Purplelake: Day 15 - Aug 7, 2018 Mindo, Ecuador

We drove through Otavalo after breakfast to see this town most known for its market. The most vibrant market happens on Saturday so we did not see too much. We did see many different indigenous groups in our drive as Otavalo is a meeting place for many to come to trade. We turned west again and drove pass Quito to go to the Pacific side of the Andes. This region is famous for its cloud forests and diverse bird populations. It was sunny and clear when we left Quito and started to descend the mountains. Lo and behold, the clouds started to roll in. In no time, we were shrouded in clouds and it started to mist and rain! We descended from Quito at 3000m all the way down to Mindo at 1200m. There was absolutely no passing lane in Ecuador so you are expected to move to the right of the road and let others pass, straight road or winding turns! We later learnt that Ecuador's accident rate is actually quite high and there are often deadly car accidents. I can see why as many drivers have absolutely no patience for others. I am just happy to let others pass since I rented a small car with a small engine.

Mindo has become a mecca for birdwatchers around the world. Given its reputation, I was expecting tons of tourists but we were pleasantly surprised to find the opposite. The town is quite small and laid back. Many restaurant waitresses or shopkeepers did not speak any English. I love the fact that since not too many tourists came by car, parking around town or attractions were easy. We checked into our final hotel in Ecuador and it was the best. Las Terraza de Dana is located about 2km outside the town center. There were six individual units throughout its property, each with its own incredible view of the mountain and valley. Each had a king size bed, a double jacuzzi, and a full width ceiling to floor sliding glass door leading out to a balcony where we can sit, relax, and enjoy the incredible view. As soon as we settled in, we understood why Mindo is so popular with birdwatching enthusiasts. There were birds all over the place. Most of the times, to amateurs like us, we could only hear the birds but could not see them. Hummingbirds were buzzing around us continuously. Everything seemed to be flowering here in Mindo and there were all kinds of different fruit trees around: several kinds of bananas, guava, tamarind, orange, lemon, passion fruit, papaya, coconut, etc.

To get to our hotel, we had to pass two narrow wooden bridges like this one!

Our beautiful cottage with a balcony

Two person jacuzzi

Stunning view of the valley from our balcony

We wanted to see the butterfly garden but fortunately were alerted by visitors exiting that there were very little to see inside as most butterflies were sleeping in the afternoon. We instead saw a group of Ecuadorian American tourists doing tubing down the narrow and shallow Mindo river (not much fun to us). We then visited the hummingbird garden which is kind of informally run inside a hostal. Like many other attractions here in Mindo, this seemed to be a sideline business to their hostal. We went in and paid the lady $4 and just sat down in their garden. Our jaws dropped as soon as we saw how many hummingbirds and how busy they were buzzing around the many feeders in the garden. We had never seen so many different species of hummingbirds all in one place before. We were so mesmerized that we just sat there the rest of the afternoon watching the birds. Besides hummingbirds, they also put out ripe bananas around the garden to attract other birds. They were so colorful and pretty. Then the lady came in and let us handle a tiny little hummingbird in her hand. This is so precious like a little baby. She then pointed up and told us to look for toucans! We saw at least two toucans chomping away at the bunch of bananas on top of the trees. We also saw three red crown woodpeckers. It was a very special afternoon. It was also memorable for our conversation with the lady from the hostal as well as a trio of local visitors from Quito using Google Translate! They were veterinarians visiting from Quito for the day. We learnt quite a bit about Ecuador and its education system. We also ate at the restaurant highly recommended by the hostal lady.