May
11th,
2018
Hot,
sunny, cloud builds for afternoon thunderstorm down the valley
I
think I must have been tired last night for I wake at 6:30 a.m. And
find that I have slept solid for ten hours! It is noisy outside my
little room. A loudspeaker is distantly rattling on incessantly about
something, car horns toot, cows are mooing, dogs are barking and
various vehicles are passing through the village. None of this
cacophony is loud though and I relax in my little bed and write up .
. . this.
My
plan for the day is to descend further to the next large village,
Izcuchaca, find hopefully some sort of accommodation and bird the
rest of the day. And that is exactly what I do. I pack, tidy my
little room, am let out of the hotel compound by a toothless and very
tiny, old Inca lady and cycle downhill. Well, with the way the road
is, beautiful tarmac and steep descent, I plummet, just like the
flying sheep in Monty Python's Flying Circus.
A
first stop to admire the magnificent view brings a new bird for the
year list as two noisy Streaked Tit-spinetails come into a close by
bush. Looking down the steep slope I can see the road meandering
hundreds of feet below. This is going to be in total contrast to
yesterday's day of pushing.
The
road traverses a large valley as it goes down and down and eventually
comes to be adjacent to a fast flowing white water river. Following
the river closely, the way suddenly comes opposite a thermal
waterfall with cascading hot water that is leaving behind a creamy
coloured deposit on the cliff. To the left of this, around one
hundred or so yards, there is a large white cliff of calcium
carbonate strands that look superb and bright. They have their
counterpart in Turkey at Pammakule. In Turkey the whole area of white
deposits with their beautiful round hot water pools are bigger by far
but this is impressive enough to stop me and wish I could get across
the river for a closer view. I can't. There is no bridge. I have a
quick drink and carry on. Back in 2011 I went to Pammakule as part of
a two week tour in a hire car around Anatolia. One of my favourite
ever photographs that I have taken was of a laughing group of South
Koreans splashing in the hot water there one morning.
The
village I am aiming for, Izcuchaca, is reached within a few miles of
this stop and after marching the bike over a large metal girder
bridge and after stopping to photograph the unused medieval bridge of
stone, I find a hotel and book in.
Soon
out, there is a disused railway track running through the village and
I take this to head north and bird the valley. The concrete supports
for the tracks are just a little to close together and stepping from
one to another is awkward. There are stones between them and along
the track and walking on them is worse. There aren't many birds in
the heat but after stopping for breakfast in a building beside the
village's cemetery and after having walked for a couple of kilometres
or so, I come across some tall orange flowers that I have seen
hummingbirds enjoying before and see three small White-bellied
Hummingbirds
competing with each other for dominance of the flowers. Actually when
perched up they do look like White-bellied Hummers but a photograph I
take of one hovering as it feeds shows the tail pattern of the
endemic Green & White Hummingbird, the v-shaped white of the
undertail coverts and the surround dark tail feathers look great for
that species I will have to check these tiny hummers.
I
return to the village and relax in my room, take a siesta like and
decide to stay another day. My aim over the month of May is to manage
a fifteen miles a day average and having done forty five miles in two
days I am on course even if I do take an eBird day. The fact that my
football team, Aston Villa, back in the UK are playing tomorrow in
the first leg of the Championship's play off, and that the hotel I am
in, St Eugenia, has internet, has not influenced my decision . . .
much!
I
wander into the village square in the late afternoon and buy some
soft bread rolls from an old lady. I refuse the plastic bag she wants
to place them in and am delighted when she puts them inside a paper
bag. Why doesn't she use paper all the time?
Green
Year list : 187 birds average new birds to list per day : 4.56
birds
altitude
: 9,547 feet
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