As much as I enjoyed photographing the birds in the last post, I fell in love with their home, the cloud forest. This is a type of forest found in tropical and subtropical mountain ranges, at altitudes high enough to plunge the entire landscape into the clouds. This keeps the forest very humid and creates the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. Mindo, a winding two hour drive northwest of Quito, lays at the heart of just such a cloud forest. On our trip last month, we spent the better part of two days in and around this little town.
The first three photos are from the early morning hike to the birding spot described in the last post. The rising sun filtered through the dense fog, bathing the land in a soft, dim glow.
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The trees are dotted with bromeliads, a type of air plant and cousin of the pineapple. Rather than take root in soil, air plants grow on tree branches. The bromeliad sprouts a nest-like tuft of leaves, from which juts its brightly colored flower.
The hills are crisscrossed by a network of rivers and mountain streams, some with waterfalls.
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Our guide on the birding hike was Rolando, a cheerful man who has worked on restoring his land to its native condition. This has meant turning away from raising livestock and letting the forests reclaim the formerly clear-cut tracts of grazing land. He told us of some of the projects that he had been working on, one of which grabbed my attention. It seemed he had found a culunco, a type of pedestrian roadway built by local indigenous peoples centuries ago, and was attempting to clean it up and bring it to the attention of archeologists. Knowing that we ostensibly were with Rolando on a birding trip, I somewhat sheepishly asked if we could spend some time seeing this bit of pre-Colombian history instead. Luckily, though an avid bird lover himself, he was happy to show us his find.
Culuncos were a network Andean footpaths, taking the form of trenches dug into the ground to a depth of roughly five feet. This kept them pleasantly cooler than the surrounding jungle and kept travellers on them hidden from potential enemies. They were often paved with cobblestones, though Rolando had not gotten far enough in his clearing efforts to ascertain whether this was the case with the one on his land. It was an awesome experience to get to be the first outsider to stand in this bit of native history, though admittedly it was a tough subject to shoot. Foliage and dim light often made for flat images, but I think I was able to get a couple that worked. In both of these, the deep ‘U’ shape of the path can be discerned, and in the second the outlet to a river crossing is also visible.
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Besides its cloud forests teeming with birds, Mindo is also famous for its butterflies. At local mariposarios, or butterfly sanctuaries, visitors can see them in their masses and also observe up close while they emerge from their chrysalises.
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We also spent some time in Yunguilla, another village where the locals have embraced ecotourism and are attracting visitors with locally made cheeses and jams, lodging, tours, and, of course, stunning scenery.
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At another village along the way I stopped long enough just for the tiniest bit of urbex.
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This last image is from Pululahua, a dormant volcano from whose crater lip you can see a stunning panorama. It also holds a surprise in the form of a village on the floor of the crater. It is a truly unique sight in the beautiful country of Ecuador.
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In the next post: the highest I’ve ever been.
