Passionate and knowledgeable guide - Great possibility to see many of the unique birds around Mindo. Marcelo is a very passionate and highly experienced guide that knows all about the birds and the forest! Highly recommendable!

Amazing birding guide - We had a really amazing birding tour with Marcelo. He collected us from our hostel and provided rubber boots and binoculars. We saw so many different types of birds, and Marcelo was very quick at spotting them and focusing the scope for us to look. He also helped us take photos through the scope. He was very knowledgeable about the birds, but also told us about a lot of plants we saw. You can tell that he really has a passion for nature and respects the forest. We had a tasty breakfast at the end of the tour. Marcelo speaks very good English.

Experienced guide and beautiful birds - Marsello knows his birds and how to find them. We are beginner birders and had fun hiking with him. He kindly provided rubber boots and an extra set of binoculars. We found queztals, toucans, and tanagers. The views from the trail were gorgeous and Marsello was an interesting conversationalist. We were lucky to get such an experienced birder last minute.

Fantastic birdwatching with a local expert - Marcelo is a truly expert guide and helped us to see (and photograph) so many wonderful birds - toucans, tanagers, quetzals to name a few. He has all the right professional bird-watching equipment and also took us to his own land which is amazingly beautiful, and we learnt a lot about the plants and animals of the area. Highly recommend a tour with Marcelo!

A private birding experience in paradise! - What a treat! We saw dozens of different birds, and then a wide variety within each family - 9 different hummingbirds, for example! Marcelo was so knowledgeable and worked really hard to help us find a few more rare sightings (or requests - the quetzal!). Also, it was very private; not only because it was just the two of us, but because we went much further up the mountain than other birding tours, to Marcelo’s private property to start. A big recommendation for bird fans. Great price too!

The best guide in Mindo! - What an amazing experience! I booked this Birding tour with Marcelo based on the other reviews that I'd read about him. He called me at our hotel in Mindo the night before using Whatsapp to confirm the tour and talk about the starting time. In Mindo, you need to get up early to see these beautiful birds so we started at 5:40am. He had arranged very comfortable transportation and supplied us with high quality binoculars and he also brought a scope. He is super fast at spotting birds and pointing his scope through the forest right at the birds! He also works hard to use your cellphone to take pictures through the scope so you have wonderful pictures to go home with. Marcelo is a seriously passionate and qualified guide. He not only knows his birds but flora and fauna. He also works with local kids helping to educate and introduce them to the amazing ecosystem in Mindo. I would highly recommend that you book with Marcelo!

Excellent birding trip - Irman was an excellent guide. His many years of experience were impressive. Quick breakfast before doing some stationary/walking spotting. Instant ID on every bird we saw. We saw about 30-40 species during our tour.

Marcelo's wildlife tour! - We had an excellent, personable experience for a really good price. Can't recommend it enough! We started the trip with a really great driver that Marcelo sourced for us (David) who put up with us stopping every 20 mins for my wife's altitude sickness -- without losing any patience ! We then met Marcelo in the wonderful town of Mindo where he welcomed in a heartfelt way that made us feel like neighbours. We had booked both the night and day wildlife tour -- and they were so worth it! On the magical night tour, Marcelo had a great eye for incredible and rare species -- we managed to see snakes, owls, rare insects and an Olinguito (found in the cloud forest and only discovered in SA in 2013!) In the day tour we were driven to the heights of the luscious cloud forest where Marcelo's instincts for experience allowed us to see owls, birds of prey and many a Toucan! On both occasions, we were spoilt with incredible facts and made some great friends along the way. We cannot recommend it enough! Joey & Katie

Amazing Birding Tour - Marcelo clearly has a passion for birding and immense knowledge as well. We were fortunate to have him as our budding guide in Mindo and were very pleased with the variety of birds we saw. He even extended our tour by about 30 minutes to ensure we were able to one final, and gorgeous bird that we could hear, but took a bit of time to coax it out of the foliate for viewing.

Great guides and gorgeous birds! - We had the pleasure of doing a night walk with Marcelo and then an early morning bird watching walk with his brother Irman. Their experience and ability are amazing! They can spot a bird or animal from huge distances and know the names and calls of each one. Both were extremely helpful and kind and offered us lots of other suggestions for our trip when we asked. We saw many species of birds, and all got amazing photos some with our own cameras and some through their telescope. They loaned us good binoculars for both walls and flashlights for the night walk. Marcelo did say that they have a hard time getting good binoculars and flashlights in Ecuador and he is willing to trade or buy items like this from his clients so consider this if you are coming from somewhere where this equipment is easy to obtain. My husband and I and our two young adult children really enjoyed both of these tours and highly recommend them!