We begin our Jewels of Ecuador tour with an easy day on the forested slopes of Volcan Pichincha, the sometimes active volcano that towers above Quito to the west. At Yanacocha Reserve, in humid temperate forest around 12,000 feet, the Jocotoco Foundation maintains hummingbird feeders that attract the spectacular Sword-billed Hummingbird, third heaviest of all hummers and the one with the longest bill. Some of them come within arm’s length of the benches!

We begin our Jewels of Ecuador tour with an easy day on the forested slopes of Volcan Pichincha, the sometimes active volcano that towers above Quito to the west. At Yanacocha Reserve, in humid temperate forest around 12,000 feet, the Jocotoco Foundation maintains hummingbird feeders that attract the spectacular Sword-billed Hummingbird, third heaviest of all hummers and the one with the longest bill. Some of them come within arm’s length of the benches!