Mindo Cloud Forest Day Tours PRIVATE by Richard Hernandez

Our guide, Juan Carlos, has excellent local knowledge. We went to see the hummingbirds, a sweaty (but very achievable) hike in the cloud forest, had an excellent lunch suggestion in Mindo and really enjoyed our coffee making tour in Quinde. It was well organised and a fun day trip from Quito.

Richard was great. Not only was the day fun, it was very informative. Never a dull moment. Birding was easy, very easy. Richard does have flexible itineraries from nature to culture or a mix. From easy to hard outdoor activities. The itineraries are flexible and for you to decide. It was worth it for sure.

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.