San Jorge de Milpe Orchid & Bird Reserve

Tuesday, Oct 25
Today we had breakfast at 07:00 and left shortly after. We took the same route as yesterday as far as the paved road and then turned left.
The route thru the mountains is that dirt road that Yesterday was in the clouds and foggy…..
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  today the sun was out so we could look for some birds.  This lodge is down about 3700 ft and in a very wet area.  When we arrived it was mist and fog.
The room is great, a suite it says, has a  sliding doors out to a patio with hammocks..and overlooks a big canyon, but there is so much foliage you can not really see the bottom.img_1358
The restaurant area and birding watching is again all open air..lots of birds…but we are in a sub tropical rain forest…so it’s wet. The rooms have a small box with a heater in them to dry out your camera.
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There are lots of birds in the trees so Jayne was busy .
We missed the 3:00 walk somehow, and there was not a lot of Bird to photograph so we went back to the room and took it easy until dinner at 7:00
Wednesday, Oct 26
Woke up at 05:30 and the sun was out.  No rain or fog..
Beautiful day.
After breakfast we took a walk looking for all kinds of birds. I guess from the guide , we found a bird that’s unusual….that’s all I know
Thursday, Oct 27
We had breakfast at 06:00 and left shortly after that for a reserve about 2 hours away. There were took a short walk to the top of a hill where they had a feeding station.
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There was a girl there who put bananas at the various station and Miguel must know her well as she stayed with us and keep the bananas flowing.  The birds are incredible colorful.  You will see when pictures arrive.  After an hour  Miguel and the other lady wanted to walk down the road to a second feeding station, Jayne and I decided to stay as neither of us recalled wanted any more long walks.
After about an hour we got restless and headed back toward the road only to meet Miguel running back yelling pigmy owl ….we jumped into the van and drove to the second feeding station as fast as that van would go..about 1/2 mile  …and sure enough..we got to see and photograph that cute little owl.  Poor Miguel had run all the way back to get us.
The reason I can not post photos yet as they are in the camera and those that are copied to the laptop are in RAW format, so I have to wait until Jayne gets them processed.  Some are taken with the iPhone, like the one above, and I can use those.
We  finally ended up at the San Jorge Quito lodge, the place we started at last Monday, about 4:30.  Yes we have a room down off the hill so we do not have that hike and it is a great room with a big fireplace.
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 We will stay here tonight and take a drive up to a park at about 12,000 feet early in the morning to see the condors and who knows what else.  When we return in the afternoon we will pack and head to the airport to catch our 11:30 pm flight to Dallas..
Spelling errors are my iPads fault