3:30am. It's wake up time, and the beginning of my third trip to Ecuador for eight days of birding with Tropical Birding. My destination, this time, is the south, but with one day birding out of Quito in the Yanachocha and Tandayapa areas. The remainder of the trip will include one night in Guayaquil, two nights in the Umbrellabird Lodge in Buenaventura Reserve, two nights in Urraca Lodge in Jorupe Reserve, and two nights in Casa Simpson Lodge in Tapichalaca Reserve.
Today is relatively boring. A short flight to Seattle followed by a two-hour layover, then a flight to Atlanta with a one-and-a-half hour layover before transiting to Quito and arriving at 10:10pm. It will be a long day, but hopefully with a couple of movies and a nap it will pass relatively quickly. Time to go scan for 'airport' birds...gotta add something to the trip list, as current list is 0!
Update: Because of a delayed flight out of Atlanta, I arrived in Quito an hour late at 10:55pm, and got to my hotel at 11:45pm. Exhausted does not begin to describe how I feel, and with a wake-up at 4:45am tomorrow morning, the first day of birding is going to be rough.
