bear, Andean fox and Andean tapeti... but it is almost permanently shrouded in dense cloud. In the five days I've spent exploring it over two separate trips, I've never had more than half-an-hour of continuous good visibility.
However, one of those brief clear spells was spent watching a superb young spectacled bear calmly feeding... which was ample compensation for all the frustrating hours of searching in the gloom and drizzle! Unfortunately, one of the local National Park rangers then chased it off trying to get a close-up on his phone, but by then the fog had descended again anyway.
A couple of miles down the valley is the small town of Papallacta with its hot springs, which is a popular local tourist destination. Strangely, it has completely different weather, with frequent clear skies allowing good views of Andean wildlife like the shining sunbeam hummingbird and Andean tapeti. I stayed at two different resorts and personally would recommend Termas el Pantanal, which is basic but very comfortable with an excellent (if slightly scary!) gorge walk, and costs one tenth the price of its more famous up-market neighbour.
A couple of miles down the valley is the small town of Papallacta with its hot springs, which is a popular local tourist destination. Strangely, it has completely different weather, with frequent clear skies allowing good views of Andean wildlife like the shining sunbeam hummingbird and Andean tapeti. I stayed at two different resorts and personally would recommend Termas el Pantanal, which is basic but very comfortable with an excellent (if slightly scary!) gorge walk, and costs one tenth the price of its more famous up-market neighbour.
Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus)
Carunculated Caracara (Phalcoboenus carunculatus)
Andean Tapeti (Sylvilagus andinus)
Shining Sunbeam (Aglaeactis cupripennis)
Cloud Forest, Bellavista
Kinkajou (Potos flavus)
Flame-faced Tanager (Tangara parzudakii)
Pinocchio Rainfrog (Pristimantis appendiculatus)
From Papallacta I'd chosen to treat myself to a few days in some of Ecuador's superb cloud forest, and a mere three hours drive down the western slope of the Andes brought me to one of my favourite places in the world for wildlife photography... Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve. Set up over 30 years ago by Richard and Gloria Parsons to protect the pristine local forest, it now covers over 2000 acres and is Ecuador's first officially designated Private Protected Area.
The lodge is beautiful, with great views over the forest, comfortable rooms and an excellent restaurant... but of course what drew me here was the wildlife. Dozens of brightly coloured birds such as hummingbirds, tanagers and trogons darting between the foliage; incredible, exotic invertebrates everywhere; secretive tayra, kinkajou and olinguito visiting each night, and to top it all off there was even a young spectacled bear yawning at me from its treetop perch!
Masked Flowerpiercer (Diglossa cyanea)
Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata)
Toucan Barbet (Semnornis ramphastinus)
Tayra (Eira barbara)
Green spiny stick insect (Phasmatodea sp.)
To my mind Ecuador has to be one of the best countries in the world to watch wildlife. With a few hours driving you can travel from the incredible diversity of Amazon rainforest to the completely different cloud forest fauna and then try your hand in the high altitude paramo... after which a short flight will take you to the Galapagos Islands!
The first few days around Papallacta were challenging, particularly after a tough three weeks in Brazil, but great views of spectacled bear made it worthwhile, and then with the help of my excellent guide Gabriel, the last few days at Bellavista were just pure pleasure to finish off my month-long South American adventure!
Mammal Species
Bellavista Cloud Forest
Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus)Tayra (Eira barbara)
Kinkajou (Potos flavus)
Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata)
Red-tailed Squirrel (Sciurus granatensis)
Papallacta and the High Andes
Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus)Andean Tapeti (Sylvilagus andinus)
Young Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) in a tree at Bellavista