Mindo es Lindo

Mindo is AWESOME! I heard about it from a few other travelers who shared any interest in outdoor

adventures and decided to go even though it wasn't in my guidebook and there was very little information on

the internet about it. It's so small of a town that it's super easy to pack a lot into a day. Everything is no more than a 5 minute walk away, and you don't have to go very far to get into the thick of the rainforest. I arrived a little bit after noon with no plans at all, and by 1pm I was headed off on a canyoning (repeling down waterfalls) trip in the rainforest. I struck up conversation with another backpacker at my hostel while I was waiting for the canyoning guide to show up. He had just arrived at the hostel, and I told him I was headed

Jens and I. Solid adventure buddies :)

out canyoning and that he should join. "Sure! That sounds fun. Give me a sec to change my clothes." I love the spontaneity of backpackers! Back home it would have been similar to pulling teeth to get any of my friends to accompany me on such an adventure, and their first response most definitely would not have been "Sure."

Jens (who has a sense of adventure greater than mine) and I hopped into the back of pickup truck and bounced along an unpaved road into the rainforest for about 15 minutes. We followed our guide for about a one hour hike up through the breathtakingly gorgeous forest. Butterflies were EVERYWHERE and I saw possibly some of the coolest plants on this planet. At one point we crossed a river on a 'bridge' made out of three taught ropes - two for your hands and one for your feet. This was the scariest part of the whole day! It was so hard to maintain balance on this mere tight-roping experience over a raging river. Half way through, I turned around and looked at Jens and we both started laughing. What had we gotten ourselves into?! Up, up, and up we went as we hiked alongside the same stream/waterfalls that we were going to be going down. At the top we put on helmets and harnesses, and I glanced over at the rope to see what kind of condition it was in. Slightly frayed, but completely safe by South America standards (which translates moreorless to an arguably sturdy line).
Too late to turn back now! I was standing in the stream at the top of a 25m waterfall, braking the rope with my left hand, and leaning back. I was suspended out over the waterfall, my feet against the rocks, and the water pouring into my lap. I LOVE MY LIFE! Going down was pretty straight forward: I would push off the rock with my feet while simultaneously easing off the brake to repel down the waterfall. It was a quite controlled decent, but nevertheless I can confirm that my adrenal glands still work. By the third waterfall I was comfortable with the belaying and could descend a couple of meters per push off the rocks. I felt like some whimsical rainforest waterfall guru! There were a couple times when I would swing back toward the rock to push off again, but my feet would slip and I would instead be dangling directly under the waterfall. It was a little bit difficult to get out of this situation because it was hard to get a firm footing on the rock, especially when I couldn't even see where the rock was in the first place. But I made it safely down all of the waterfalls in one piece with only minor scrapes! I would go back and do it again in a heartbeat!
Jens, the guide, and I hiked back to the pickup truck. Soaking wet, Jens and I were banished to the bed of the truck. We held on for dear life as we bounced our way down the unpaved road back to Mindo and dodged low hanging branches. Jens and I ended up having dinner at a pizzeria with supposedly the best pizza in all of Ecuador, according to a few websites and one of the staff from my hostel in Quito. This is the first pizza I've had in Ecuador so I have nothing to compare it to, but it was pretty darn amazing. I ordered the fungi pizza (of course) which was layered in mushrooms, basil, and oregano nomnomnom. Jens and I drank beer, played rummikub, and talked the night away on the patio outside of our hostel until the wee hours of the morning. The tree frogs made for a beautiful soundtrack to the night, and the hostel's border collie was snuggled up against my leg. What a perfect day! It was lovely to fall asleep to the sound of a thunderstorm and the rainforest's symphony. I woke up in the morning to find that my elbow, which had been rested up against the mosquito net, was covered in ~20 mosquito bites. Oh yeah, rainforests have things that bite...

In the morning we headed back into the rainforest for zip lining. The course was made up of 13 cables that

Atention You May Die

hovered over canyons and the canopy of the rainforest. There I was, stepping into a harness yet again, fastening my helmet, and checking out the condition of the zip lines. Meh, I'll spare my parents the agony and just conclude that they were totally safe because I'm still alive to tell you about it. We had to wear thick leather gloves that we used to brake on the really fast runs, but it was all straight forward. Sit back, relax, and enjoy flying hundreds of feet above the ground through the canopy of the rainforest. I had a lot of fun with the two guides, and they decided to mess with me. "Quieres hacer la mariposa? (would you like to do the butterfly?)" I

Mariposa Style! 

don't think they were expecting me to say yes, but there I was, on the fastest, highest, and longest zip line of the course, going down mariposa style. This involves hanging upside down with your legs spread apart (so you don't hit the cable nor fall out of the harness) and you don't hang on to anything. The guide rides behind you to take care of the braking and to help keep the balance. Oh, yep, my adrenal glands definitely still work!

I got back to my hostel in the afternoon, and sat on the patio watching hummingbirds zip around the garden. Clouds rolled in seemingly from out of nowhere, and a big thunderstorm refreshed the rainforest. Cloud forest...check! I wish I could pack up the amazing smell of it for you and put it in this post. Come on you engineers who are reading this, get to work and make this a reality! chop chop. 

Jens, two other folks from the hostel (Nicola from England and Fabian from Germany), and I caught the last bus to Quito this afternoon. It was uneventful as far as South American bus rides go, but somehow the driving doesn't get any less terrifying the more time I spend on South American roads. No wonder so many of them believe in God! 

Rooftop over looking Quito with Fabian 

Still basking in a heightened sense of adventure, Jens and I decided to brave the public buses to get back to the downtown of Quito. Crowded and noisy, yet fast and cheap ($0.25!)! Gah, I hate goodbyes. Jens is now on an overnight bus ride to somewhere in way East Ecuador, but I'll be taking him up on his offer for a place to stay if I ever end up in Germany!  I switched hostels so I could keep hanging out with Nicola and Fabian. Fabian is just one more small world story to add to the list! He knew a lot of my friends from Lewis and Clark who did the Munich study abroad program. How crazy to have so many mutual acquaintances considering we live on different continents and met in a tiny little town in Ecuador!

I'm getting ready for my 6am departure tomorrow morning for a day of mountain biking on the Cotopaxi volcano. Wish me luck! I do wish I stayed in Mindo a bit longer as it definitely has made the list of my top three favorite places in South America so far. I can't believe that tomorrow marks the half way point of my travels! Holy beejeebees time moves fast!!!! My spanish is getting better, my english is getting worse, I talk with my hands more than ever before, my clothes are starting to smell, I'm covered in bug bites, I don't know where I'll be in two days or how I'm getting there, and I absolutely love my life!