Mindo, cloud forest

Up at 5am to discover the wonders of the cloud forest in Mindo. We have organized a private tour for bird watching through the B&B we are staying at. Julia picked us up promptly at 5:20am so we could see toucans and other early birds. 

The plan for the morning was we were to get dropped off at an ideal location for watching birds and then walk the trail home. Normally the trip runs from 6-9am when the birds are active in the cooler temperatures. We asked for earlier as the Internet recommended 5:30 in this area. We assumed the times would be adjusted to accommodate. There is that word assume again. We all know what happens when we assume but we (Mike and I) still do it.

We drove up the mountain for 25 minutes and then walked down a wee little path to a lookout stand. Photo below is with our guide in the front of the pic, Mike back right.

We saw the national bird, the Cock of the Rock. It is bright red with grey wings and black wings and black tail. 

We spent 2 hours there. Our guide then told us to pay $US 10 dollars each to some man standing there. We were confused. We had been told that the trip was $US 50 dollars total for her and $US 6 or 7 dollars for the taxi ride up. She said no, no, no. It is 10 each for Cock on the Rock, then 30 each to enter the park, 50 for her, and then transportation.  The price went from $US50 to $US150. We said not what we agreed to, take us back to Mindo.

So we paid the $10 each and drove down the mountain. We passed our accommodations and drove up the other side of the mountain. Again, confused, thought we were done. We stopped outside of a gate and she said now pay the taxi. We assumed it was $6-7 dollars, nope $30!!! Ugh. We asked how much she was and she confirmed the $50 dollar fee, we asked any other charges? No. So the $50 dollar trip is now doubled.

We head into the forest and look for birds. My belief is that you do not need a guide here if you know how to bird watch. If you have a good one who can identify their names then maybe they would be worth it. She might have pointed out one bird the entire trip that we did not see on our own.

This guide was not like my all time favorite guide, Max, from the Pantanal. He found birds, insects and animals out of thin air. He would show us the bird in his book as well as at the end of each expedition so we could record the names.

So the rest of this post contains mostly bird pics that I cannot remember the specific name of. Then a few plant life pics thrown in at the end. Dad, you should enjoy these bird photos.

Hummingbirds, a vast variety but only captured a few as they are so quick!!

Tangers

Owl of the Pygmy variety. He was super cute!! He looks like he has eyes on the back of his head.

Fruit eater 

Black bird

Colorful bird

I love flowers too. The path was so fragrant!!

When we returned to our accommodations the owner fixed us up with an amazing breakfast at 11am. He also called Julia and asked about the confusion, she then refunded the extra charges to us.

We looked at photos, blogged this post, learned subtleties of our cameras and had an awesome super at the B&B.