Abra Patricia

Tuesday, Jan. 25
Abra Patricia Lodge, northern Peru  I cannot add in pictures from here, too slow a connection

We stayed for 2 nights at La Casona de Leymebamba in Leymebamba.  The hotel was very nice and we enjoyed it very much.  The owners were very good to us.  We walked around the main square in town which was very interesting.  People are very friendly and one older fellow came over to talk to us who had worked in the states when we was a young man so he spoke very good English.  The main transport in town were horses and 3 wheeled taxies.  John, Ramiro and I went to a private garden one afternoon to look at hummingbirds and have seen lots of variety so far. 

We left Leymebamba yesterday morning and stopped at a place for Koepcke’s Owl’s and found a pair of them roosting in a tree and I was able to take photos of them.  Our next stop was for the Marvelous Spatuletail hummingbird and we were able to see 2 males and at least 1 female and again I was able to photograph them until it started to sprinkle with rain. 

The closest town to where we are now is Florida, in Northern Peru.  We drove straight north from Leymebamba and then a little east.  The weather is cool in the mountains and very damp.  I am wearing both long underwear tops, a tshirt, a hoodie and a fleece and sometimes my windbreaker/raincoat.  For bottoms I wear my long underwear and pants.  I am sleeping in the lj’s as it is cool in the rooms at night.
The rooms here are very nice and this place was built 5 years ago.  There is a wonderful dining area which overlooked hummingbird feeders and there are feeders outside our room.  There is only electricity at certain times of the day, such as meal times.  We are able to use internet when the electricity is on  but since they use it for work (keeping track of guests) I can’t get internet access for long.  We have had very good meals here so far and there are tea,cookies and fruit available all day long.

We had breakfast at the usual time of 6 a.m. and then went off in the van to bird.  John unfortunately has his cold still and it is now in his chest.  He is taking antibiotics and hopefully will start to feel better soon.
This mornings birds were very good, Golden-headed Quetzal and Red-ruffed Fruitcrow.  We returned to the lodge for lunch which will be nice to do instead of eating in the van.

We lucked out at lunch because John spotted a Tayra who was on top of the feeder outside the window from our lunch table and we were able to get pictures of it.  John and I have only seen 3 of these before and they were all in Mexico.

At 3:00 p.m. we went out again in the van and had good flocks of birds once again, seeing White-capped Tanagers, Canada Warbler, and Royal Sunangel to name a few.

The meals are very good here at Abra Patricia.  We had Russian Salad at lunchtime and then pork chops with manioc, rice, lima beans and vegetables, with something called pepino for dessert - it’s sort of like a melon but different.

We will be here for 4 more nights and then we go down in elevation to Tarapoto in the Amazon basin, where it will be REALLY hot and humid.  What a change from where we have been the past 6 days.

Lynn