January 12 – Something large

Y’know, the nights here at Cabañas San Isidro, Ecuador are pretty darn devoid of anthropogenic noises. That’s a-n-t-h-r-o-p-o-g-e-n-i-c. Remember that for Scrabble. That’d be 21 points.

Kathleen was feeling better this morning even after a number of coughing fits during the night. I woke to a stomach ache and intestinal percolations which had sent me to the bathroom a couple times during the night. Hummm.

After breakfast Kathleen and I started off on the Macucoloma Trail. We had walked roughly 200-yards when we heard something rustling in the vegetation. Something large enough to make small trees jiggle in the area of the sound. Kathleen, using our better pair of binoculars, contorted her body to probe through the layers of vegetation. She saw portions of something large. Fallowing the sound and jiggling, we realized the ‘something large’ was moving towards the trail we were traveling.

I unholstered my camera and thumbed the power on. First one, then a second. Mountain Tapirs! Kathleen and I managed to capture a few images of these Shetland Pony-sized ungulates, whose closest relatives are rhinoceros. The 4-500 pound critters walked down the trail about 50-feet ahead of us. These animals have poor eye-sight, good hearing, and excellent sense of smell. Fortunately, the wind was blowing towards Kathleen and I, and our cameras could barely be heard above the forest din.

The pair of Mountain Tapirs wondered off down the trail ahead of us. Pair? Yep, male and female. Examine the photos carefully, and you’ll come to the same conclusion. We headed off down the trail ourselves, however, the tapirs must have moseyed back into the forest as we saw nothing of them down trail.

We continued along on the Macucoloma Trail elated about our observation and to have gotten a few ‘keeper’ photos. We hiked along slowly and found the forest pretty quiet. The locals were not happy with the lack of rain which has created dry unproductive forests. Power is turned off at Cabanas San Isidro and nearby towns during certain times of the day as hydroelectric generation stations have to conserve water contained in reservoirs because those reservoirs are not being replenished. No reservoirs of insects, blooming flowers, or fruiting trees exist for birds or other critters.

We ambled back along the trail and arrived at the dining room to a delicious lunch. Portions were just right for having three meals a day. Kathleen and I weren’t use to eating this often each day.

After lunch I was feeling very lethargic and my gastrointestinal issues were still percolating. We decided to walk Antvireo Loop. Periodically, I would have relished just laying down on the trail and napped. Trail was kind of muddy.

Having made no observations of great interest we wondered back to the lodge where Kathleen watched hummingbirds, such as this Sparkling violet-ear, as cat-napped on the puffy couches in the lounge. I woke long enough for dinner before we headed off to bed.