MINDO (Cloud Forest). In Search of Waterfalls. 42 237 Km
For our second trip away from Quito we headed to the small village of Mindo. Located about 2 hours drive north-west of Quito, the road lead through the valley till about half-way when it slowly started turning it's way down through the mountains. Straight off the bus we knew we were in cloud forest as the thick humidity consumed us on our short walk to the hostel.
Mindo is close enough to do as a day trip but we were keen to chill out and so planned for a couple of days. The first afternoon we wandered through the streets to get an idea of the place before visiting one of the two chocolate makers in town. We actually went to the most recent maker on the scene, whom we learnt left the first place after more than 10 years because she was unhappy with it's growing automation. The tour we went on was literally in her back yard as we were shown everything from pulling the beans out of the pod (above) to the drying and fermentation process, and finally the ground products. Among the usual tasting of chocolate we also got to try the fruit of the cocoa pod, which surround the bean, and the flavour of the beans through different stages of drying and fermentation. Best of all was the brownie at the end. New contender for world's best brownie!
The first evening we went a night tour of a frig sanctuary (no photos allowed) before wandering back into town for dinner.
The next day we started early by visiting a hummingbird sanctuary before breakfast. Another backyard operation, the man here continues to look after the thick bush behind his house and encourages different birds to come through leaving food, putting out fruit, or filling feeders with sweet water.
Following on from Hummingbirds, we grabbed a quick breakfast before heading out to do some zip-lining. Harnessed onto a steel cable, lying a hundred or so meters above the ground, we flew through a course of 10 cables stretching 2km, over about an hour or so.
From the Zip-Line it was an easy 2Km walk to the beginning of the waterfalls. Taking a cable car across the gorge, we hiked down to the bottom of it before rounding the corner and following the river back up hill, stopping at 4 gorgeous waterfalls as we went. We also found some of the biggest leaves ever!
Once we reach the fourth waterfall we went back the way we came in but took a slight detour before the end so we could visit the recommended swimming hole. And it was a little cold. Turns out, the water here is coming from melted snow from the nearby mountains and volcanoes. It was a short but refreshing swim.
We finished our day off by a visit to the other chocolate place, because you have to compare the brownies (It wasn't as good), before having a few drinks and dinner. The following day we returned to Quito for one last night before we start heading south.
42 237 Km (16667Km Flights, 8026Km Sailing, 16 929Km Bus, 148km Hiking, 18Km Horse riding, 150Km Train)
