Ecuador - San Jorge eco-lodges (1 Viewer)

Has anyone stayed at any of the three San Jorge eco-lodges (Tandayapa, Milpe, Quito)? Does anyone have any experience with any of the tours they lead?
Thanks for any info.

Hi Dave:

I used their services, as well as stayed a few days at their Quito lodge back in '06 I believe was the year. For me very handy as the Continental flight out of Houston, while nonstop, arrives at 11 pm (if youre lucky...) so it is impratical not to overnight somewhere in or very near the city.

The Quito lodge is very nice, perched on a hillside overlooking the city, with comfy rooms and landscaped, multi-level garden walks. Birding, at least for the couple of days I was there, in retrospect was only so-so, but hey this was my first trip to Ecuador and everything was a lifer anyway.

I contracted w/ the San Jorge folks for transportation and guide service. I was accompanied by the owner's son, a very affable youngster who knew the birds fairly well. It was just me, and I arranged the tour to visit west slope hot spots. Not sure how this is handled now, but while in the Mindo area I had another guide, the gentleman who owns the "Mindo Orchids" gardens, forget his name at the moment.

This was before their other lodges were built, some were only in the planning stages I believe, but the Milpe one was at least being framed at the time as I recall when we passed by the installation and it was pointed out to me. I suspect their organization and crews are more fleshed out by now, but they may still use local guides as opposed to dedicated company men.

I have very fond memories of the lodge in Quito, and would recommend a night or two there to unwind, acclimate to the climate, and pick up a few lifers.

regards,
UTC

UTC,
Thanks for the feedback, we appreciate the information and will probably give them a try.
Thanks,

Just an update - we did finally get to Ecuador and we stayed with the San Jorge group for the first half of the trip. We spent a night at the S.J. Quito lodge and agree with UTCbirder's favorable opinion. However our bird list was probably shorter than UTC's due to rain the day of arrival and departure.

We then went to Milpe for two days - S.J. now has two lodges on the property there. The larger lodge that you hike to is a pretty nice facility in a spectacular setting. Birding on the property was very good.

Next we spent three days at their Tandayapa Lodge. another very nice facility in another great setting. And birding again was very good. The specialty of this site has to be their hummingbirds. Up to 30 species can be seen depending on the time of year! We saw 17 species and certainly missed a few that were there.

Food was very good at all three locations as was service / housekeeping. Certainly recommend their lodges.

Dave B Smith said:

Just an update - we did finally get to Ecuador and we stayed with the San Jorge group for the first half of the trip. We spent a night at the S.J. Quito lodge and agree with UTCbirder's favorable opinion. However our bird list was probably shorter than UTC's due to rain the day of arrival and departure.

We then went to Milpe for two days - S.J. now has two lodges on the property there. The larger lodge that you hike to is a pretty nice facility in a spectacular setting. Birding on the property was very good.

Next we spent three days at their Tandayapa Lodge. another very nice facility in another great setting. And birding again was very good. The specialty of this site has to be their hummingbirds. Up to 30 species can be seen depending on the time of year! We saw 17 species and certainly missed a few that were there.

Food was very good at all three locations as was service / housekeeping. Certainly recommend their lodges.

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My wife and I have two nights to spend in the Mindo area. We are considering both of the SJ lodges (Milpe and Tandayapa). Which would you recommend?

Thanks!

It's been 7 years since we were there, but looking on trip advisor they are still getting very good reviews.
We enjoyed both very much so it would be hard to recommend one over the other. I would consider the rest of your itinerary and then pick the lodge that works best with that. Tandayapa is only half the distance from Quito that Milpe is so a lot of road time would be avoided (assuming you are traveling from Quito). Tandayapa is also closer to Angel Paz' place also in case that is in your plans.

In any case you will almost certainly see lots of great birds and have very good lodging to boot.

Dave B Smith said:

It's been 7 years since we were there, but looking on trip advisor they are still getting very good reviews.
We enjoyed both very much so it would be hard to recommend one over the other. I would consider the rest of your itinerary and then pick the lodge that works best with that. Tandayapa is only half the distance from Quito that Milpe is so a lot of road time would be avoided (assuming you are traveling from Quito). Tandayapa is also closer to Angel Paz' place also in case that is in your plans.

In any case you will almost certainly see lots of great birds and have very good lodging to boot.

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Thanks so much for your input so many years later. I do think we'll end up staying in the Tandayapa area. I hadn't heard about Angel Paz until today. Sounds amazing. I do read that Milpe is sub tropical rainforest while Tandayapa is cloud forest. I remain a bit confused about how those two landscapes are different.

HeadWest said:

I hadn't heard about Angel Paz until today. Sounds amazing.

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During my visit to Angel Paz I felt a bit of ambivalence. Some great birds (most famously the antpittas & the west slope cock-of-the-rock), but lacking somewhat the excitement of discovery that many birders relish. At times it felt more like we were watching avian performers following their cues. Didn't keep me from adding the birds to my lifelist, though (which includes a few staked-out birds from here in the states, after all).

Am not sure that busloads of tourists are the norm, but were much in evidence that day.

Gary H

At my visit to Angel Paz we were maybe 5 birders the entire day. He does have a small lodge as well these days.

Tandayapa is much higher elevation than Milpe. I stayed at Bellevista at 2900 m where the nights were decidedly cold and clouds among the trees at day also could keep it cool. Milpe I think is at 1000 m where the weather became much warmer mid day. (Mindo is in between). Birdlife is a fair bit different between the two areas, and from Mindo we had a one day outing to an area much lower again (350 m) that gave some different birds again.

Niels

njlarsen said:

Birdlife is a fair bit different between the two areas, and from Mindo we had a one day outing to an area much lower again (350 m) that gave some different birds again.

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Might have been the Rio Silanche Bird Sanctuary (http://mindocloudforest.org/portfolio/rio-silanche/), which (like Milpe) is operated by the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation. If I recall correctly, took us a bit more than one hour to reach it from Mindo. The canopy observation tower was a nice touch. Reasonably good west slope lowland birding.

Gary H

gdhunter said:

Might have been the Rio Silanche Bird Sanctuary (http://mindocloudforest.org/portfolio/rio-silanche/), which (like Milpe) is operated by the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation. If I recall correctly, took us a bit more than one hour to reach it from Mindo. The canopy observation tower was a nice touch. Reasonably good west slope lowland birding.

Gary H

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Correct. We added Rio Silanche after having done Milpe.

Niels