After spending a few days relaxing in Riobamba, Criss, Paul, Melany and I headed to Santo Domingo, where Paul's family lives, for the Easter weekend. We arrived late on the Thursday night (or very early on Friday morning!) and spent the first half of Friday relaxing. In the afternoon, all of us went for a bit of a drive, and stopped for a walk in a reserve just out of Santo Domingo. It was raining at first. but cleared up after a little while, and we saw a few birds, including Streak-headed Woodcreeper, Lineated Woodpecker, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Orange-billed Sparrow, and Broad-billed Motmot.
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| Lineated Woodpecker, female, Santo Domingo |
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| Orange-billed Sparrow, Santo Domingo |
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| Broad-billed Motmot, Santo Domingo |
By the time we left the reserve and headed back to Santo Domingo it was getting dark and everyone was ready for dinner. Seeing as it was Good Friday, we had a fish dinner. The whole fish was lightly battered, then fried in what looked like a huge wok full of oil, and served with patacon, fried squashed plantain, and salad.
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| Fried fish dinner, Santo Domingo |
The next morning, Criss and I got up early to drive to a reserve she remembered from a few years ago to go looking for birds. We drove along the main road for many kilometres before finding it, and just before we got there Criss realised we had actually crossed into the next province, Los Rios. The reserve we visited was Rio Palenque Bosque Tropicale, and upon our arrival, the friendly guard at the gate, called through and got permission for us to enter, we just had to pay a small fee (USD$5 per person) to go walking in the park. There were many walking trails in the park, and the steep paths going downhill were formed by steps made from cut bamboo. It was a really beautiful place to go walking, and we could hear a lot of birds but couldn't see many because of the dense foliage, and perhaps we arrived a little too late in the morning. We got a bit lost and spent about 3 hours walking around, but found our way back to the car eventually! Towards the end of our walk we were escorted along the path by a pair of Buff-rumped Warblers, a species which I had glimpsed the day before but was happy to get a better view of. Next to the car, we saw a pair of Dusky-faced Tanagers.
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| Plain Brown Woodcreeper, Rio Palenque Bosque Tropicale |
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| Rio Palenque Bosque Tropicale, Los Rios |
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| Buff-rumped Warbler. Rio Palenque Bosque Tropicale |
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| Buff-rumped Warbler, Rio Palenque Bosque Tropicale |
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| Dusky-faced Tanager, Rio Palenque Bosque Tropicale |
Later that day, Melany and I went for a walk a street over from the house where we could see a lot of trees. We ended up in an overgrown, abandoned garden, and saw some nice birds including a Vermillion Flycatcher, Western Hemispingus, Yellow-tailed Oriole, and more Blue-grey Tanagers.
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| Vermillion Flycatcher, Santo Domingo |
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| Blue-grey Tanager, Santo Domingo |
That same day I got to try another traditional Ecuadorian dish, Fanesca, a soup made especially for Easter. According to Criss, it traditionally has 12 different beans and grains in it - one for each of the twelve apostles. It is served with plantain, egg, cheese, fish (tuna in the case) and empanadas.
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| Fanesca, Santo Domingo |
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