The gardens evolved over period of ~ 14 years. Hugolindo is the owner who is basically self taught and cares for this garden as a past time. That being said, he is recognized as being very knowledgeable and also travels extensively as a guest speaker. Ecuador claims ~414 orchid species and in Mindo alone there are ~ 135 species that climb halfway up the mountains. Sandra was our interpreter as Hugolindo showed us his orchids, many of which required a magnifying glass to see them. I'm afraid I was not able to get the names of a lot of these incredible flowers.