Purplelake: Day 18 - Aug 10, 2018 Mindo, Ecuador

Today is our last day in Ecuador. Our flight would depart tonight at midnight so we had a whole day left. We told David (the owner) about our late check out plan and he was gracious enough to let us stay till 1p. He also told us about a hummingbird reserve in the next valley which is worth a visit. The hotel had been quiet since our arrival. There were at most two parties each night so far including us. But the hotel was fully booked this weekend as this is Ecuador's national holiday. David told us to expect heavy traffic leaving Quite to the beach (opposite where we were heading). We had a very leisurely breakfast and just relaxed on our balcony watching birds.

After we said goodbye to Mindo, we drove to the next valley as suggested to visit Alambi Reserve. After paying $5 per person, we got a coffee and were led to the back garden. We were absolutely astounded by the numbers of hummingbirds flying around the beautiful garden and all the feeders. This is even busier than the hummingbird garden in Mindo. And the best thing is: many hummingbirds here are of different species than the one in Mindo! We just sat there and enjoyed the show. There were hummingbirds that have long tails and medium long tails. There were hummingbirds that are tiny and huge. The owner put out some feeders that have only one sprout, forcing the hummingbird to line up one at a time. It is great for taking pictures, one bird after another! He taught us to take slow-motion video and it turned out great. We took lots of good videos and photos.

The Best Hummingbird Garden Ever!

We met two American women there and start chatting. They were on a personal tour and invited us to follow their itinerary to visit a coffee farm operation near the river below. This coffee operation was run by a retired World Bank economist who wants to help Ecuadorian farmers to revert their cattle land back to vegetation by planting coffee as the cash crop. Fascinating operation! All these unplanned activities were a great surprising way to end our last day in Ecuador.

We drove to a big supermarket in North Quito to buy some cacao powders for ourselves as well as for gifts. We then drove to the airport to return our rental car and have dinner there. We did not check in early because we knew there is no Star Alliance lounge in Quito. It's only later that we found out United has a contract lounge there for business class passengers and elite members to relax and enjoy before our flight. It's a nice way to wrap up a wonderful trip. Although our flight was delayed by an hour to Houston, it did not impact our arrival time in Vancouver where we were picked up by Preston our son.