Yanayacu, Papallacta, etc.

Here are the last of the pics from my Ecuador class trip.

Beautiful river coming out of the Andes. Here we are standing on a bridge above the river.

Up on the Guacamayos ridge. In essence we are looking down at the foothills and Amazon basin.

Cool giant grub!

Here is what happens when you are cleaning a glass and it breaks. I wish I could say I was doing something cool like wrestling a piranha or something. At least I end up with a cool scar. I should have gone to a doc immediately and gotten stitches but I ended up going too late.

Cool caterpillar at Yanayacu.

and big too.

This is the view from Yanayacu biological station.

The Antisana volcano as seen in the early morning from Papallacta.

Papallacta valley.

Llama!

Velvety water.

And now a few pics from earlier in the trip that we missed. Here is me with Bill Hopkins and Juane, the leader of his trip of guarani indians. This guy is tougher than nails and it was an honor to meet him.

One more of our group in front of the giant tree.

Walking the trail of tears at Yanayacu.

Sumaco- cloud forest

The second stop on the Ecuador trip was a resort/biological station called Wild Sumaco. Its at the base of the Sumaco volcano. The place is owned by a couple of Americans and the place is amazing. It has a great mix of lowland and highland species. Here are a few pics:

Cute humming bird.

Tree frog.

This is an amazing katydid. Note how its wing covers look exactly like a leaf, even looks like a leaf that has been eaten a bit by a caterpillar. Too cool!

Glass frog! Genus Centrolinidae. This is a very rare group of frogs that are named after their clear skin. If you flip them over your can see their heart beating because their skin is so transparent.

Toucan! This was shot through the spotting scope.

Nice waterfall. The water was quite cold but the students decided to 'shower' in it anyways.

At the lodge they had set up nearly a dozen hummingbird feeders and there were often dozens of hummers zooming around between them. Here are three species feeding at one time!

This was the view from the porch of the lodge... very nice!

Bill and I, teaching.

Terrestrial planarian worm. Yes, a giant flat worm! Doesn't get much more amazing than that.

Each morning we got a nice view of the Sumaco Volcano. We were at about 5000ft and looking up. It wasn't far away and very impressive.

View of the research station. The rooms were bunkhouses and there was a larger general use room that also served for dining.