I am finally getting around playing writing-catch up and update the blog about Mindo, the cloud forest, before I go off for spring break and have to write about that, too.
We went the weekend of Feb. 20, the weekend right after we got back from the rainforest. I almost didn’t go. I know that some of the girls had been tossing around the idea to go but I hadn’t heard anything from anyone Friday night. Finally at midnight Elizabeth calls me and asks me if I want to go. At this point, I had already fallen asleep and waking up in 5 hours just didn’t sound very pleasant at the time. Luckily, Elizabeth convinced me. So at 5 a.m. I was running around trying to pack as best I can – I felt totally unprepared.
We go to the big bus station in Quito and settle in our seats for the 2 ½ hour bus ride. The first part was somewhat unsettling because this old country couple was practically hovering over me. I think I’ve mentioned this before: it doesn’t matter if there are seats or not. The bus will pick up people randomly on the side of the road and they will stand in the middle of the tiny little aisle. And let me tell you, our seat space is not big to begin with. So here I am trying my best not to squish Alanna, my bus buddy, while at the same time trying not to get my eye busted out by the swinging boobs in my face. Eventually they got off and I was able to doze in and out awhile, despite the 5 teenagers who were sitting behind us, playing their guitars and singing fervently (and making fun of us not knowing we could understand them).
We sooner or later we step off the bus on to a street made entirely of mud. We all kind of look at each other and ask, “What are we going to do?” We hadn’t really explicitly planned anything before hand. We just got on the bus (that’s half the battle) and we had prior knowledge from talking to folks about Mindo and then reading our Lonely Planet guide book. But actually knowing WHERE to go to do all the stuff we had heard about – we had no idea. We figured we’d just figure it all out after coffee. So we go to a little hole in the wall place to have a full “continental breakfast” – wonderfully salty eggs, soft, fresh break with jam and coffee with lots of sugar and milk. I think all of that for the 6 of us was $11. And the woman waiting on us was precious – completely sweet, helpful little old lady who keep smiling the entire time.
After breakfast we’re standing on the side of the road when this big Jeep comes sliding up next to us with a blond woman driving. “Hey, honeys,” she said, “Would you like to stay at my hostel?” Apparently, she was the owner of one of the hostels we had read about in Lonely Planet. It was $10 a night, with breakfast included and she would help us plan all the things we wanted to do. It was a small town and she would just call everyone. She would keep up a tab and we would just pay her at the end of the weekend. Sounded like a perfect deal. So we grabbed on to the outside of her Jeep and she took us down the muddy road, past the soccer field to her charming place.
Claudia's muddy Jeep
View from my hostel room (looking into the private guest house)
The place, called El Rocio, was tucked right off the road surrounded by lush, dark green vegetation. It was all wooden with a tin roof where moss and impatients grew. There was a deep porch, simple downstairs with tables and 2 upper levels. The 3rd floor was a dorm-style large room where 9 American girls were staying. We stayed on the 2nd floor where there were 3 bed rooms, each with 2 twin beds. On the 2nd floor was also a small patio with hammocks.
The main floor of the hostel with some of the dogs (I think there were 6 total).
I must mention how this woman was quite a character – like something out of a movie. I wish I got a picture of her. Her name was Claudia and she was very handsome, in her later 30’s probably. She sprinkled her conversation with “honeys” and “sweeties” and we instantly liked her – she was just a very personable person. And we couldn’t help laughing when she would add colorful vulgar language every once in a while – it just seems almost strange with her sweet demeanor.
Once we dumped our stuff our rooms and got our keys we were off. We hopped onto the bed of the pick-up truck (our taxi) and went deeper into the cloud forest to go do zip-lining.
My awesome zip-line getup
Getting ready to zoom away!
That was in.cred.i.ble! They outfitted us to these heavy harnesses and helmets and set us up with our 3 guides. There were 13 lines where we were hooked up to these cables and flying overhead the trees at fast speeds. There’s really no other way to describe what a rush it was – so much fun.
Each line we did by ourselves unless you wanted to do something crazy – like the Superman or upside-down. It was kind of awkward to do either of those because you needed the guide help’s but they said they did it all
the time with all kind of people. For the Superman, you were harnessed so that your body was parallel with the cable and you spread out your arms. It was fun but more difficult than just sitting in your little harness – ya had to use your muscles to balance yourself and the harness dug into your stomach. I don’t even remember how they harnessed up for the upside-down but I believe that one was even more difficult. The guide kept telling me to just relax my muscles but it was easier said than done. It felt like I was going to fall out of my harness down, down, down into the trees. However, it was really cool to see the amazing scenery pass you but upside-down. Your mind seemed so confused about the view.
Liz zippin' down the line.
Group shot of the girls and the guides
Our guides happened to be cute and young so we decided to invite them to dinner later. We made plans to meet up later and then we headed on our way to our next activity – white water tubing.
When we got to the site by the river we realized what idiots we were. We had been hot and sweaty when zip-lining because sometimes we had to hike through the forest to get to each new set of cables. But the idea of taking off our clothes and wearing just our bathing suits just didn’t sound to inviting. But we were there and were just gonna go ahead and DO IT. We got in the water and it was incredibly, excruciatingly cold. Our guide (who was wearing a wetsuit vest, rain boots and then jeans, of all things) had us get in the floating devices which were this group of tubes all tied together and we were to sit in the little triangle the tubes made connected to each other.
Mindo Girl's Weekend Official Pic
He pushed off and we plunged into the icy water. Those poor guides – a group of 6 girls screaming at the top of our lungs, shivering the entire time. It was fun but it was hard not to think about how freakin’ cold it was. There were many smooth, large rocks in the river and our guide would maneuver around them – sometimes our tubes would just slide right over them.
Rollin' around in the agua
If that happen, you had to make sure to pick up your bottom, just in case. I don’t know how, but I accidentally hit the heel of my foot on a rock – I can’t tell you how much that hurt. Especially after the bruise formed and I had to walk on it. We would bounce up and down and the guide would purposely get us hit by the waves of the rushing water, just to tease us. After 30 minutes we came to the bank where our taxi-truck was waiting and we climbed in, shivering. We headed back to the hostel to change into dryer clothes.
Then we went to the frog concert. Our taxi driver let us off in this gravel parking lot and off to the right tucked in the forest was this beautiful construction made of glossy wood. Unfortunately, it was night-time and my camera just couldn’t capture how beautiful it. There were pathways with wooden handrails and steps leading down deeper into the forest. We followed the short pathway down until we came to a large hut.
A pathway around the place
The hut had a thatch roof and rows and rows of benches. Attached to the large hut was an open-air restaurant. No walls, just a thatch roof also. The place was on stilts and water surrounded it – perfect for housing all the frogs we were going to see. In front of us was a large pound, almost green with all the lily pads on it. There were little bridge pathways built around the pond that lead deeper into the surrounding forest. Past this pound was a small lake and around the small lake were beautiful little hostel houses. You could also eat on the lake. There were floating wooden platforms that had a table and benches nailed down. I don’t know how it specifically worked – the whole eating on that thing but I bet it would be fun just because the scenery was so beautiful. The entire compound was impressive and picturesque.
View of the pond
We all sat in one of the benches in the large hut and were given little glasses of red wine to drink while we waited for everyone to get settled. Then a man in his 60’s came out and started explaining to us about the organization and the conservation of the area and all the types of frogs that they have in the area. He was speaking in slow Spanish but it was so difficult to follow along. You have to use every ounce of concentration to listen to a Spanish lecture, which can be hard to do when you have all your energy. We had been up since 5 a.m. and as it was the end of the day, it was incredibly challenging to follow along. After him explaining all about the area and frogs etc. we all filed into a line and followed after him down the pathway going toward the pond and the lake.
The frog concert is called that for obvious reasons. There are so many frogs in 1 concentrated area and at night they all “sing.” On our little tour we took out our cellphones and shined them into the pond, the bridge, the pathways and the trees in the forest looking for frogs and toads. Our guide every once in a while would hold a frog by its foot and show us. We saw all types of frogs – large ones that puffed out their bellies, little tiny ones with slender limbs. Eventually we were completely enclosed by the trees where we couldn’t see the lights coming from the restaurant, even though we were very far at all from it. There, the guide showed us glow-in-the-dark bacteria. Tooootally cool. This bacteria grows on wood when it decomposes (or is it the bacteria that decomposes?) and it makes the wood glow bright blue in the dark!
Obvious enough for ya? (Sign we found at the frog concert)
After the frog concert we went back into town for dinner with the guides. We ate delicious pizzas at the same place we had for dinner. It was odd and humorous because the place was this tiny little hole in the wall. I think there were 3 tables inside the entire place. But in the corner of the restaurant was this nice, high-tech stereo sound-system blasting Latin dance tunes. We spent dinner conversing in a mixture of Spanish, English and charades which always makes for an entertaining time.
After listening to all that good dance music, we weren’t ready to go back to bed (believe it or not) so the guys offered to take us to karaoke place. We went into this tiny little restaurant that had a projector positioned to the wall where you could sing along to the words on the wall. With each song was a sort of music video playing in the background. However, each song didn’t have their own video so we saw the same sappy love scenes in a sunflower field over and over again. There were probably about 15 people in the place and they all kept singing these slow love songs. That would never fly in the U.S. The owner sung a few songs and this guy probably in his 40’s kept singing these very serious songs in a horrible voice – but he sang them with such conviction. Bless his heart, he was pretty interesting to watch. FINALLY, it was our chance to sing and we, of course, in the American style wanted to sing something not as sappy and more traditional (American) karaoke songs like “Hotel California.” We practically got boo-ed off. Everyone in the place kept looking at each other like, “Hurry up. You guys are horrible.” Whatever, we didn’t care. We thought it was all pretty funny.
After we sang we went to the discotec next door. This place had 2 small rooms, with a tiny disco ball in the corner, and a small bar in the other corner. There were probably 15 people in the whole place. As soon as we get there – and I mean as soon as we step through the door – we’re being asked if we want to dance. I must say, I love how Latin guys dance. They are not shy and they LEAD. They know what they’re doing. In the States I think there’s this stigmatism attached to a guy dancing well, that he must be gay or something. But in Ecuador, it seems EVERY guy dances (and LIKES to do so). And they dances wonderfully. It’s like they’re born with this innate skill. So even if you don’t know how to dance salsa, it’s okay because they are such good leads that you can learn quickly. I love it. We danced for a while, said good-bye to the guys and crashed at our hostel.
My Adventures in Ecuador 
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