Mindo Butterfly Garden

About this place

A netted butterfly garden on the edge of Mindo, deep in the cloud forest west of Quito, where tropical butterflies of the region are bred and fly freely around you among flowers and trees, sometimes landing on your hand or shoulder. Here you see big owl butterflies, whose wings carry spots like owl eyes to scare off birds, shimmering blue morphos, and Heliconius butterflies striped in red, yellow and black, among others in astonishing shapes and colours. In the breeding corner you see the butterfly's whole life cycle: eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises hanging in rows, and with luck a butterfly emerging and spreading its wings for the first time. Guides explain the life cycle on a short tour, and feeders around the garden draw hummingbirds. Butterflies are most active on sunny mornings, so go early. Visitors usually pair it with a walk in Mindo's cloud forest.