Day 4 Mindo

We started off at 5:30 am to hike 25 minutes to the Cock Of The Rock Lek.  In case you are wondering what a lek is here is the definition so you don't have to look it up.

A lek is an aggregation of males that gather to engage in competitive displays that may entice visiting females who are surveying prospective partners for copulation.

It was a noisy place.  Emily and Keiran go at least once a week to do a survey for the reserve.  
 

They have a very strange shaped head.  Emily said most people are able to get a clear picture.  I took a couple hundred and got a few good ones. 

I like how these two look like they are looking in a mirror.  

We took a togetherie before heading back down to the lodge. 

We saw a few more birds.  

This toucanet landed in a tree right outside the lodges second story opening while I was standing there.  Emily said it was rare for one to land so close.   

This one was much further away.  It is a miracle I can even get a bird picture from a distance.  First, someone has to spot that there is a bird there.  I then try to find it with the binoculars.  Then I check with my eyes to find a landmark where the bird is.  I then have to put on my glasses to see the screen on the camera and try to zoom in somewhere in the direction of my landmark.  If I am lucky I am able to get the bird on the screen then I have to try to make the camera auto focus, focus on the bird and not the leaves.  So, be amazed.  

Back at the lodge we had breakfast.  Emily had made apple cinnamon rolls, yum!  Then we packed up, now in 5 bags instead of 4, to get ready to leave. 

Next, Keiran had arranged for the truck taxi to take us back into Mindo.  The driver stored our bags as we spent the afternoon in town.  I had wanted to go to a butterfly house.  Emily found this one for us. 

It was loaded with butterflies.  There was this very interesting chrysalis display with emerging butterflies. 

These butterflies were on a leaf in front of a painting.  I thought it looked like they were part of the painting. 

A little cheating here.  This one was really back at the lodge.  

And this one was on yesterday's hike.  There were lots of these blue ones flying around at the butterfly house but they would never land for a picture. 

We sadly said goodbye to Emily and Keiran in Mindo.  We met our taxi driver and headed on to Quito, two hours away.  He brought his wife along on the trip.  When we got into the city at a stoplight there were people walking up to cars like they were selling things.  The wife got worried and made sure our windows were up and doors locked, not a good feeling. 

Our lodging was a room in a house near the Old Town.  I thought we would be able to walk around and sight see some and I had found a nice restaurant about 6 blocks away.  Unfortunately, the host recommended we not go out and if we wanted something to eat then we needed to call Uber Eats and have it delivered. We ended up staying in and just eating the snacks that I had packed.  Good thing we had that big lunch.  But the room was comfortable, other than not having any heat.  There was a hair dryer in the bathroom which I turned on the heat up the bathroom so it wasn't so cold when I got out of the shower.  That worked well and we went to bed.