Day 133 - Loja, Ecuador

PODOCARPUS NATIONAL PARK NEAR LOJA, ECUADOR (14/05/09)

Our main reason for visiting Loja was to visit the nearby Podocarpus National Park. However we arrived fairly early in the morning and there was no one there to help us. Not wanting to start off without a map or any idea of where to go we had no choice but to head back down the 8.5km entrance road to the main road to catch a bus. One consolation, however, was this young eagle, which we think could be a Solitary Eagle, which showed no fear of us and let us get right up close.

Adam has found himself a new bird.

Luckily the national park entrance road still had breathtaking views of the Andes, and we didn´t have to pay $10 each to get in.

Many interesting plants were growing by the roadside including this strange leaf which has these remarkably ordered orange bumps all over the underside.

A lichen-covered tree looking over the mountains.

The land is so fertile in this part of the world that these fence posts had sprouted back to life.

Water droplets on the thorns of a bush.

This rather alien looking red plant appeared to be some sort of fern.

There were hundreds of varieties of plants, most noticable the flowers of every colour.

Whilst we were mostly alone in our trek down the mountain we occasionally bumped into one of the locals, such as this friendly Andean cow.