Astonishing Mangroves & Dry forest /Chocolate experience trip

Great time with Eddie on a private tour to the mangroves and chocolate making. Eddie is very friendly and knowledgable. Communication is excellent, he and the driver are super friendly. He also makes sure to support local families on these tours (for example the chocolate making is with a local business, the mangrove tour is with a local guide, etc).

My family and I toured the Mangroves with Eddie this November. I would highly recommend this full-day tour. Eddie is highly knowledgable of and passionate about the Churute Mangroves and the chocolate-making process. He was able to name every bird we saw, many of which I had never heard of before. He is eloquent and very accommodating, one of our group members had to join later, so Eddie arranged a car to pick up and drop her off mid-tour. I felt very immersed in the local Ecuadorian culture due to Eddie’s local connections. We ate a traditional-style Ecuadorian lunch at a family’s farm, met “the Captain”, and cut down cacao fruit with a traditional saw. You can trust Eddie to deliver an info-packed, interactive, and unforgettable experience in the Mangroves. Thanks so much! 🙏🏼

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Eddie guided us on a wonderful learning adventure through the back roads outside Guayaquil. The birding was exceptional as Eddie shared his knowledge and photographic skills. We ended with a greater appreciation of mangroves and chocolate production. His friendly personality exudes warmth. Eddie is an excellent ambassador of his community and country.

What an exciting day Eddie (Eduardo Meneses) gave us. Our motorized canoe through the estuary was filled with many beautiful bird citings, and amazing sites. Eddie is a great guide, spoting howler monkeys and birds in a flash. Lunch, including the chocolate dessert at the cacao farm was magnificient. The harvesting and processing of the cacao was a fasinating process, and making and tasting the chocolate bars we made was beyond delicious. Highly recommend this 8+ hour tour, and especially Eddie as the guide. He's full of information, knowledge and humor. We enjoyed every minute.

Our Guide, Eduardo (Eddie) Meneses, was amazing. Very personable, friendly, funny, and full of information. He could spot a bird in a flash! His whole tour was amazing, and we would absolutely recommend him for any excursion.

In January 2025 we did two full-day tours with Eduardo Meneses: the Churute Mangroves Reserve (including the cacao experience at Finca Cumandá) and a custom trip to the El Morro Estuary & Playas. Both were excellent. Eduardo guided in both English and Spanish, which was perfect for our mixed group. He was always on time, professional, very informative, and also flexible — on one day he even extended the tour beyond the planned schedule without charging extra. The cacao experience at Finca Cumandá was a highlight: the hosts were as welcoming and knowledgeable as Eduardo, and we learned so much about cacao and other fruits. His strong connections with local guides also made activities like dolphin watching and bird spotting smooth and reliable. A wonderful surprise was that Eduardo is also a talented photographer. He took photos of wildlife, landscapes, and our group throughout the tours, and shared them with us afterwards. The pictures were fantastic and a great memory of our trip. I highly recommend Eduardo to anyone visiting Ecuador — he’s professional, trustworthy, and makes every excursion both fun and meaningful.

We had a fantastic trip with Eddie and his crew. Wonderful wildlife views and so many great memories saved in world class photos. Our visit in the chocolate farm included an extraordinary meal. Fun opportunity to taste many different fruits. Best of all was learning all about making chocolate - and eating it! Very special and our hosts were charming. Another highlight was visiting with the howler monkeys. We were right there with them, and the sounds of them talking is unforgettable. Eddie is super knowledgeable and rightfully proud of his country. He has all the contacts to get in just the right places and see everything. Our day in the Ecuadorean countryside could not have been better. Great driver, congenial hosts, and a full fun day! Would do it all again

If you are interested to see the beautiful nature not far from Guayaquil and to get to know better the local people, take this day trip with Eduardo. It starts with a boat ride in a nature reserve, revealing many interesting birds around the mangroves. Eduardo sent us in a few days a cloud link to all the pictures he took on that tip. Then we visited the forrest with the monkeys. For lunch we experienced authentic tasty local food cooked by the family running a small cocoa farm and observed how cocoa is grown and harvested and the process of chocolate making. Our guide offered wealth of information on everything in an unobtrusive but engaging and caring manner, making this trip unforgettable.

Between the many incredible experiences we had in Ecuador, the day trip in the Churute Mangroves followed by a walk in the Dry Monkey Forest and Cocoa Farm visit was one of the highlights. Our guide Eddie has a wealth of knowledge and love for the nature, which he shared with us with great enthusiasm and humor. Every single moment of this trip, surrounded by the beauty of the Guayaquil area and his interesting narrative was a pleasure. We learned so much about the mangroves, the beautiful birds, the naughty monkeys, and the life of the hard working people, living in this area! We are grateful to the young family who owned the cacao farm for opening the doors of their house for us, for offering us their delicious food and teaching us about cocoa and chocolate. It was pure luck, that we selected Eddie as our guide- his tour permitted us to understand better the Ecuadorian nature, life and people and to wish to come to this incredible country again. Thank you, Eddie!

Eduardo was an excellent guide. Very knowledgeable, great in spotting and pointing out birds and wildlife in the jungle. Has many contacts. Home cooked unch at cocoa farm owner's home (his friend) was a real treat. Really a first class tour.