Ecuador – Part 2 | Mindo & Reserva Pululahua

Part 2: Mindo & Reserva Pululahua

Mindo is the next stop. It is supposed to be a bird paradise. There are several lodges and private reserves available in the area including the super fancy Mashpi Lodge (https://www.mashpilodge.com) known from some National Geographic documentaries. 900$ per night doesn’t really sound like a good deal so our hostel of choice is the “Cinnamon House”  in the south of the small village. Set at 1250 m in the lush green hills of the Volcan Pichincha, Mindo looks like a typical alpine town – but in the tropics in the middle of a cloud forest.

Lots of chalet-like farmhouses alternate with modern coffee shops and tour operators offering birding tours including crazy equipment like large telescopes. Short after checking in the room lots of colorful birds and hummingbirds sat and flew around the trees around the hostel. Instantly we decided to stay at least two nights.

As the main attractions lie outside of the town and because it rains almost all the time in the afternoon here, getting up at 5 for a hike is the plan. East of town the trail starts at a little hacienda and it should take 5h to complete the walk partly through open farmland as well as thick jungle. Here’s the coordinates of the hike to get an idea of the location. They can be easily be imported into Google Maps or Maps.me or any other mobile navigation app. The trail starts in the town just behind the main road. After 10 minutes of walking we reached the “yellow house” hacienda where a lady and two Germans shepherd dogs asked for a toll of 6$ per person as entrance fee.

Some impressions:

After returning from the hike we had some Tigrillo for brunch. It’s a dish made from platanas (cooking bananas), eggs, cheese and koriander and optionally plus porc crust. Shortly after we went to the botanical garden “Mariposas de Mindo”. The farm is only a 10 minutes drive south of Mindo. The entry is 8$ per person. You can find the most beautiful blue morpho butterflies and many others.

Later in the day I heart about a birdwatching tour in a private resort called Paz de las Aves Bird Refuge (https://www.refugiopazdelasaves.com). The owner Vinicio Paz seemingly can speak to a certain rare bird called Antpitta. It’s also possible to spot the strange but gorgeous looking “cock of the rock”. We should arrive at 5:45 to be able to spot them. Turns out the place is rather hard to find. Google doesn’t show the right location but lets you drive to another entrance 20 minutes away where the connecting roads are only footpaths. There’s a sign on the main road to the “Cascadas Paz” which are barely visible in the night (Correct coordinates are: to turn off the E28 road 0.033471, -78.720558; to the start of the tour: 0.020154, -78.707318).

The tour is done by professional bird photographers who absolutely know what they are doing. They showed incredible knowledge of both the aspects of photography as well as of the animals. We saw the Antpittas, a male Quetzal which does not have the typical tail feathers as in Panama or Costa Rica but are very beautiful. The one we discovered just hunted for a tasty lizard and carried in his mouth still. Also some red cock of the rocks, an Ecuadorian woodpecker and more. The “Birdperson” guy was actually calling all the birds by names (Wilhemina, Maria…) and they really responded and after a few unsuccessful attempts it worked. Incredible. Totally worth the price (half day tour is 40$)! Breakfast is included (the best Empanadas so far).

Reserva Geobotánica Pululahua

Afterwards we decided to leave Mindo and go to another place which lay on the route back to Quito to stay there for the night. The Reserva Geobotánica Pululahua. It’s an extinct volcano with people living in it making it a popular weekend retreat for Quitorians. The caldera itself has a diameter of 3km, the highest point is approx. 3550 m.

On the road and something like half the way back to Quito we spotted a road (shortcut?) north the the reserve’s south western entrance. It turned out to be a narrow and very rocky unpaved road which took us nearly 1,5h for 16km with our Kia Picanto. There’s also the way better paved road east of the crater directly north of Quito – but hindsight is always easier and it’s a fun road through the misty cloud forest. At arrival we found a hacienda in the middle of the volcano called “” where we asked for a camping spot (5$pp including firewood).

The next Morning two excited happy dogs woke us up and after a 2h walk to the mirador we went back to Quito planning to meet Sarah the next day for our upcoming trip to the Reventador volcano.