This morning featured a trip to the Mindo Cloud Forest, which we reached via a long bus ride. A cloud forest is a moist tropical forest that has persistent low cloud cover. Once there, we split into two groups, so for the first 45 minutes our group hung out on the deck and watched hummingbirds. There were 8 feeders and we sat and took pictures, which was tricky since they are so fast. I really enjoyed this, especially since I’m a big birder and there were so many!
On our hike through the cloud forest, we saw avocado plants, a huge agave (two or three times as tall as me), and coffee beans in various stages. We tasted a fresh banana, which was the best banana I have ever had.
We also got to try coffee right off the plant. It’s a small red berry that doesn’t taste like much and the seeds inside are the coffee beans we are familiar with. It is then dried for about a week before being peeled and roasted.
When we got back to the place with the hummingbird feeders, I went inside the house. I heard people outside talking about seeing a bird with a long tail. I raced outside and sure enough, there was a quetzal in a nearby tree! It’s a green bird so it was a little hard to see, but we could tell it was moving around among the leaves. We also saw a toucan in the same tree. For a bird nerd like me, it was super cool to see the hummingbirds, quetzal, and toucan.
We stopped for pizza in the town of Mindo before heading to a nearby butterfly center. There they breed butterflies for release back into the cloud forest. By putting banana on our fingers, we were able to pick up the butterflies and hold them. It was great photographic opportunity and I had a lot of fun.
We ate dinner at a restaurant in the modern part of Quito. As we were heading back to the hotel, we stumbled into a group of indigenous dancers. Analu explained to us that they were doing a sun dance. They were dancing in a circle, occasionally changing directions. Some wore colorful knit masks that covered their whole faces. Others played instruments and some wore modern clothing and just danced along. We joined in for a little bit and they greeted us with smiles. It was a great day, but I was starting to be ready to go home.
Lots more photos below!
Morgan Sherwood 
Such a wonderful treat to view these photos and get a peek at the winged life in the cloud forest.
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