Mindo, Ecuador

After the oppressive humidity of Panama City, the cool fresh air of Quito was immensely refreshing. The city is at altitude (9350 feet!) and the airport is surrounded by hills and canyons dotted with cacti and high altitude shrubs. We sadly decided not to visit Quito itself due to current cartel violence in some of the country (not this area, but still unnerving enough to keep us out of cities) so our driver picked us up at the airport and whisked us over the mountains to the cloud forest.

Our hotel here, near the town of Mindo, is El Monte Sustainable Lodge, and it is unbelievable. Just to get to the property you need to be ferried over a tiny cable car, or terabita, and when you come back from a walk or a tour, you have to stand there and yell “TER-A-BIT-AAAAAA!” and someone comes and pulls you over. Our cabana is made from gorgeous wood and stone with high ceilings and huge windows with leaves painted on the glass. We were given muck boots for muddy trails and boy, are those a necessity. Surprisingly, the mosquitoes aren’t bad here at all, although we did get bitten on some of the trails in the mountains.

We began our stay with a tour of the property led by Tom, the owner, and almost immediately saw four different kinds of toucans! This was a huge win, especially considering that Diane’s top wish for the trip was to see toucans. We admired many other tanagers and warblers and flycatchers right on the property. There are gardens where they grow the fruit and veggies that go into our delicious and healthy meals, and trails winding through the forest. We took a night hike on the property and saw a glass frog (rana crystal), common coffee frog, leaf-cutter ants, and a whip spider, although smaller than the one that was in our room in the Dominican Republic.

yellow throated toucan

whip spider

Choco toucan

rufous motmot

The only other tourist here for our first two days was Rocky, a Baer chemical plant retiree from Houston. He came from a Galapagos cruise, and has given us lots of tips. And he managed to do most of the walks with just one leg. After two days a British couple from Yorkshire arrived from the Amazon, who had also been in the Galapagos at the beginning of their trip. We have really enjoyed getting to know these guests, as well as Tom and the rest of the hotel staff.

Our guide for our stay is Jorge, and he has taken us on so, so many amazing bird walks. He is unbelievably knowledgeable, and although I do prefer to birdwatch without a guide, he has helped us to see species we never would have noticed or been able to identify without him. He took us on a chairlift and a cable car to get up in the mountains where we hiked to a waterfall. The water was so cold we only got our feet wet, but the birdwatching was fantastic. Highlights included: crested guans, a glistening green tanager, a scaled fruit eater, and a pair of crimson rumped toucanets that were posing for us.

crested guan

crimson rumped toucanets

Jorge then took us to a chocolate making workshop where we got to try many steps of the chocolate making process. We learned the yellow cacao pods are higher quality than the red ones, which are mainly used to make candies. But the red ones grow much faster and are resistant to disease. We opened a yellow pod and tasted the fruit that covers the seeds; it was deliciously sweet and tangy and Diane was a huge fan. We learned that high quality cocoa beans are fermented before being dried, and Zach built a fire and we roasted the seeds until they cracked and smelled like brownies, then shelled them and mashed them into a paste. We added some water to make cocoa tea, which was surprisingly delightful. Then Jorge showed us the equipment used to press the mash to extract the cocoa butter, leaving only cocoa powder behind, just like you would use to make hot chocolate, and then tempered the chocolate over a double boiler and so it could be cooled to put in a mold for sale. “It is great for your skin, try it!” He encouraged Diane and me to smear it on our face like a mask and onto our hands like lotion while he went back into the shop. We were giggling and already embarrassed as some workers grinned and tourists gaped at us… then Jorge came back with a tray full of chocolate samples and sat us down for a full tasting of all the chocolates sold at the shop with cocoa juice to cleanse our palette, and the hot chocolate and small squares of rich brownie… all with our faces still smeared with chocolate! Zach was in stitches laughing at us, and Diane and I were equal parts tickled and mortified. When we finally finished he mercifully pointed us to the bathroom to wash up, but there was no soap. We were a mess, but happy and full of chocolate. I asked Jorge if he won a bet about whether we would agree to the face masks, but he swears it is all part of the tour. Hmm…

We woke at 4:30am on our second day and drove 30 minutes then hiked another 30 in the dark through cow pastures and then up a steep trail to the top of a mountain. This is where the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock males congregate every morning like clockwork. The *very* strange-looking birds scream and strut and parade around in the branches of the trees, and not only were we lucky enough to have a big flock (maybe 20 birds) but there was also a single female, so the dudes were totally beside themselves. Diane described their calls as “a cross between a rooster, a pig, and an elephant.” We were the only tourists there with our guide, our driver, and the naturalist who rents the land. They were just as excited about the birds as we were! It was a fun atmosphere as we all gasped and gawked and tried to point Zach and Diane to the places where they could get the best unobstructed views for their photos. They got some really good ones but they will need cropping, so I’m including a photo our guide took through his scope. (Zach note: taking pictures of hopping birds in the dark is HARD)

Then in the ultimate tease, three golden headed quetzals zoomed through, giving us no more than a flashing glimpse of brilliant green plumage and red bellies. These birds just continue to elude us, but this is the closest we’ve gotten so far. It was a spectacular morning for bird nerds like us!

Our afternoon was more birding on trails above a guava plantation, and as usual we would go for 10-30 minutes seeing almost nothing, then there would be a flurry of activity where we’d see a ton in a short period of time. So far in our short time in Mindo we have added 50 different bird species to our life list! And I only count the ones we get a good look at (so NOT the quetzals). Highlights on this walk: russet backed oropendolas, a rose faced parrot, a common potoo, a laughing falcon, more toucans, toucanets, and aracaris, and a myriad of brightly colored tanagers. Zach’s pictures of these birds were also mostly at a distance and will require some cropping, so I can’t post many here. But also saw lots of cool insects as well, and Diane made friends with a horse along the way!

golden tanagers

russet backed oropendola

guava trees

ants, just before they started biting our ankles

We can’t wait to see what Jorge has in store for us tomorrow!