The first part of our Ecuador expedition started in Guayaquil. It is generally recommended that travelers to Galapagos allow a few extra days before departing to the San Cristobol airport, so we chose to stay 3 days at the Parque Historico, which is a zoo / botanic garden / interpretive museum. Our flight into Ecuador stopped in Panama. On the way in, we flew over the Panama Canal:
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| Panama Canal |
The hotel itself is right in the middle of the
Parque Historico:
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| Hotel del Parque Historico |
The park was bustling during the day - it was the last week of summer vacation, so many families were there - but after hours, it was very quiet:
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| Quiet park after-hours |
The hotel is built around an old church. The interior was pretty:
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| Church interior |
We wandered around the park both full days that we were there. There was a very nice boardwalk out to a pier which gave a great view of the river and back toward the buildings in the park:
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| Looking back from the pier |
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| Sunset with crescent moon |
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| Sunset with Jill and Marie |
The grasslands and marshy areas near the river were home to quite a few birds. We saw a few herons:
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| Green Heron (?) |
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| Striated Heron (?) |
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| Black-crowned Night Heron |
The open skies made it easier to spot hawks, Turkey Vultures, and Frigatebirds flying overhead:
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| Short-tailed Hawk |
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| Turkey Vulture |
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| Magnificant Frigatebird |
There was this hawk, but I did not get good enough photos for an ID:
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| Hawk |
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| Hawk |
Quite a few swallows/swifts flew overhead:
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| Swallow |
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| Swallow or swift |
'There were Groove-billed Anis and Great-tailed Grackles in the shrubbery near the river (and elsewhere in the park):
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| Groove-billed Ani |
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| Groove-billed Ani |
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| Great-tailed Grackle |
At sunset, Roseate Spoonbills would fly over:
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| Roseate Spoonbills |
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| Roseate Spoonbills |
We did go through the zoo, but I don't include the zoo creatures here. However, in the zoo we did find some great non-captive wildlife. Here is a Yellow-crowned Night Heron:
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| Yellow-crowned Night Heron |
And there were fiddler crabs in the mud flats under the mangroves:
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| Fiddler Crab |
In addition to the animals in the zoo, we found many wild birds and other critters in the woods and park grounds. A local naturalist called this an "Oven Bird":
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| Oven Bird (Pacific Hornero) |
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| Pacific Hornero |
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| Pacific Hornero |
It is so-called because it builds a nest out of mud and sticks that looks a little like a bee-hive oven.
In the forest, we found (of course!) more birds. There were Scarlet-backed Woodpeckers:
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| Scarlet-backed Woodpecker |
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| Scarlet-backed Woodpecker |
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| Scarlet-backed Woodpecker |
There were Blue-grey Tanagers:
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| Blue-grey Tanager |
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| Blue-grey Tanager |
There were Gray-cheeked Parakeets (we were told we were very fortunate to see these):
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| Gray-cheeked Paraket |
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| Gray-cheeked Parakeets |
There were Amazilia Hummigbirds:
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| Amazilia Hummingbird, male |
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| Amazilia Hummingbird, male |
And another hummingbird (not Amazilia, note the black beak); I think these are Short-tailed Woodstars, although with 132 different species in Equador, identification can be a challenge:
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| Short-tailed Woodstar (?) |
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| Short-tailed Woodstar (?) |
There were Kiskadees (Greater, I think):
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| Greater Kiskadee (?) |
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| Greater Kiskadee juveniles, looking at... |
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| Greater Kiskadee, adult, gathering food |
There were Ecuadorian Thrushes:
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| Ecuadorian Thrush (?) |
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| Ecuadorian Thrush |
There was a Yellow-rumped Cacique:
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| Yellow-rumped Cacique |
There was the Fasciated Wren:
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| Fasciated Wren |
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| Fasciated Wren |
More grackles (I think this is a juvenile Great-tailed Grackle):
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| Great-tailed Grackle, juvenile (?) |
There were other birds that I did not get pictures of, so I won't list here. We found animals other than birds, too:
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| A bat! |
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| I called these "hover-flies" |
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| Dragonfly |
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| Butterfly |
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| Bumblebee |
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| Dragonfly |
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| Golden-orb Spider |
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| Escaping Iguana |
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| Iguana |
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| Iguanas (male territorial display) |
I'll contrast these iguanas with those of the Galapagos in a later blog post.
Our last night in Guayaquil, we were greeted with a pretty crescent moon and this beautiful Pacific Pygmy Owl who was perched outside our hotel room door:
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| La Luna |
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| Pacific Pygmy Owl |
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| Pacific Pygmy Owl, stretching |
The next morning, we got up bright and early and went to the airport to head to the Galapagos. The people near us were also on an Ecoventura cruise, on a different ship (the Letty) - we ran into them several more times while we were in the islands:
Next: San Cristóbal
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