We woke to light rain and our first proper view of Puerto Williams. Our first impression? It is definitely not Ushuaia. After breakfast we walked into “town,” though in hindsight that may have been slightly optimistic wording. None of the stores were open, which honestly made sense because technically we were not even supposed to […]
This was the first expedition we had ever taken that started in Chile rather than Argentina, which immediately made the whole experience feel a little different. The expedition package included one night at the Mandarin Oriental Santiago, though we added a second night to give ourselves an extra day in the city before embarkation. Honestly, […]
We have only had three penguin species remaining on our goal to see all 18 species. Two of them, the Northern Rockhopper and the Erect-created, were going to be challenging. The Northern Rockhopper Penguin lives on remote islands in the South Atlantic, in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. Reaching them is not easy. In fact, […]
Rethinking the Final Stop When we first planned this trip, the final stop was supposed to be Bosque del Apache. We had been there before, right in peak migration season, and it offers a completely different kind of bird photography. Massive flocks, coordinated flyouts, and that early morning light that makes everything feel cinematic. But […]
Our final day of the trip happened to fall on New Year’s Eve. The plan was to break up the drive back to Quito with a stop at Balcon Tumpiki, where we might be able to see a plate-billed mountain toucan. We had been told the road was in good condition, so we made the […]
Today was another transfer day as we moved from San Jorge Tandayapa down to San Jorge Milpe in northwest Ecuador. To break up the drive, we stopped at San Tadeo Birding, another hummingbird photography spot along the way. When we first arrived, the main perches were surprisingly quiet, especially after what we had experienced the […]
It was a 5 a.m. start to visit an Andean cock-of-the-rock lek at Finca La Victoriana in Pichincha, Ecuador. A lek is a communal display area where male birds gather to perform for females, competing for attention with calls, movement, and posture. In the case of the Andean cock-of-the-rock, that means a group of bright […]
Today was a transfer day as we moved from Quito to Tandayapa, deeper into Ecuador’s cloud forest. We left the lodge in a 4WD, which made sense almost immediately. Along the way we stopped at a small hummingbird spot, the kind of place that feels increasingly common across Central and South America. At some point, […]
What a difference a day makes. This next part of our story takes us from the Galapagos to Quito, where we nearly called the entire next part of the trip off, but decided to stick it out and were rewarded with three species of antpittas and some sword-billed hummingbirds at Zuroloma Reserve. But I’m getting […]
The night leading into our final full day in the Galápagos was rough. The Ecogalaxy moved around the northern end of Santiago Island overnight, and the motion was noticeable enough to wake us up. By morning, we were ready to get off the boat for a while, even if it was just to stand on […]