Butterflies and Birds in Mindo

This weekend we travelled to Mindo, which is a two hour drive from Quito. It is a small town which had been recommended to us by Isabelle, a French lady we met last week who has lived in Ecuador for almost a year. She said it was a great place to go to see humming birds, butterflies and exotic flowers.

We were shown the various stages of the life cycle of a butterfly, which was fascinating.

The only downside was that the butterflies were so big that they terrified Luca, who screamed every time one flew over his head. This detracted slightly from what was supposed to be a tranquil setting.

Apart from learning that my two year old is scared of butterflies I also discovered the challenges of trying to photograph a humming bird. This becomes even more problematic when you have a wriggling baby strapped to your body. I managed to get one picture, (above), amongst all the screaming, wriggling and flapping but if you want anymore hummingbird photos I suggest you settle for an ornithology book. I'm not doing it again.