In the truck heading north on the E28, we wound our way through the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Everything was so green and luscious (we even drove through the equator again.) You could tell we were on the cusp of the Amazon Rain Forest. It was tropical, there were plants we've never seen before and it was just amazing to have this experience. Five years ago I never thought I'd ever been in South America, let alone Ecuador. About half way through the trip to Mindo, I fell asleep for a while and I think everyone else did at different times as well. I was not used to the time zone yet. We were two hours a head of everyone at home...which I called Texas time because that's what everyone understood.
We got to the turn off from E28 to the road (Ruta Mindo) that led to Mindo. We drove through the heart of downtown, which was mostly restaurants, shops and hostels. Julio stopped at this place called Bird Planet Hosteria, which is essentially a hotel/hostel with meeting rooms, a restaurant and booked out tours. We were there for the tours. The owner, Patricia, is from Ecuador but spent the last 12 or so years in the states so she spoke English very well. She went over the tour packages with us. Mom, Amy, Josh and I talked amongst ourselves and decided which tours we wanted and had time for. Mom wanted to see the butterflies, we all wanted to do the ziplining through the tropical canopy and the cable car/waterfall hike. All together it cost each of us $30 which to me is a steal for everything we were going to do. I was super excited for some ziplining because I've never been and it always sounded like a lot of fun. We thanked Patricia and headed out to the truck.
We all piled into Julio's truck and headed to our first stop, the Mariposario, which was just down the road. We were going to go see mariposas (butterflies). We parked and walked down the cute jungle trail to the building. I went and found Mariposas in Mindo (GC81XT5) before we went inside. We showed the lady our tickets and she told us the rules about being in with the butterflies...you know general safety of the butterflies and yourself. There were pieces of bananas you could feed them so you could get them to sit on your hand or finger.
We went inside. It was humid and there were butterflies everywhere!! Soooo many butterflies. I think the lady told us there were at least five different species of butterflies in there. All of us spent maybe less than an hour inside enjoying the butterflies.
We then went outside to enjoy the rest of the property. We watched the hummingbirds drink out of the feeders and we climbed up on top of the bamboo tree house to enjoy the views of the rainforest.
We walked back through the butterflies to see them one more time before walking into the lobby, where we waited for Julio. We perused the gift shop.
We thanked the lady in the lobby and walked out towards the truck. Mom and I got a picture with the sign and noticed across the street of the people getting ready to tub the river.
Julio wanted to know if we wanted a picture next to the river so we gathered on the rocks and he took our pic with the Rio Mindo.
I would never want to accidently swim in any rivers in South America, they all look filthy...plus I heard there was this parasite that swam up your urethra. No one has time for that especially in a foreign country.
We all headed to ziplining next. Julio took us across the river and up the hill we went. We parked the truck and we all got out. We were all really excited for our Mindo Canopy Adventures! We walked up to the gear checkout and were fitted for our safety gear and guide gloves. We would be doing the 10 line course. Julio decided to stay behind with mom's camera so he could take pictures of us at the start line and finish line. Next, they told us, in really good English, the rules to keep us safe and having fun. We were in a group of six and we had two guides with us. They told us we could go solo the normal way or if we wanted to superman or butterfly we would have to go with one of the guides. Amy, mom and I went normal throughout the tour but Josh tried both with the guide as well as the other two people in the group.
In between lines, some of the walks to the next platform were short while the others were long. Since we were still over 9,000 feet in elevation it took us a while to catch our breath.
All of us, except Josh, were wearing shorts or Capri cut pants and we started itching but we couldn't see anything biting us. It got worse and worse as we got to the end of the excursion. I soon found out that those were called no-see-ums. In the middle of our ziplining experience, probably line six, one of the guides showed us a tiny hummingbird nest he found on one of the palm fronds he picked up off the ground. It was cool to see such a tiny nest.
The second to last line, Amy and Josh went before us, one of the guides got my mom and I's attention to point out a couple of toucan's in one of the trees. That was a cool experience...seeing one in real life in its habitat.
We took all of our harnesses, ropes and gloves off and used the restroom. I wanted water because it was humid and sweaty. We thanked our tour guides and got back in the truck with Julio where he drove us to our last excursion, the waterfall/cable car tour. That was further up the road and it didn't take very long to get there. We parked and walked the short distance to the cable car. We had to wait our turn. Only certain amount of people can go at once. Luckily, the wait wasn't very long. This time Julio came with us.
On the other side we decided which trail we wanted to go down.
We picked the trail with the most waterfalls but couldn't continue because Amy wouldn't be able to. About two years ago her and Josh went to Hawaii and she broke her ankle. She now has metal plates and screws holding it together and the was having a rough time hiking the uneven terrain. She, Josh and Julio decided to walk back to the cable car after seeing Cascada Nambillo.
We headed back up and decided to go to the lone waterfall, Cascada Reina, at the end of the other trail which was suppose to be the best one. We headed out. It seemed like the trail would never end. The one thing I noticed was nothing in South America had any distances when it came to trail maps. Everything was in time. How long is this trail? We would ask. Oh it takes about an hour, they would say. Everyone has their pace and threshold so that answer was very vague to us. An hour of walking could take us a half hour and someone less seasoned in hiking an hour could take them two hours. I need to know the length of this trail!
Mom and I continued on. It was humid, sweaty and we wondered when we'd ever get there. We kept turning a corner hoping the waterfall was nearby. We kept walking. We turned the next corner...still no falls. Where the hell were these falls? Were we close? How much further? Mom said we would give it another five minutes and then we would turn around and head back to the cable car.
Within three minutes we finally rounded our last corner and we could hear the falls. We have finally arrived!
I have no idea how far we actually walked but we enjoyed the falls for about fifteen minutes before walking back. At least we knew going back how far we had to go to get back to the cable car.
Mom texted Amy to let her know we were okay and we were on our way back to the cable car. She replied, see you in a bit. We were tired, sweaty and always wondered if around the next bend we would see an anaconda hanging from one of the jungle trees. Probably far fetched but we were still going to be cautious. Once we got to the cable car we had to wait almost a half hour to get on because everyone wanted to get on at the same time. So...we waited. We found out the family sitting next to us spoke some English so mom tried to use Google Translator to ask how far of a walk it was to the big falls. He also told us about an hour. I wanted to scream. So mom asked how far of a walk it was in meters? The guy had no idea. Seriously, does Ecuador or South America in general not use distance as a measurement while hiking?
We finally got onto the cable car and made our way back over to Amy, Josh and Julio. They were sitting in the snack shack eating ice cream. We hopped back in the truck and discussed where we would have dinner before we left Mindo. He knew of a place in town near the Bird Planet Hosteria. Julio parked the truck and we walked across the street to a place called Food Studio. We were the only people in the restaurant. Mom and I ordered the lemonade and the main course with chicken. I guess the menu changes all the time depending on what the chef ordered our bought fresh that day. The main course consisted of organic green leaves, rambutan, cocoa nibs, with passion fruit vinaigrette, cooked chayote in peanuts and ginger, black beans cooked with beer and brown sugar. It was probably the healthiest meal I have ever had.
The chef and owner of the restaurant chatted with us for a bit. His English was superb because we found out he lived in Indiana for a while. He, his wife and son live in Mindo now working at their restaurant. He said he made a decent living. We paid our bill, used the restroom and thanked him for his hospitality and the delicious food he served us. Before we left Mindo, we got a picture of the Mindo sign and looked at a few shops.
Josh had been on this kick before we left Mexico that every day he would buy a new bracelet. He found one in Mindo and added it to his three day collection. He also bough his Panama hat here as well.
My no-see-um bites were starting to get really itchy. I tried really hard to avoid scratching them. We got on the road and it started to get dark because we were at the equator and it got dark around 6. Most of the trip, since there was nothing to really see, was spent napping. We got back into Quito around 8ish. Julio dropped us off in front of the hotel, we thanked him and headed up to our rooms to dump off our stuff. We met out in the lobby with Josh and Amy to discuss what we wanted to do on our last full day in Quito.
We decided upon the hot springs and whatever else we saw as we went...depending on time of course. We told the hotel owners and they called Julio to let him know we would be ready to go the next day after breakfast. We saw some other people, Jim and Mary, in the hotel and decided to talk to them for a bit. They were on vacation from California. We told them why we were in Ecuador and where we were from. I guess they were ranch owners taking a break during the off season. We told them what we've done so far in Quito and where we were going to end up at the end of our stay. They told us what they've done so far and what was left on their list. They also said to wash our no-see-um bites with soap and hot water. Around 9:30ish, we all headed to our rooms. I showered and got comfy for bed. I brushed my teeth and finished getting ready for bed. I even did some internetting for a bit. We went to bed just after 11 p.m.
Next Adventure: Termas Papallacta, Contenential Divide, Quito, Flash Flood, NCAA Brackets
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