
Week 8: Bird Photographs and report from Cuenca, Ecuador – March 3 – 12, 2009
Andean Ruddy Duck
I took a long 11 hour bus ride from Quito to Cuenca on the 3rd of March and settled in to what would be my home for the next 10 days. I found a fantastic hostel to be my base camp right in the interesting part of town. My first day here in Cuenca I wandered around quite a bit and found Cuenca to be an absolutely beautiful city. There are churches and cathedrals everywhere, the architecture is stunning, there are tonnes of museums and loads of cafe’s. In addition, Cajas National Park is only an hour away by bus making it an easy day trip. I was falling in love with Cuenca already.
I spent my 10 days in Cuenca visiting the national park for 3 days, the local parks for 3 others and spending the rest of the time relaxing and meeting wonderful people. I spent a lot of time at a little coffee shop that I found on my first day here – “Cafe de la Eli”. The owner is such a wonderful woman.
It was a pretty relaxed couple of days but I still managed to capture some images I am pleased with from Cajas (including the endangered Giant Conebill and Violet-throated Metaltail).








