Cloudforest at approx 1900m near Mindo.
Masked Trogon at Tandayapa.
My favourite section of this N. Ecuador circuit has to be the visit to the forests west of the Andes. Known as the Choco (a biogeographic zone restricted to south-western Colombia and north-western Ecuador), these are apparently the wettest forests in the world. Montane cloudforests can be accessed from Quito in less than a couple of hours by car at Tandayapa and in the Mindo area. Lowland Choco is less easy to find owing to the deforestation of the area but the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation preserves some nice forest lower down at Milpe and Rio Silanche (near Pedro Vincente Maldonado).
