Mindo

After 3 weeks in hot, dry places, this weekend it was time to hit the rain forest, or cloud forest to be exact.

Meet Mindo.  Small town about 2.5 hours by bus from Quito, elevation somewhat less than Quito though I couldn't (quickly) find an exact number online for it.

For scale, the yellow square in the middle of the map is the center park in town.  It was maybe the size of four house lots.  Basically Mindo is tiny.

Size: 5 minutes walking to get across the main part of town

Temperature: warm

Humidity: you could practically swim in it

I was in a constant state of dampness for three days, between the rain and the humidity, which meant that *nothing* dried out.  Things just sitting in the hostel were damp.  This included my sheets every night for bed.  Somewhat less than pleasant at first, but I slept just fine anyway.

Mindo is known for it's many hummingbirds (colibris), this was a statue in the central park.

This is the one picture I got of the real hummingbirds around.  There were bunches of them, but they don't like to sit still for pictures very often.

I arrived in Mindo about 11:30 am on Friday with 3 others from the group, and after dropping our packs at the hostel, we joined up with others and headed to the Mariposario (butterfly farm).  In the pouring down rain I might add.  Warm rain, but very wet rain.  It was maybe a half hour walk out of town to get to the Mariposario, meaning plenty of time to get soaked.  We got a lift the last little way from a local.

If we look soaking, it's because we were.

And once at the butterfly farm, had a brilliant time surrounded by butterflies of all shapes and sizes.

And yes, that's me holding the blue morpho

Dinner that evening was one of the best hamburgers of my life, at this corner bar near the edge of town.  It had swings to sit on, making it even cooler.

Note: this picture was taken the next day.  Which is why it looks like day, not night.

This is the view from the hostel, words can't describe how beautiful the area was.  Green and flowers everywhere, vines with flowers hanging from somewhere up above, and the sound of the river to fall asleep to.  There was also a deck area up the stairs that looked out over the river/jungle with hammocks.  Basically a recipe for utter contentment.

The next morning was breakfast at the hostel and off for adventuring.  I went with Michelle, Clara, and Julia (yes ladies, here is the blog feature you asked for) up to see the waterfalls (cascadas) outside of town.  It was about 6.5 km uphill to get to the tram (terabita) to take us to the falls, we opted to hike it rather than take a 'taxi' (read: hop in the back of a pickup truck).  It was a 1 hr 15 min walk with beautiful scenery along the way.  Plus good exercise, and interesting to note the elevation difference, since we weren't getting out of breath the same as in Quito.

The terabita was an exhilarating ride across a valley to the other side, where more trails took us to the actual waterfalls.

The dog just jumped in the tram and rode across with us.  I guess it does that a lot, since it was perfectly chill, as were the guys operating the terabita.  It had gorgeous blue eyes.

I don't know how high up we were, but it was a long ways down.

Clockwise from top left: Cascada Madre, Cascada de los Maderos, random little falls on the trail (not sure if it has a name), Cascada Madre again (the water was colder than comfortable)

It began raining again while we were at the waterfalls, so shoes got even muddier while trekking through the jungle, though the dampness of the clothing didn't really see any perceptible change.  We hopped a taxi back down into town, and I swear the driver was aiming for all the low hanging branches so we'd have to duck in the back.  It was better than a roller coaster.

After one of the best grilled cheese sandwiches of my life for lunch (noticing a theme here with how good the food was?) I headed to the river for a regata with Julia, Michelle, and Cheryl.  This is the Mindo version of whitewater rafting.

The guy who drove our truck to get to the put-in on Rio Mindo kept all our stuff in the truck and met us at the bottom of the run.  He was also nice enough to keep my camera the whole time and show up at random points on the banks to take action shots of us.

We had about 20 minutes going through rapids of Class 2/3 by my estimation, on one of the most creative boats I've come across.  Though it looks kind of sketchy, I was impressed by how well it worked.  Sitting in the small triangles around the center tube provided plenty of protection for your butt, and so long as you kept your feet on the other side of the inner tube like you were supposed to, there was very little danger of hitting rocks with your feet.  It was flexible enough to go over waves, crash into rocks, and get through holes without flipping.  The two guys who navigated for us were excellent, and we had a blast.

Special thanks to Marvio and Anderson, our guides and new found friends.

At night we went out dancing at the local bar, and got to know about half the town that way, meaning you could walk through the streets and greet people by name, since you'd met them the night before.  It was so much fun getting to know a small little town like Mindo after being in Quito for a while, and fun to get into the jungle after being in the mountains.  I don't know if I'll have time to go back, but I'm keeping it in mind.

Also.  This was outside a store on the main street.  It was one of the weirdest looking floaty rings I've come across, being some strange combination of giraffe and deer.  So I took a picture of it.  It made me laugh every time I walked by.

Note: Mindo also had zip lining, canyoning (rappelling down waterfalls), birdwatching, horseback riding, 4-wheeling, fishing and other river sports, a chocolate factory, an orchid garden, and more.  For such a tiny town, it was chock full of amazing things to do.