Agoutis and ant-eating armadillos,

Anis and toucans and bronze parrots

Are just a few exotic dwellers

Found in Ecuador’s cloud forests.

And if you ascend to the Andean highlands

Cara cara and condors will soar overhead,

Andean deer will graze in the grasslands,

Alpine hare will lurk in the shade.

Unique parama plants abound

Giant rosettes and grasses above all.

Downy and lidded leaves are found

Protected from the wind’s assault.

And all are steadily upward moving

As earth’s climate continues warming.

In Ecuador platanos are fed to the birds:

Dozens of hummers, tanagers and such.

In Ecuador mango juice is savored

And passion fruit mousse, but not too much.

Ecuadorians favor grass-fed beef,

Sea bass, camarones and farm-pond trout.

Yuca strips dipped in sugar are a treat.

Espresso they will never do without.

Ecuador is home to many climates,

Subtropical and temperate and more,

Which Andean cloud forests generate:

It all depends on how far up you go.

So if you’re feeling tired of deja vu,

Ecuador is the perfect place for you.

Our cabana overlooks an Andean

Valley lightly flecked with clouds

That keep these jungle forests green.

Before me hangs a feeder used by crowds

Of hummingbirds of every stripe and hue:

Tawny, black and white, scarlet or teal.

But this is an aerial warfare view

Far from a peaceful bucolic scene.

These winged warriors swoop and dart

At any color but their own,

Briefly sip with kindred cohorts

Then shoot the alien flyers down.

Who’s unlike me must be my foe:

A rule that every earthling knows.

We left our San Isidro cabanas

And stopped at the bridge on the Rio Cosanga

To search for the elusive yellow duck

For which we were not to be in luck.

However, blue swallows sat on a rail

Preening and flipping their wings and tails,

Then dipping and swooping in widening arcs

Snapping up insects above the rocks

Where the river rushed in a foaming flood

Fed by the weeping clouds above.