Kongo is back on the road. For the next several days, he is swinging through the amazing country of Ecuador for a Photography Expedition hosted by Fancy Girl/Street Boy with Joe McNally. The monkey arrived a few days early to acclimate to the altitude (it’s 10,000 feet here in Quito!) and to see a few extra sights. His first outing was a day trip to the amazing Mindo Cloud Forest about a two hour drive from Quito. Along the way he did a brief stop to view the Pululahua Volcano crater which just happens to be only one of two inhabited craters over an active volcano.

The Mindo Cloud Forest is a stunning and biodiverse ecosystem located in the western slopes of the Andes Mountains. The region is characterized by its persistent low-lying cloud cover, which creates a humid environment that supports a rich variety of flora and fauna. This region is part of the Chocó bioregion, known for its exceptional biodiversity, including over 500 species of birds, numerous butterflies, and diverse plant life. Kongo was searching for birds, butterflies, and waterfalls – all of which were supposed to be here in abundance.

Driving into the cloud forest was an adventure in itself. The scenery is stunning. Stunning isn’t a good enough word for it. It’s an “OMG do you see that?!!” kind of place. Low clouds drift over the forest canopy, different plants appear every 500 meters or so, and small little towns provide interesting distractions. The road crosses the equator about four or five times on your trip down the mountain. Kongo’s guide for the day, Vivian (more about Vivian later) kept a GPS on her phone screen and gave the monkey constant updates as we approached zero degrees latitude along the curving highway. So it’s was northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere, northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere over and over. You get the idea.

The very steep and winding road is two lanes. In Ecuador traffic lanes on the streets and highways are only suggestions. There is constant passing and weaving in and out while you try to get around lumbering trucks, buses, slow drivers, and scooters. And lots of people just walking along the narrow road. And lazy dogs seem to be lolling about every twist in the road along with the occasional munching cow just to keep things interesting. It’s like a Mario Kart game. Fortunately, Vivian was a fearless and excellent player on this road so the Monkey made it safely down to the town of Mindo at 4,000 feet, the gateway to the cloud forest.

Our first activity was to drive back up a dirt road (road is a generous term for this heavily rutted trail) to Tarabita de Mindo. The terabito is a cable car (it’s actually an open air cable cage) that travels 500 feet above the cloud forest canopy from one mountain peak to another. For those that survive, the far mountain provides access to several trails and waterfalls in the area.

Now this is an unusual cable cage. It is powered by a Toyota truck transmission connected to a pulley system. The operator uses a clutch and stick shift to put it into forward and reverse. Yeah, it was a bit of a raised eyebrow moment so Kongo casually asked if they’d lost any monkeys on the ride. Not recently was the reply. Not bothering to ask how long ago “recently” was he shelled outf $5 for the roundtrip and took off.

At the other end is a steep and zig-zagging trail that leads down to the Rio Mindo and the first waterfall. The guide book says it’s a 20-minute walk. Kongo made it an about an hour with several stops along the way for photography.

When you reach the bottom of the trail there is a wonderful little waterfall known as Cascadas de Nambillo. It has a large pool that you could go swimming in or just to cool off but Kongo left his bathing suit behind.

One of the amazing things to look for in the Mindo Cloud Forest are orchids. The cloud forests near Mindo are particularly noted for their impressive variety of orchids due to the region’s unique climate and ecosystem. Ecuador boasts more than 4,200 distinct varieties of orchids and Vivian knows all of them.

There are also lots and lots of butterflies. That’s mariposas if you’re in Ecuador. Vivian took Kongo to a wonderful butterfly preserve named Mariposas de Mindo. It was amazing and although there are butterflies throughout Ecuador, you’re not going to get as up-close to these creatures anywhere else.

After the butterflies we headed for some serious birds. Vivian took the monkey to a private bird preserve.

So, there were lots of birds. Check out Kongo’s Instagram to see more, but please be patient. https://www.instagram.com/kongotravelmonkey as Kongo is still in the process of uploading.

To see the Cloud Forest, Kongo went to Tours by Locals and found Vivian Vera. She is an absolutely wonderful private guide. She knows the birds, the butterflies, and all the flora and fauna in and around Quito and beyond. You can learn more about Vivian here if you’re interested in working with her on you next visit to Ecuador.

The next day, Kongo meets up with his photography tour for a trip into the countryside, followed by another day in Quito then he will fly to Caco in Western Ecuador on the Napo River, head downriver in a motorized canoe for two hours then transfer to a paddle canoe for another half hour or so to end up at La Selva Lodge, the headquarters for this monkey adventure.

Stay tuned for more action in the jungle!

Travel safe. Have fun!