Nov 7 - Marvelous Spatuletail and the Royal Sunangel spot

With a 5:45 AM start we made our way to meet Santos to view the Marvelous Spatuletail at what we are calling the "Kolibri reserve" since Gunnar helped raise money to purchase this land. It was a steep hike and the birds were moving fast, but eventually we got some great looks! We also had some Blue Capped Tanagers and a variety of other Hummingbirds including both Trainbearers. The next stop was at the reserve that had hummingbird feeders, where we got even better looks at the Spatuletail, and other hummers. Then we headed back to the hotel to pack up for our drive to Abra Patricia and to have lunch. The gardens of the hotel were beautiful with lots of orange and red lantana and red hot poker flowers. We then got the bad news that we couldn’t stay at Abra Patricia tonight because there was no power and the next night they were full. Kolibri screwed up the reservations (or forgot to make them), but we were told we would still be able to bird there. However when we got there the gate was locked and the guard said that he didn’t have a key!!!! So he said he would try to get one while we birded the road. We went to the Royal Sunangel spot and were greeted by a pair of Cinnamon Flycatchers. We hiked along this narrow steep path at the top of a ridge and did get looks at the Royal Sunangel Hummingbird, along with quite a few pretty tanagers including the Flame Faced Tanager and Beryl Speckled Tanager. We returned to Abra Patricia and (were finally able to get in) and got a few more views of Hummingbirds at the feeders, but otherwise it was pretty quiet. Funny though there was power and we were wondering what happened with our reservation??? Anyway we decided to try to get to back to the hotel in Pomacochas at a reasonable hour, which ended up being about 7 PM, but decided to eat out since the guy running the hotel said it would be about an hour and a half before dinner would be ready since he was the only one doing everything at the hotel. We decided to risk eating out at a local “dirty” restaurant and had fried chicken with rice and potato. It actually wasn’t bad considering how dirty the place looked. We also fed some chicken to this cute black dog that sat next to the table. We got back to the hotel by 9:00 and bed by 9:15 as we had to wake up at 3:20 AM to get to the Long Whiskered Owlet spot at Abra Patricia by 5:00 AM.