Birds and butterflies abound in Mindo

With only 4 nights to fill before flying to the Galapagos we decided to head to Mindo, birding capital of Ecuador.  Neither of us are mad keen birders as such, but it sounded like a nice town, and only 2hrs on a direct bus, so easy to get to.

The bus trip was the first time Ben has been in the northern hemisphere!  It wasn´t for long, as the road crosses it and then crosses back . . .

The road drops steeply and winds it´s way down through ever thickening vegetation.  Mindo lies at 1250m in a temperate cloud forest zone.  It is a tiny town and midweek it´s very, very quiet. The most exciting thing that happened while we were eating lunch was a chagra riding his horse around.

The birds and butterflies here are quite phenomenal.  We hadn´t booked any accommodation but had two places in mind and our first pick, The Yellow House, was where we ended up.  It´s a 10min walk from the bus stop, though it took us considerably longer as we kept stopping to look at butterflies and birds - and that was only the driveway!

We ended up in the river cabin, which was a short walk from the main house and the other cabins.  It was wonderful, so quiet and peaceful, the garden full of birds and butterflies. It felt like a world away from the noise of Quito. There are hummingbird feeders hanging off the porch and three feeding platforms that toucans, tanagers and other birds visited regularly.

Toucan near the feeder:

We decided that a visit to the Mariposaria (butterfly house) was a good idea, but did begin to regret it as it was a good 4km walk from town in the blazing sun.  It was worth it though, with an incredible range of butterflies that they breed to be released back into the forests.

After returning to the Yellow House in the heat again I decided that a swim was in order so off to the 'swimming hole,' which turned out of be an artificially made square pond.  It was a little unnerving walking down into the still brown water but the temperature was divine - fresh and crisp after the humidity.

During the evening the fireflies in the garden put on a sparkling light show for us, flashing and dancing through the plants. The river plashed whilst the insects chirped, buzzed and zinged us to sleep.

5:30am the alarm woke us for our private bird watching trip.  As the sky slowly lightened we walked up the road with our guide, Julia.  Common flycatchers and lemon drop tanagers were the first birds we spotted.  As the road climbed we spotted different varieties of tanagers - Mindo alone has 45 species of tanagers and over 450 species of birds.

Then excitement - a toucan!  Quickly followed by white headed parrots, red beaked parrots, other toucans, more tanagers and flycatchers, then woodpeckers and a hawk.  At one point we saw a red flash, Julia assured us it was a female cock-of-the-rock. Plus of course lots of hummingbirds and butterflies.

Three white headed parrots:

A very small hummingbird nest:

Hawk, leaving:

The second day we set off at 7am to walk up through the private paths that belong to the Yellow House.  There was a great veiw point over looking Mindo and the further we got  the more pristine the vegetation became.  It reminded me of the forest in the Waitakeres with big trees and palms like the nikau palm.  Of course the Waitakeres doesn´t have all the amazing varieties of birds and butterflies.  I saw one cock-of-the-rock but he flew away before Ben could get there with the camera.

We didn´t see as many birds on our own but were happily making our way along when we spotted something on the forest floor - an armadillo!  We were so excited and kept very, very still and quiet.  He seemed completely unconcerned by our presence and whuffled his way close to our boots.  Even when we started talking he completely ignored us.  Armadillo means 'little armored one.'

Mindo also has butterflies with transparent wings!

And very friendly ones, even in the forest

Then it was time to pack up, amble back to the bus stop and back to the bustle of Quito.