Mindo

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The past four days I have spent in Mindo. Mindo is 2 hours from Quito, is in the cloud forest and is renowned for being one of the places with the highest wildlife biodiversity in the world. A cloud forest is is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a high incidence of low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. It is usually found at the eastern slopes of tropical and subtropical mountain ranges, mostly above 800 m. In the Bosque Protector Mindo Nambillo live around 500 speicies of bird, including many different hummingbirds, toucans, motmots, quetzals, vultures and new species are still being discovered. Furthermore, pumas, bears and other mammals have been seen here.

In the bus to Mindo I met Megan, a young American, who had spent a couple of months in Ecuador working on bird projects. We went on a walk together and it was unbelievable how she spotted birds everywhere where I saw nothing - whether high up in the trees or lower down - and was even able to determine the name of each of the - with the help of the extensive Birds of Ecuador. This field guide treats the nearly 1600 bird species and Megan seemed to know most of them.

The next morning, early at 5am, Megan and I went on a trip with Rodney, who runs the hostal I was staying in, to see the rare and strange Andean Cock of the Rock. With my little Sony camera I was unable to take any good picture if them, but check here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_of_the_rock for a picture and some details. These are very funny looking, bright orange birds with a very soft looking crest. The males gather in so-called leks with up to 20-30 inviduals waiting for the female. The female will choose her bridegroom based on who is the strongest or who sings the most beautiful. The female is a slightly darker orange.

Megan then and I hooked up with Kim, an Americsn, and a Belgian couple and had some good time together with them. Early the next morning, Kim and I went to the Yellow House or Hacienda San Vicente, a private property with amazing wildlife. It was a shame Megan wasn't with us, as she would have spotted hundreds of birds, I am sure. I saw some, but was of course not able to determine what they were. There are five trails that lead through the area and I'll probably put a combination of those in my book. There is also a great lookout over the village from there.

Through the arrangement of the American women who owns the Cakafesu Restaurant I was able to visit another private property which is beyond the Cascadas and used to be an ecological station. It was already over an hour walk from the Cascadfas to get the the house, and then there were some trails trought he jungle. The brother of the Administrator, with his machete, went with me for a few hours throug the wilderness. It was quite steep and slippery on the paths and we had to climb over lots of fallen trees and he often had to cut off the overgrowth.

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