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NAME: Robert Packard
packardr90@hotmail.com
TRIP DATES: Sept.3-5,1999
WEATHER: Mornings usually sunny and cool, Afternoons a little warmer and overcast with
a brief shower. At end of dry season.
TERRAIN:Cloud Forest hills and mountains, nothing steep
TRIP RATING: 10
ROUTE: Quito-Mindo| Bus| ?|$1.70| The bus doesn't leave from Avenida Perez Guerrero and
Bolivia in Quito anymore. I believe it leaves somewhere just west of Hotel Inca Imperial
on M Larrea but I'm not sure. Askthe South American Explorers. I took a bus from the main
terminal, but no bus from the terminal goes TO Mindo, although
they will tell you they do. They drop you off at the top of the
hill and leave you w/ a 5 mile walk, in my case in the dark!
Luckily I hitched a ride down for 40 cents. The bus takes
2 hours and cost $1.70.
HOTELS: Mindo: Hostal Gypsy, just south of the church, $3.50 a single w/ shared bath w/
hot water. A wooden building that's a little noisy. Provided w/ mosquito nets. Run
by Keith and Sylvia, friendly and helpful English expatriates. They also run the
restaurant there and have cheap basic meals. Also serve soda,water,beer,etc. Ask Keith to
make
some delicious guayaba jam sandwiches to take while you're out on the trails. I also
ate once at Omarcito's in the center. $1.20 for basic chicken dinner. Just OK.
TRIP ESSENTIALS:. Sunblock, water, food for the trails,
COMMENTS:
This is a small town hidden in a gorgeous little cloudforest valley. Elevation about 1300
meters. There are many trails into the various parts of the forest. Ask Keith or at the
information office on the main street. I used both "A Guide to Birdwatching in
Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands" by Biosphere Publications and the more detailed
"Birds of Mindo" by Simon Allen. Both should be available from the American
Birding Association. Most of the trails are quite long, and
if you're birding will take at least all day. The southeast trail is the best, not only
for birds, but for views, and the hundreds of dazzling tropical butterflies. There's also
a waterfall up here but I never got that far. Tne main trail is free, but a few side
trails charge a small fee. I also took the yellow house trail on the northeast
corner of town. This leads through pastures to good primary forest, but they charge $5.00
a person. The owners are very friendly and have trail maps. This is the only place
I saw Andean Cock-of -the-Rock. I saw one just past the stream on the right. I also walked
down from Santa Rosa to Mindo, I took the 6:30 bus to the top of the hill, then walked
app. 1 kilometer to the San Tadeo road on the right. From there I hitched a ride on the
7:30 milk truck to Santa Rosa about 5 kilometers up the road. There are some nice views of
Volcan Pichincha. The walk is very nice, w/ lots of birds, and this is
where I got my only Crested Quetzal. All the trails were fine and dry and there were
almost no mosquitoes, but it was the dry season, and conditions can be very different in
the wet. I saw at least 93 species of birds including many gorgeous tanagers,
hummingbirds, including Booted Racket-tail, 4 species of Toucan including the
stunning Plate-billed Mt. Toucan and the endemic Pale-mandibled Aracari, Masked
Tityra, Bronze-winged Parrot, Ornate Flycatcher, Masked Trogon, Golden-headed Quetzal,
Rufous Motmot, White-collared Swift, Wattled Guan, Lineated Woodpecker, Tawny-throated
Leaftosser, Golden-winged Manakin, Toucan Barbet, etc. etc. E-mail me for a complete list.
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