Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Mindo Cloud Forest


According to Wikipedia: A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a
generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest
characterized by a high incidence of low-level cloud cover, usually
at the canopy level.

We rode a couple hours north of Quito to visit the Mindo Cloud Forest
and were definitely not disappointed. It's a large jungle area that
comprised entirely of forest. The whole day the clouds weren't much
higher than the tree tops.


The entire forest was very lush and dense.


We saw some very exotic looking plants.


All kinds of hummingbirds. Many of which I've never seen before.


This one was nice enough to sit still for the camera.


All kinds of butterflies as well.


There were dozens of these beauties that looked very plain and
brown on one side but a really pretty blue on the other.


These little guys were everywhere.


I was really surprised to see Monarchs as well


The locals kept an eye on us as we explored including this little
boy playing at a local school.


The town of Mindo is pretty small...basically one main street.


We ate at this really good restaurant called Cakaffesu that
served possibly the best food we've had in Ecuador. It's owned
by an American woman and her Ecuadoran husband. She was
quite pleasant and chatted with us for a while.

1 comment:

carrie said...

i have turned a permanent shade of green from having read your blog. this girl's travel bug is eating her alive!