Naturetrek sends hundreds of happy botanists into the European mountain ranges each spring. Although far fewer clients venture further afield on our long haul botanical selection, some truly splendid botanising is available for the more adventurous. Jack and Joan Lamb headed to the Andes of Ecuador last year and sent us this enthusiastic piece on their holiday.
"Apart from a few ups and downs 2006 was a good year. I passed my examinations, had a good Euro-fuchsia enjoyed the travelling we were able to do and met a lot of nice people. There was still something missing and had been missing for a few years, the Andes. I study and study but all along but it always played on my mind that I had not been or studied in the cloud forest, rain forest or paramo. You can botanise anywhere but the place of your most interest in botany is a big help in understanding.
It was early in the year cold and wet outside and the television playing to itsself. Joan was reading one of her magazines and I was reading the RHS magazine “The Garden”. Just by chance Joan was reading about a couple who had immigrated to Ecuador and mentioned one comment to me “Ecuador was a beautiful country of warm friendly people”. I just remarked that it sounded good, but as I closed my magazine there was a travel company advert for Naturetrek on the back cover that jumped out at me “Flora of the Andes, Ecuador”. I was soon emailing them, reading reports of the previous years trek. Naturetrek were very good in their prompt answers, soon confirming to me that the trek had a wheel at each corner and a driver. The botanising was basically orchids and alpines but local guides confirmed that we would see fuchsia. That was good enough for Joan and I and we booked, being kept up to date by Naturetrek all the time. The itinerary changed several times due firstly to the volcano Tungurahua erupting, then not being able to use the airport at Loja because of runway repairs. But Naturetrek had everything covered.
There was four of us in the party and were met at Quito airport by a smiling Gustavo Cañas Valle who was to be our tour leader. We were quickly loaded into a Mercedes mini-bus and driven to the Hotel Sebastian and introduced to our other botanist guide Hugolino Onate. Then a light meal and much needed bed.
Early the next morning I saw my first fuchsia in Ecuador ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’ in a small garden across the road from the hotel. After an early breakfast we set off for the Cotopaxi National Park where we soon found out that the roads in Ecuador are not quite up to the standard we have. Once in the park we climbed/drove to just over 4000 metres where breathing was a bit of a problem but I was in heaven as every plant I looked at was new to me and I was soon face down on the ground photographing alpines, lichens, grasses etc. We spent most of the day in the park before descending and botanising and birding as we went. We stopped for me to photograph Pasiflora mixta, but as I was setting up the shot what could I see in the viewfinder but my first wild fuchsia, F. loxensis. I was one happy man. I had seen my fuchsia in the wild.
We spent the next few days based in Ambato, visiting an orchid reserve at Puyo and generally enjoying Ecuador. We drove back to Quito for a flight to Cuenca where we stayed the night before meeting our new driver Joffrey for a drive to Loja, roadside botanising and birding as we went and saw what we thought were the odd fuchsia. I could have kicked myself when I got home and realised that they could have been F. harlingii. From Loja we went to Vilcabamba where we stayed two nights. My favourite two days of the trip. The first one was to Cerro Toledo, Fuchsias Fuchsias and more fuchsias before we got to the high paramo. I had not seen the first fuchsia we stopped for, but Hugolino’s eagle eyes spotted it in a thicket of growth. It turned out to be F. Andrei, a bit further and there was F.campii and then fuchsias I did not know, until we reached what I think could be F. summa. As the vegetation change, Hugolino pointed out a fuchsia high up a mini waterfall. My eyes were not as good as his but the binoculars helped. He said he would guide me up if I wanted to go, daft as I am I could not resist having a go. He said he would carry my camera in case I fell. I could not have asked for a better guide, he showed me every foot and handhold as we made the climb. We took the pictures and were just looking around when someone from below shouted that we had to climb down. The sense of achievement when I got down was fantastic. All I could say was thank you to Hugolino and “It was worth it” to the other members.
The following day was another dream. We were met early by orchid expert Tulio Bustos Cordero and taken to one of his favourite orchid sites near to Loja , to say it blew my mind was an understatement, there were epidendrum orchids plus many more I did not know the names of right down to the road, I can’t say pavement because there wasn’t any. There were also many different genera there that I am interested in including Amarylids. We also saw a fuchsia but as it was F. magellanica I did not pay a lot of attention to it, also it was in someone’s yard. From there Tulio too us to Loja Zoo where he had his conservation collection of orchids. My camera ought to have been fitted with a cooling system as I simply went mad. We left Tulio and headed for Cuenca for a flight back to Quito, botanising again as we drove but driving right past Fuchsia harlingii once again.
We stayed the night in Cuenca before the early flight to Quito and were met by our third driver Edwin. We soon left Quito climbing up towards Antisana and or lodge for the next couple of days at the Termas de Papallacta. We were botanising on an old lava flow and I saw what looked like a hedge and made my way too it, I soon saw red and as I got closer realised it was a fuchsia, but it was high and once again Hugolino came to my assistance, he held it while I did the photography. It came into my mind that there may be flowers on the other side but soon found out that it was long drop so that idea was aborted. In that area we saw a lot of fuchsia but nearly all were F. vulcanica in forms that I had not seen. From Papallacta we botanised to just south of Baeza before tuning to or stay at the San Isidro Lodge, our favourite accommodation. After leaving the main road down the lanes through the forest we came to a sudden stop and Gustavo shouted “Jack lots of Fuchsia”, they turned out to be F. orientalis and F. scabriuscula and obviously some I did not know. I was photographing, measuring and the usual things botanists do but following us up the road was a team of machete armed road men clearing the road sides of all vegetation. It was a saddening site to see them all gone the day after. From San Isidro we botanised up to The Guango Lodge for our last night in Ecuador. The Guango Lodge is famous for its humming birds and to me very memorable as I pointed to a bird on a feeder another settled on my finger.
We learnt so much in such a short time about not only fuchsia but Andean flora, weather. And I think most we felt the true warmth and friendliness of the Ecuadorian people. We owe a huge dept of thanks and gratitude to Gustavo Canas Valle, Hugolino Onate and all three drivers David, Joffrey and Edwin. Nothing was too much trouble for them at all. They took us to places that the average tourist would not see, we ate at restaurants that we would not dream of finding. Having a good laugh, where ever we went. Our time in Ecuador was much too short and we had not done enough homework but we can’t wait to get back and will do so. I was worried that our health would let us down but our every need was catered for and there were no long hikes or over exertion, stopping where ever we wanted. And yes we did eat CUY (Guinea pig)
Our thanks also go to Andy Tucker of Naturetrek who organised the trip for us. I would recommend Naturetrek and their Ecuadorian agents to anyone.
Jack Lamb"
Naturetrek still have spaces on the tour departing 22nd September 2007. For details visit the tour page.