Mindo Cloud Forest
Sunday Jan 21st: We left home at 01:45 so that we could be at the check-in at London Heathrow terminal 4 three hours in advance of our 06:30 flight to Amsterdam. The M25 was an easy journey at this time and the airport parking service went without hitch. Got to the check-in at 03:30 to discover (along with a lot of other passengers) that it didn't open until 04:30. Never mind! Flying with KLM meant going via Amsterdam and it was a little disappointing to find ourselves flying over our house (on the flight from Amsterdam to Quito) at 11am - some 9 hours after we had left home. The 11 hour flight was trouble free and the KLM in-flight service and entertainment could not be faulted. (Another time though we would take the more direct route with Avianca via Bogota). Quito has a spanking new international airport (Mariscal Sucre), a vast improvement on last time I was here. We were met on arrival by our driver who took us on a 2 hour drive to Sachatamia Lodge in the Mindo Valley (km78 on E28). We stayed here for 3 nights as an acclimatisation extension to the Naturetrek tour we were booked on.
Interesting Fact: The IATA airport code for Quito is UIO - presumably formed by removing the consonants!
Interesting Fact: The IATA airport code for Quito is UIO - presumably formed by removing the consonants!
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Quito International Airport is shown in the lower eastern part of the map. The route to Sachatamia (ST) followed the main highway. We visited Milpe (M) on day 2 and Refugio Paz de las Aves (RP) on day 3; Alambi reserve (A) was a lunch stop en route back to Quito. Also note Puembo (bottom right) - the location of our hotel at the end of the holiday; and Tandayapa (below A) - where I stayed in 2002.
Day 1 (Monday Jan 22nd) - in the grounds of Sachatamia Lodge
Day 2 (Tuesday Jan 23rd) - Milpe Cloud Forest Reserve
Day 3 (Wednesday Jan24th) - Refugio Paz de las Aves and Alambi Reserve
Day 2 (Tuesday Jan 23rd) - Milpe Cloud Forest Reserve
Day 3 (Wednesday Jan24th) - Refugio Paz de las Aves and Alambi Reserve