MindoCloudForest DayTour by Richard Hernandez-Customizable

We did not go birdwatching in the cloud forest. Our first stop was to a very nice woman’s yard, where she had set out lots of feeders. That was really cool, there were all kinds of hummingbirds and several tanagers. I’m glad we stopped there. Our guide (this is a company, not an individual) then took us to a butterfly greenhouse. I had been asking birds, was telling him how I had booked an extra day because I was so excited about the opportunity to see the birds of the Amazon. The butterfly garden was nice, but you can find similar things in any big town. I do like butterflies, but I saw a sign outside pointing to bird observation areas, nature hikes and things. A sunbittern flew overhead which was awesome, so I asked about that, could we go walking to look for birds? Our guide said, sure, and we walked up and down the road for 5-10 minutes, not on any kind of forest trail, just the street we happened to be on. That seemed to negate any other item listed on the itinerary. There was no nature walks, no waterfalls, no orchid farms, chocolate factories or ziplining. All of which we had talked about briefly. We ate lunch, which took a while, but he chose the restaurant. And then he was in a rush to get back. I did want to do a quick picture stop at the monument of the middle of the world, but he rushed us into the museum. The museum was also nice, but.. if our time was so limited where we could only pick one thing… what I really wanted to do was go birdwatching in the cloud forest. Like the title of the trip. Like walking in nature quietly to look for wildlife. Like the description of this in Viator seemed to indicate. We didn’t do that at all, and I don’t think our guide knew much about or was particularly interested in birds anyway. His focus seemed to be on general tours, like the populations of each city and what they manufacture and things. I was so disappointed. My recommendation to anyone looking to go birdwatching would be to find transportation to Mindo. They have a great bus system here. I doubt a taxi would cost the $320 it did for the 2 of us to take this tour either. Stay the night in Mindo and then find a tour company there maybe. There were a lot of little excursion companies advertising birding tours.

We had a wonderful day with Richard. He customized our experience to what we are interested in and made good recommendations to avoid wasting time if, for example, he knew the birds would not be out in one location so he suggested a different one. He knows all the roads because he used to live there. We saw tons of hummingbirds as well as two different types of toucans, parrotlets and many others. Richard is so knowledgeable he just rattles off the names as we see them. He estimated we saw 45 different species of birds. We walked up the trail to the waterfall cascades with him commenting on the plants, birds, and wildlife along the way. There was also a stop to buy some chocolate and taste the liquers. We are so glad we did this in lieu of the standard cruise line city tour. When we described it to the other passengers who did the standard tour, several of them said they wished they had done the same thing. Recommendations: Make sure to bring water and hand sanitizer/wipes, as well as layers because it was chilly in the morning but hot a few hours later. Try to start as early as possible. We flew in late the night before so we started at 7:15 am, but I wish we had been able to start earlier.

We arranged this tour ahead of arriving to Mindo. Richard collected us from our hotel and our tour was excellent; we saw 3 different types of Toucans, a variety of tanagers, saffron Finch's, Pacific parrotlets, several types of woodpeckers, and various other endemic species, along with numerous hummingbirds, both at the feeding station and out in the 'wild'. We also got to see the 'cock of the rock' , which was a great treat. His knowledge of the area was interesting and informative, and he answered our questions as we continued our trip through the the day. Richard also suggested places to visit in Mindo during our stay based on our interests. We finished our trip with a stop at the chocolate tour/ shop, which ended our day perfectly. We had a thoroughly enjoyable day with Richard and would highly recommend. Thank you!