Dolphin Charters

Ecuador is an extraordinarily rich country that includes not only the Galapagos, but also some of the richest Amazon rainforest, complex Andean bioregions, and a highly varied coast and coastal plain area. The coastal area itself stretches from an intense rainforest of over 600 inches of rain per year in the North, to a desert in the south.

Ecuador is only about the size of the state of Colorado, making visiting its very diverse regions not only possible, but efficient. Truly amazing is the biological richness of this small country. Setting on the equator, it has the potential of an equatorial summer year round. Yet its higher peaks are covered in snow and ice. Quito experiences eternal spring, and the lowlands can be very warm.

This varied terrain makes for a birding paradise, with many unique species. For example, there are over 130 kinds of hummingbirds alone, and the 1600 bird species are one of the biological wonders of the world. Nowhere else is such a diversity of birds found in such a small country! Birds are numerous and can be everywhere, including downtown city parks. If anything, the plant diversity is even more amazing.

South America is called the birding continent with 3000 species; this small country of Ecuador with 1600 species has over half of all the species in South America! And this is just one aspect of its incredible richness.

The Amazon Region and the Cloud forest vie for having the greatest flowering of life on earth! In the Amazon, even gaudy Macaws have to scream to be noticed, so intense is the vegetation, with as many as 200 species of trees per hectare. And with water nearly everywhere, there are more fish species than in the Atlantic Ocean. The pink river dolphins will compete for your attention with numerous monkeys and other mammals. The western Amazon, near the eastern slope of the Andes has the highest diversity of anywhere in South America.

The Cloud Forest on the western slope of the Andes is another highly diverse endemic center of richness. It vies with the Amazon for the greatest flowering of life on earth. With abundant moisture, epiphytes are everywhere, including orchids, bromeliads, ferns, mosses and more. It is also one of the world’s greatest birding areas. It is possible, for example, to see 30 species of hummingbirds in a day - all within a few miles of each other. This area is a favorite of Ronn’s.

For this year, we have made it possible for you to visit three distinct and colorful areas of Ecuador in one trip: The Amazon, the Galapagos Islands and the Cloud Forest. As great and outstanding as are the Galapagos Islands, our goal is to help you explore more of one of Earth's jewels - the little country of Ecuador.

Ronn Patterson has led many trips throughout Ecuador, and is particularly familiar with the areas you’ll be visiting. The Ecuadorian guides that accompany all the trips are very knowledgeable and informed about the diversity that Ecuador has to offer. The lodges for the Amazon and Cloud Forest and the motor vessel Samba for the Galapagos are quite comfortable and the food is wonderful!

Unequivocally, the most exciting wildlife preserve in the world, due to the universal tameness of the animals. It is a virtual Garden of Eden and it is a living laboratory of evolution. It is the Mecca for lovers of nature, but even with a casual interest you will be drawn into the naturalist world and thrill at the fascination of the unique flora and fauna. Frigate birds blowing up their chest, salt snorting marine iguanas, woodpecker finches ferreting out grubs are a few of the sights among 32 species of endemic birds, five reptiles, and four endemic mammals. A few of the outstanding animals you will be watching include marine and land iguanas, giant land tortoises left from the age of reptiles, sea lions and fur seals, flightless cormorants, penguins on the equator, flamingos, tropic birds, two species of frigate birds, three species of boobies and a confusing array of Darwin's finches. The underwater life is also a highlight of the trip.

Here in the Galapagos, each bird, each animal stands out like a sentinel. It is the tameness and uniqueness that catches your attention and the behaviors and antics that holds it. Who can resist the antics of blue-footed boobies displaying their prized blue feet?

You will be cruising in a comfortable motor yacht, intimately exploring numerous shore areas, hiking, walking, beach combing, tide pooling, snorkeling, botanizing, bird watching, swimming, snorkeling and whale watching. Many of you will be photographing and the trip and itinerary is especially suitable for the photographer. The photographic opportunities are simply outstanding. An experienced local naturalist will accompany you.

Our itinerary is designed to give you the maximum experience of the Galapagos in the time available. It has been very carefully thought about and worked out over the years. Yet, it will be purposely flexible to allow us to take advantage of the unexpected opportunities, seasonal highlights, and special events. Each day will be on a different island or different part of one of the larger islands. Many days we will make two or more stops, returning to our floating home for lunch.

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Situated on the western slope of the foothills of the Andes and straddling the equator, the Cloud Forest equals the Amazon for the greatest flowering of life on Earth. With an abundance of water in the form of daily fog, mists and showers, life is everywhere. Along with an explosion of plant life, the bird life and birding is some of the best in the world. In a small area it is possible to see over 250 species of birds but fifty of them or twenty percent are endemic or found no where else. Ecuador has so many hummingbirds they have almost run out of names for them: hermits, lancebills, violetears, fairies, manos, sunangels, thorntails, hillstars, sylphs, trainbearers, puflegs metaltails, incas, sapphirewing, sword-billeds, starfronlets, and more. I call them feathered jewels. You will call them spectacular. At any of several nearby locations, it is possible to see twenty or more species of hummingbirds, and by changing altitude just a little, the species vary.

In addition to bird families you are familiar with in North America, expect to see Trogons and Quetzals, Motmots, and Puffbirds, Antbirds and Woodcreepers. Barbests and Toucans. Or, how about the Toucan Barbet that lives in the yard. You will not only be entertained, you will be fascinated. Yu don’t even have to be a birder to enjoy the intimacy with these feathered jewels.

The legion of flowering plants will vie for your attention. Every tree seems to support it own garden of ferns, mosses, bromeliads, orchids and vines.

One of the best parts is that the Cloud forest is only a two hour drive from Quito, but a fascinating drive itself, being a transect of the Andes.

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The Amazon is life’s grandest place on earth. It is the greatest flowering of life on earth, with its greatest abundance and diversity. This can be seen in abundance in the riot of color and design of the birds, frogs, mammals and flowers. And the area of greatest abundance and greatest diversity of any place in South America is exactly where we are going – into the Amazon Basin near the eastern slope of the Andes.

More specifically, we are going to the Cuyabeno Reserve. It is a 1.5 million acre (603,000ha.) complex of rivers, 14 lagoons, lakes and a rich mixture of seasonally flooded forest with low hills of Tierra Firma surrounding and surrounded by water. We will be there at a time of year when it is less flooded, making the area around the lodge more accessible on foot.

The Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve itself has more than 560 different species of birds; 60 species of orchids; a variety of bromeliads and even epiphytic cactus; over 350 species of fish; a large variety of reptiles: frogs, lizards, turtles and of course, snakes. It is estimated that 12,000 species of plants are found within the reserve with as many as 200 species of trees per hectare ( 2.5) acres. The area is also full of mammals. Last year we saw over six species of monkeys, two species of sloths, and at least two species of bats, which are very abundant. Everyday we saw and were near pink river dolphins.

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