Our last day at this cloud forest paradise started with an early breakfast as our hosts and our guide were really keen for us to see this elusive Quetzal before we left. Again, our breakfast was ample and wonderful and just what we needed for our trek in to the forest.
Again, setting off on the path behind the lodge we climbed the steep hill, once again hearing this elusive bird, but somehow not actually seeing it. Ducking under the barbed-wire fence at the boundary to El Monte, we headed up the hill on the narrow road, climbing higher and higher. We reached a gap in the foliage that revealed and amazing vista below, even spotting El Monte lodge way below us.
Then, miracle upon miracle, we heard a Quetzal call that appeared to be really close by. Following the call up the road, getting closer and closer, John suddenly stepped in to the brush, and a moment later waved for us to join him and pointing in to the branches of a nearby tree, there, finally, a Golden Headed Quetzal. Looking colourful and amazing. Mrs Y’s childhood picture book suddenly revealed in glorious living colour.
The descent back down to the lodge and our final lunch with Tom and Mariela seemed to be a lot shorter and much quicker, probably because of our elation at finally spotting the Quetzal. After a quick freshen up and towing our cases behind us, we joined our hosts for the last time at the long communal table. Again, the food was wonderful and plentiful. But eventually our departure time came around and we said our goodbyes. Again, John helped us across on the rope bridge before we clambered in to Williams 4×4 for the journey to our final Ecuadorian destination, El Crater.
Retracing our drive back towards Mittal Del Mundo, we took a left turn and headed up the side of an extinct volcano. Sadly though our view was totally nonexistant due to the rain and the very low cloud that appeared just as we left El Monte, this masked our arrival at El Crater that is perched on the very rim of the volcano.
After spending a few days in the cloud forest and having just scaled the hills searching for our Quetzal, we were both looking forward to getting cleaned up in our luxury hotel. Sadly, the hotel had a water problem and we couldn’t shower or get cleaned up. Promising all would be repaired very soon by the hotel, we sat in our room and waited. The rain stopped but the clouds didn’t budge so we weren’t able to enjoy the view. Dinner time approached and darkness fell and still without water we walked up to the restaurant and ate. The waiter was lovely and apologised profusely for the lack of water. We then discovered that we were the only guests staying at El Crater.
Sadly, the promised water didn’t appear.
We retired to bed, fed, watered, but still grubby from our journey.
mrandmrsyoung 