Field Sites and Activities
Quito
Your group experience begins late in the afternoon on January 26 at boutique hotel Casa Foch in La Mariscal district. You’ll have an orientation and dinner as a group that evening, with the program’s first activities commencing the next morning. The first full day of the program begins with morning lectures in Geography, Cultural History, and Art of Ecuador, after which you’ll tour Quito’s architectural splendors, museums, and other cultural sites.
Galápagos Islands
Your time in Galápagos includes a four-day, three-night navigable tour aboard the Infinity, a 20-guest charter yacht built in 2018. You’ll be greeted by Galápagos National Park Naturalist guides, who will lead the group during this portion of the expedition. Each day aboard the Infinity, you’ll disembark on zodiacs for guided tours of the surrounding mangroves and reefs and excursions across the Islands. Witness nesting birds up Genovesa’s stark cliffs and along its crescent bay, walk across the molten landscape of recent lava flows on Santiago, snorkel the emerald reefs along Rábida, and visit the Charles Darwin Research Station and Tortoise Breeding Center on Santa Cruz on this extraordinary tour of the Enchanted Islands.
East Slope Cloud Forest – Quijos Valley
After returning from the Galápagos, following a night of rest in Quito, you’ll travel to Cabañas San Isidro, which maintains a vital role as a front-runner in conservation on the east slope of the Andes’ eastern cordillera . The reserve offers kilometers of well-marked trails through large and accessible tracts of primary montane humid forest and is one of the premier birding sites in South America. Over 250 species have been sighted, including parrots, trogons, egrets, guans, and over 30 species of hummingbirds. Here, towering hardwood trees are blanketed in orchids, bromeliads, and other showy epiphytes, and you may catch a glimpse of white-fronted capuchin monkeys, giant anteaters or a mountain tapir in this dramatic landscape.
Amazon Rainforest
After two nights at San Isidro, you’ll leave the cloud forest behind and descend to the humid tropical rainforest of the upper Amazon basin. In the port town of Coca, you’ll meet your hosts and travel by outboard canoe to Sani Lodge, a Kichwa-owned and operated ecolodge in the middle corridor of Cuyabeno and Yasuní Biosphere Reserves. For three nights, you’ll stay at Sani Lodge and immerse yourself in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. Over 99% of Yasuní is primary forest and original vegetation, with some areas boasting an astounding 650 different species of tree per acre. Researchers have documented 4,000 plant species, close to 600 species of birds, 500 fish species, and around 170 species of mammals in the reserve. During your time at Sani Lodge, local guides will lead you on hikes, which range from easy to moderate in difficulty, through the dense primary forest, and on canoe trips down the Napo for unparalleled wildlife viewing.
Yasuní Biosphere Reserve and the surrounding forests lie atop sprawling oil reserves that contain roughly a billion barrels of crude. This region and its people has long been exploited by extractive industries, and the legacy of oil exploration here is unavoidable. Ecotourism, as practiced by Sani Lodge and others in the Amazon basin, represents one of the very few viable economic alternatives these communities have to working for the oil companies. The research and conservation efforts sponsored by lodges in the region contribute to the protection and preservation of these irreplaceable forests.
Antisana
After returning from the Amazon rainforest, and a night of rest in Quito, you’ll travel to Antisana Volcano for a day-long expedition through the ecological reserve surrounding the volcano. Antisana National Park is home to over 418 species of birds, 73 mammals and 61 amphibians and reptiles, including Andean bears, white tail deer, wolves, curiquingues, and mountain tapirs. The park remains the premier site in Ecuador to view critically endangered Andean condors. From an observation platform located just before you enter the reserve, you’ll have a chance to spot these majestic creatures circling the cliffs high above the Isco River. Bring your binoculars! Further up in the reserve, take a guided hike through the mountain’s chilly moorlands, before returning to Quito for the evening.
East Slope Cloud Forest – Rio Pastaza Valley
Following your day trip to Antisana, you’ll travel to the Rio Pastaza Valley, a site of incredible plant diversity near Baños de Agua Santa, four hours south of Quito. Here, surrounded by lush montane cloud forest, you’ll witness first-hand the incredible efforts of EcoMinga Foundation as their park guards and reserve managers lead you on natural history expeditions through the forests they’re fighting so hard to protect. You’ll learn the importance of their work in the context of current environmental threats and meet some of the people responsible for running one of the most impressive conservation nonprofits on the planet.
On the morning of February 12th, you’ll return to Quito for rest and relaxation before the final field day.
Mindo: Chocó Andino Cloud Forest
On the final day of the program, join Fundación EcoMinga scientists on a field day in Mindo, a legendary birding site in the Chocó Andino cloud forest northwest of Quito. The Chocó Andino is a critical ecosystem for the vulnerable Andean bear and other threatened species, a biodiversity hotspot and site of endemism, especially for insects and birds, and a major source of Quito’s drinking water. The forests here are severely threatened by mining and deforestation, and they represent a mere remnant of the montane cloud forests in the Chocó region that spans from Panama to Colombia and Northwestern Ecuador. Here, you’ll have the chance to spot many bird species not found in other program sites and learn about ongoing conservation efforts to protect biodiversity and endemism in this critical region. After lunch, return to Quito, where the program ends.
Daily activities include easy to moderate hiking with optional swimming and snorkeling. More information about activities, along with a gear list and pre-trip reading suggestions, will be provided.