We reluctantly left Sacha Lodge at 6.30am and birded our way along the boardwalk back to our motorised canoe on the Napo River, adding a few more species to the list as we carried our bags! We then took a short flight from Coca to Quito where we were met by Nick Athanas from Tropical Birding and our driver Luis. Without delay we headed straight off to the mountains of Papallacta, climbing quickly to 4000m altitude – a bit of a shock to the system as Sacha Lodge is only some 200m above sea level! At the top of the pass we could really feel the lack of oxygen, not to mention the change in temperature from the hot and sticky Amazon to the cold windy Paramo. The strong wind made birding here near impossible so we quickly moved on to Guango Lodge at lower levels. Here it was warmer and calmer, and the hummingbird feeders here were busy so we quickly added plenty to our list including Mountain Avocetbill, Glowing Puffleg and Tourmaline Sunangel.
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