Ecuador

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Mindo - Day 19



After a peaceful breakfast of fruit and rolls on the back porch, we took off to see butterflies. The butterfly farm (Mariposia) is about a 40 minute walk from the hostel. Our walk took us along the Mindo river. Many buses had pulled into the accesses, bringing tubers to the river. The river flowed along pretty rapidly, going over some large rocks. The tubers were all wearing helmets



We found the butterfly farm very interesting. The first part of the tour explained the stages of the butterfly from egg to caterpillar to pupae to butterfly. They actually grew the butterflies here, so they had them in every stage. There were 25 different kinds of butterflies on the farm. There are 300 kinds in Mindo, and 4000 kinds in all of Ecuador. The butterflies were in a natural setting of native plants and flowers. They are fed bananas, and there were several trays of ripe banana and juice filled with feeding butterflies. We put some banana juice on our fingers, and we could actually get them to sit on us. One little girl was carrying around a butterfly for so long, we thought she was going to take it home as a pet. One particularly beautiful butterfly had a vivid blue color on the inside of the wing. When he landed the wings always went together, so it was impossible to get a good photo. Another interesting one had a large circle resembling an eye on the wings.



We decided it was good exercise and a very nice road, so we walked back to town. On the way back we stopped in town at El Cheff for drinks. I think I am getting addicted to those batidos (fruit milkshes). We had a very good dinner there last night.



Decided to take a little down time on the back deck, with a refreshing breeze and the river nearby. We could definitely get used to this! The hostel here has beautiful wood walls, ceilings, and floors. We are to take our shoes off before entering, so everything stays very clean.



Our afternoon adventure was hummingbird watching at Hostel El Descanso. The open air porch area faces a wonderful cloud forest. The host has five feeders set up. He goes through five pounds of sugar a day, feeding the birds sugar water in a ratio of four to one. He also puts out bananas in the tree limbs to attract the birds. There are 10 different species of hummingbirds there now, and that number goes up to 25 in high season. Other species of birds, including woodpecker and toucan, also appear in high season (March and April). This was truly an amazing place. The forest was full of flittering hummingbirds, and each feeder was surrounded by many birds at a time. It was so much fun just watching these beautiful creatures. We took a video, but cannot post currently to this site. When we get home we will provide a link to the bird video, as well as the Devil's Cauldron video.

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Comments

[Lynn]

Birds!
I can only imagine how much fun you had watching all of those birds. You must have been in heaven!

[tak1]

Birds
The garden goes through 5 pounds of sugar and 10 bananas now but in March and April it increases to much more sugar and 100 bananas. The birds other than humming birds eat the bananas. They buy bananas in 100 plus bunches.