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Published: August 7th 2023
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The dramatic landscape once we hit the cloud forestSunday’s adventure was to Mariposas de Mindo. It is a park where they grow and release butterflies that are native to the area. The drive is through curvy mountainous roads with dramatic scenery (these are tall mountains with steep inclines). Esteban was our driver and Ellen, Simone, Susan and I were the passengers. Esteban was an excellent driver. Even though we drive the mountains, we could not have driven like him. The vegetation and scenery changed during our drive.
As we left Quito, we got into an area that was very arid and gets very little rain and you could see little vegetation. As we got closer to the middle of the world (more about that tomorrow), we saw more vegetation but this area contained a lot of ashfall from a nearby volcano. You could see areas cut into the side of the road showing layers of ash. Further down the road, the area became very forested and green. We had arrived at the beginning of the cloud forest. We passed through a couple small towns, then we hit the crazy roads. The forest became dense and the roads were VERY curvy. Esteban and many other drivers were
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Susan is a butterfly passing cars and trucks all the times and in situations where even I would not have dared. The mountains were tall (the pictures really don’t show their size and closeness). We are on one mountain and 1/8 of a mile away there is another mountain. The elevation difference to the bottom of the 2 mountains was at least 2000 feet. This went on for miles and miles and miles. The scenery slowly changed to tropical. At times we rolled down the windows and could hear the sounds of the tropical forest. We finally arrived in Mindo, but no, this wasn’t the end of the trip. We transitioned to a dirt road for some miles. Finally, we arrived. Low and behold I got 1500 steps on that drive.
The area is tropical and we could start seeing butterflies even though we had not entered the conservatory. We bought tickets and entered. They showed us pictures of the eggs, the larva, the caterpillars, the different types of cocoons, and then the butterflies. Once the butterflies are old enough, they release them into the wild. Inside the main conservatory, we saw everything except the eggs. As soon as we went
into the main area, butterflies were everywhere. We took lots of pictures because there were many varieties, sizes and colors. The cocoons were very interesting as some of the cocoons were shiny and reflected the light around them. We also saw a lot of tropical vegetation. We went into an area I assume was where the butterflies are released but many of the butterflies still hung out. In that area there was a wood observation area and a tall tree house area to view the butterflies and tropical birds. The wood used in the construction of the lower observation area, was very squishy and I thought wow, I might fall through, but then Esteban said that the wood is very strong and supposedly stronger than steel. The tree house tower’s banisters were made from huge bamboo. We didn’t see any of the tropical birds while we were in there.
We left the main area and then went into the restaurant attached to the conservatory for a late lunch snack. During lunch we saw a few tropical birds land on the tree and a fruit feeding area. Afterwards we walked to the river where they were tube rafting.
The tubes were all tied together and the people would sit on one of the tubes then they would push them off. Each group had a guide. Esteban climbed over the rocks to get a river rock for Susan’s rocks from around the world collection.
We then headed back but did stop in Mindo to look around the city. We took several pictures. When we got back on the road, the traffic was much heavier than when we came. Often times we were stopped completely. In one of the small towns, we stopped where they were making pulled sugar cane candy (like taffy) but much better; Susan bought some. It turns out that they had a hummingbird feeding area so we got to see lots of hummingbirds. The rest of our drive was slow with a lot of traffic. We finally arrived back in Quito. On the way home I only got about 600 steps since we were going much slower at times.
For dinner we warmed up all the leftover from the last 2 days and made plates containing a bit of each item. We had a good variety.
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Patty
non-member comment
lovely
Just seeing the beautiful butterflies would make the trip awesome.