Yanacocha Reserve / Tandayapa

During this full-day tour, you'll explore the El Pahuma Orchid Reserve and the Mindo-Nambillo Cloud Forest Reserve. In Mindo, you'll visit waterfalls and a butterfly farm, and take a cable car over the forest.

Our drive to Guango Lodge will initially lead us through the drier central valley before rising up steeply to the high and (often) windswept paramo. Among the many bird possibilities, we will be particularly on the lookout for Andean Condor (sometimes hard), Carunculated Caracara, Andean Gull, Black-tailed Trainbearer, Scrub & Blue-and-yellow Tanagers and Southern Yellow-Grosbeak. The Papallacta Pass by birders, is rich in paramo birdlife, and with the proper weather, you can expect to see some of the following: Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe, Ecuadorian Hillstar, Tawny Antpitta, Many-striped Canastero, White-chinned Thistletail, Red-rumped Bush-Tyrant, Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant, Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant, some interesting seedeaters, and even Giant Conebill. At at Guango Lodge will be devoted to birding the trails and spectacular hummingbird feeders. In a matter of minutes it isn’t uncommon to see Bar-bellied Woodpecker, White-banded Tyrannulet, Blue-backed Conebill, Black-capped and Black-eared Hemispingus, Slaty and Pale-naped Brush-Finch, Gray-hooded Bush-Tanager, several species of mountain-tanager and even Plushcap.

The tour starts at 5:30 am, from your hotel in the city of Quito, we go to the reserve of Yanacocha where we develop activities of bird watching and photography, as well as the eco-route Nono-Mindo, for this First part of the tour we took a packed lunch. In the afternoon, we are arriving at Tandayapa Bird Lodge where we visit the famous drinking fountains for hummingbirds, to later return to their Hotel.

Yanacocha, is located on the northwest flank of Volcán Pichincha at ca. 3200-3400 m above sea level on the northwestern flank of the volcano remained one of the more reliable remaining locations for the Critically Endangered hummingbird, the Black-breasted Puffleg (Eriocnemis nigrivestis), who has a tiny world range centered on and near Volcán Pichincha, the volcano that towers over Ecuador’s capital city, Quito.

Start your day bright and early with this colorful nature tour. Observe Ecuador's plants and animals up-close when you enjoy this Refugio de Paz birdwatching tour. You'll work up an appetite on your adventure, and then indulge in a breakfast which has been deemed "exquisite."