On January 6th, Tuesday, Colin and I took a day trip to the Puyango Petrified Forest. We did a lot of research trying to figure out how to get out to the forest from Loja – we estimated it should have been 2 or 3 hours away from Loja. Not so much. The Puyango Forest is located on the Puyango River, between the El Oro and Loja Provinces. Doesn’t look too far on a map. Yet somehow we didn’t realize until we were on the bus that it would take AT LEAST 6 hours to get all the way out to the forest as it was actually right next to the Peruvian border. Suddenly it all made sense – our bus tickets cost $12.00 USD per person, and it is $1 USD per hour per person on public buses in Ecuador. We were wondering why the bus tickets were so (relatively) pricey! Luckily we had decided to take the 5:00 AM bus – so we actually had the time to fit in the daytrip.
Our jumping off point was the small city of Alamor where we ended up having some breakfast after a tiring (but scenically beautiful) journey. We managed to find some eggs, then negotiated with a taxi driver to take us the additional 45 minute drive (for $30 USD) to the forest, wait for us, and bring us back to Alamor for some lunch and our return bus.
Once we got to the reserve we met our guide (required, and included with our $3.00 USD per person ticket price) and followed her into the forest. She explained loads of information to us about the special area. The Puyango Petrified Forest is a dry tropical forest which contains one of the largest areas of exposed petrified wood in the world, measuring 6570 acres. The forest was formed 500-300 million years ago when the sea dried – this much is evident from the numerous marine fossils found in the area. The area then become a forest of Araucaria trees, which eventually became fossils that are now 65-80 million years old. Fossil forests are extremely rare as most trees simply decompose (especially Araucaria, trees of which Puyango is comprised) however the dry climate around Puyango prevented this from happening completely once the Araucaria tree forest died. Water from the Pacific Ocean filled gaps in the trees with silica, which has left quartz crystals in parts of the tree and a fossilized, or stone, tree trunk.
We stopped at this point to get a good look at the birds, butterflies, and dragonflies we seemed to be seeing all over the place. Puyango forest has more than 130 different types of birds, and we could see the diversity quite quickly. We even spotted a rare pale-browed tinamou, a small bird which feeds on nuts and fruits which fall on the ground. Colin and I took some pictures of a few of the current massive trees in the forest – Ceiba and Kapok.
We stood along a small part of the Puyango river and watched some small tadpoles swimming. Later on, on our way out of the park, we saw two local Ecuadorians swimming in the water while – get this – smashing open some of the fossilized tree trunks with a rock. What?! Our guide asked the people to stop and leave, though they simply walked out of our line of sight deeper into the park. We asked our guide why there wasn’t more supervision and an ability to keep people from destroying the hundreds of millions of years old trees – and she didn’t have much of an answer for us. There just isn’t enough tourism and tourist dollars or funding available for the park in order to protect it properly.
We continued to see some of the bigger trees in the area – both alive and fossilized. Love taking photos next to our big trees. 
The biggest fossilized tree we came across was another Araucaria, this one laying on its side that was 15 meters long and 2.5 meters in diameter. We could see different minerals such as quartz in the trees which created various colors (reds, greens, clear, etc.) in the rocks.
Once we finished our walk on the path through the forest, our guide brought us back to the museum for a quick look at other fossils inside. We saw large ammonites, plants, leaves, and mollusks and other marine life which had become fossilized over millions of years.
Finally finished, we rejoined our taxi driver (who had come on the walk with us but not to the museum) and he took us back to Alamor. He dropped us off near the bus station where we bought our tickets back to Loja and had just enough time to have a set lunch. We paid a little extra to have cecina de chancho- thin pork steaks that are marinated, air dried and then fried. Our lunch was served with some boiled yuca, a typical onion and tomato salad called curtido, and aji hot sauce. A full stomach before the trip back!
It was another 6 hours or so back to Loja – it was dark by the time we got back and it was safe to say we were thoroughly exhausted (and a bit amazed) from having done that entire journey in just one day.
Francesca
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