Ecuador’s Mindo is a Birdwatching Paradise

There’s just two things to know about the town of Mindo: there are butterflies and birds. That’s it.

This tiny little town makes for a great weekend trip from Quito, or a reasonable detour if heading to Ecuador’s north. Mindo seems half asleep most of the week, until Saturday night when the tourist bars bloat with weekend trippers from the capital. There’s a few good walks out of town, and the butterfly farm is well worth a few hours of your time.

An early morning birdwatching tour is also well worth the splurge. With a bit of luck, you could spot a toucan or quetzal. Even if you don’t fork out for a tour, plenty of cafes and accommodation around town are decked out with birdfeeders, so you can expect to get an eye full of plenty of varieties of hummingbird.

But of course, the birds are the real stars of the show.