September 27, 2011

We have decided to leave Mindo tomorrow (Wednesday) a few days earlier than planned.  A week has been long enough in Mindo and we’re ready to move on.  We plan to spend a few nights in a hostel on the beach before we meet up with Andy and Leo, our HelpX hosts who we plan to stay with in a “work for room and board” arrangement.

Today we visited one last “attraction” advertised in Mindo – the local chocolate factory, El Quetzal. Every day during the past week we have meant to go to the 4:00 tour and we have missed it every time for one reason or another.  Today was our last chance, so we were determined to do this tour.  Are we ever glad we did it as it was one of the highlights of our visit in Mindo.

Joseph Meza, the owner, began the tour with a description of the rich history of the cocoa bean.  We had the opportunity to taste the cocoa fruit as well as the cocoa bean in various stages of processing.  We were then taken on a tour of his farm and we were inspired by this man’s creativity as he continuously sought out new and interesting ways to use every part of the cocoa plant.  For example, he had created a barbeque sauce from the juice of the cocoa fruit, a by-product that is usually thrown out.  He had also created a syrup from ginger that he serves on pancakes in his restaurant (instead of maple syrup which is expensive to import).  It passed the Canadian taste test!

We toured his garden and saw some of his other projects: about 25 coffee bean trees,his own cocoa trees, lemon grass, aloe vera plants, variety of fruit trees and vegetables for his restaurant, chickens, and pigs to name just a few.  Everything had a purpose.  All of this on an acre and half plot – it was amazing!  At the end of the tour, we sampled his products and were wowed by the brownies – they certainly lived up to their reputation as the best brownies ever!

The products produced in this little factory are sold locally.  In addition, Joseph who is a Michigan native, exports cocoa nibs (cocoa beans that have been processed to a certain point) back to the US where he also has a chocolate factory.  He splits his time three months in Mindo and three months in Michigan. He has a fascinating story about how he got into this business.

While on the tour, we met a lovely family: the mother, Blanca, an Ecuadorian native,  the father, Richard,and their adult children: Scott, Kelly and Kelly’s husband Kevin.  This family has its roots in Ecuador on the mother’s side.  In fact, her father, who was a civil engineer, had played a pivotal role in the establishment and development of Santo Domingo de los Colorades.  We caught their attention when we shared with them that we were on a 2-year round the world adventure.  When they heard about our plans to go to Canoa to do a work exchange, they mentioned their sister (aunt) who runs a school in Santo Domingo de los Colorades who is always looking for help teaching English to children as well as help for her many projects she has on the go.  They insisted on providing us with her contact information and encouraged us to look her up. They said they would mention us to her as well.  While we’re committed for the next week or so, we’ll see after that.  Who knows, maybe that will be our next gig. Richard also provided his business card along with their address in Pedernales where they are heading next.  He kindly offered to provide us any assistance if we need help or got ourselves into trouble.  I am constantly amazed by the kindness of strangers!

And so that wraps up our visit to Mindo.  Back to practical matters, like how the heck to get to Canoa from here.  We have puzzled over the best way to get to Canoa from Mindo.  The advice we have received is to go back to Quito, and catch a bus from the station south of the city.  This just seems counter intuitive as we are already about a quarter of the way to the coast.  I have looked at the map and scoured the internet for other options.  I have discovered there is a main bus terminal in a town called Santo Domingo de los Colarados which isn’t too far from Mindo.  I’m certain we can catch a bus from there to the coast.  The only question is how to get there.  I read a blog about a guy who went this way to the coast, so I know it can be done, just have to figure out how to do it.  And that is what we did earlier this afternoon.

The bus station in Mindo provides bus service between Mindo and Quito only.  However, I have seen another bus in town that does not use the bus station – this bus just parks itself on the road next to the park.  I figured we should find out where this bus went – who knows, maybe he went straight to Santo Domingo.

I suppose we could have asked someone in town about this bus, but that seemed pretty complicated from a language perspective.  I figured it would be much easier to talk to the bus driver directly.  Only problem was we didn’t know when he would be there.  So the big plan for this afternoon was to hang out around the park waiting for the bus to show up.  Luckily, the bus was sitting there when we went to the park around 1:00.  I had practiced what I was going to say and so dove right in with my questions for the bus driver.  Sure enough, this bus went directly to Santo Domingo at almost hourly intervals in the early morning, then again at 11, 1 and 4.  Problem solved.  That was much easier than anticipated.

We will take the 6:00 am bus tomorrow morning in order to give us plenty of time to get to the coast before dark.  We will have to transfer in Santo Domingo to Pedernales, and then again in Pedernales to a bus heading south down the coast.  Not sure how long this journey will take, but at least we now have a plan.

Last Sunday we met up with Arya, a fellow student we met at our Spanish School in Quito.  Arya had emailed us last week to let us know she was coming to Mindo and would be staying in our hostel.  We offered to meet her at the bus station to help her get oriented; she gladly accepted our offer.  She arrived at about 9:30 as planned and after getting settled in her room, a quick walk around town, and a coffee, we decided we would hike to the waterfalls.

We would take a “taxi” to the trailhead, rather than walk the five kilometres as we had done earlier in the week (once was enough for that walk). In Mindo, they have a couple of regular taxis (cost is about $6 to go just about anywhere locally), but the normal mode of transport is hitching a ride in the back of a pick-up truck.  Cost is one dollar per person.  We found a truck that was getting ready to leave and climbed into the back, squeezing ourselves into a spot amongst the other six passengers already on board.   There were 6-8 people crammed into the extended truck cab too.

Off we went, groaning with every bump we hit along the pot-holed road – a definite reminder that we’re not 20 years old anymore.  A couple of kilometres out of town, the truck came to a sudden stop.  A man jumped out of the cab and explained, in Spanish, that we were taking a little break, if we didn’t mind, to pick some lemons.  Would we mind helping them?  Arya and I looked at each other and said sure, why not?  Chris on the other hand was rather suspicious of the whole situation, plus he had all his camera equipment with him.  He opted to stay at the truck with our knapsacks.

Arya and I and a few of the other passengers followed this guy towards a field.  I got the feeling this wasn’t his farm, and these weren’t his lemon trees as he directed everyone to crawl under the barbed wire fence.  As Arya scrambled under the barbed wire fence and down a muddy slope, I asked out loud:  Hey, is this legal?  Yes, I know, very astute observation on my part.  Too late to turn back now, Arya was already on her way down the hill, so I quickly followed behind.  This guy was telling us to hurry up as he pulled Arya’s jacket off her and motioned for her to put it on backwards creating an instant basket.  He then proceeded to whack a tree with a stick and as lemons fell to the ground he threw them to us to put in our “basket”.  The other passengers were doing likewise.  It was all very confusing and chaotic as everyone was tossing lemons at us and talking in Spanish.  We were laughing so hard as we tried to catch the lemons – clearly baseball was not our forte! The man pointed to me to get some of the higher lemons – yes, me – let’s face it, Ecuadorian men are not known for their stature.  Within about 10 minutes he was satisfied with the haul and we curtailed it back to the truck, watching out for the cow paddies along the way.

Now that we were accessories to his crime, he decided introductions were in order – names and where we were from.  His name was Colon, as in Christopher Columbus.  He insisted we only speak Spanish to him as he rode with us in the back of the truck.  In fact, he told us he was a Spanish teacher and therefore felt entitled to correct our Spanish and have us repeat our sentences until we spoke them to his satisfaction.  His English was very good but he used it only when necessary.  Arya and I were having a great time with this gregarious fellow.  At one point, I was scratching my feet – I was wearing sandals and something must have bitten me in the field.  Suddenly, Colon grabbed my foot, took my sandal off, squeezed open a lemon and smeared the oils from the skin all over my foot – weird, yes, but boy did it feel good.  I held up my other foot and he did the same.  We learned the lemons were for his restaurant – to serve with the fish dishes – and we were invited to his restaurant in the evening for a party. (Note:  we looked for his restaurant later that night but could not find it….hmmm….a little suspicious perhaps.)

When we got to the trailhead at the waterfalls, he stopped the truck and thanked us for our help, wished us well, and waived the dollar fee for all of us, even though Chris didn’t help (as he pointed out).   I observed to Arya that she probably didn’t expect to have this much fun and excitement with a couple of old folks like us!

The trailhead to the waterfalls begins with a ride across the canyon in a cable car, powered by a Nissan car engine and transmission, as Chris observed.  Someone has taken the guts of a car – dashboard, ignition, gas pedal, clutch and gears – and altered it in order to “drive” the cable car forward to the other side, and then put it in reverse to bring it back.  I had not noticed any of this (which was probably a good thing) as I was too preoccupied with a) how far across we were going (530 m), b) how flimsy the cable car appeared, and c) how high we were above the canyon floor.

As we traversed the canyon, I tried to keep my eyes focused straight ahead as I have a fear of heights.  Occasionally, I glanced down below and my heart almost stopped as I saw the raging river at least 250 meters below.  I tried very hard not to think about what would happen if the little Nissan engine stopped mid-way – I took some comfort knowing it was a foreign engine, although I would have felt better if it was a Honda – either way, we would have been goners for sure if the engine failed. Unbeknownst to me, Chris captured this all on video.

Once safely on the other side, we hiked along a beautiful, if not at times treacherous path that wound its way down to the canyon floor, to the base of a spectacular waterfall.   Often we had to wade through the river to continue the path on the other side, or overcome other obstacles like fallen trees strewn across the path.

The scenery was spectacular as we were engulfed within the cloud forest, surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. In all, there were five waterfalls that we hiked to.

We took our time, pausing to take many pictures along the way, and enjoying the company of our young fellow traveller.  Arya is twenty years old, originally from New York and a third year anthropology student, studying in Portland, Oregon.  She took a break from school for a semester to travel and volunteer in South America – on her own.  Conversation came easily that afternoon.  Arya shared with us her plans, her dreams, her hopes for her future.  We shared with her our story of how we met and our first date.

As we reached the last waterfall, it started to rain.  This was the opportunity I had been waiting for to test out our new rain gear designed to fit easily over our back packs and provide full length coverage – kind of a cross between a poncho and a rain jacket.  When I purchased these last summer, Chris was not entirely convinced we needed this strange looking rain gear, but I persuaded him it was just what we needed when we were carrying our packs in the rain.  Well, we looked ridiculous, confirmed by Arya’s laughter and her observation that she couldn’t decide if I looked more like Little Red Riding Hood or the Hunchback of Notre Dame – thanks Arya.  Oh well, I’ve always let practicality override fashion – maybe this time I went a little too far as I conceded Chris definitely looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  To my credit, I stayed nice and dry, although Chris complained that they weren’t breathable enough so he got just as wet by sweating as he would have in the rain – picky, picky. By the way, I would have posted some pictures of us except all the pictures of our rain gear were taken by Arya on her camera, so we’re out of luck.

We missed out on the last two waterfalls on account of the rain, one of which was the Nambilla waterfall that we had visited earlier in the week and had only seen the top of the waterfall.   Guess that just wasn’t meant to be.

We shared the return cable car with another couple – much to my dismay.  There was seating for four which seemed to indicate (at least to me) it was designed to carry four people, not five.  So I’m wondering – Did we really want to stress the limits of this rickety, hand-made device???  But the operator saw no problem in having the fifth passenger stand up all the way – yes, stand in this flimsy little cable car.  The young guy didn’t seem to mind one bit; and Chris and Ayra who sat opposite to me, kept smiling reassuringly at me; meanwhile, my heart was racing, convinced we were going to plunge to our deaths at any moment.   What can I say? I have an irrational fear of heights.

Luck was with us, as a “bus” was waiting on the other side, and we were spared the five kilometre walk into town.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in Mindo for almost a week.  Once we got settled, our days quickly fell into a comfortable routine:   We wake up around 7:00 to the sounds of roosters cock-a-doodle-doing and to the sight of exotic birds and hummingbirds just outside our bedroom window. After a substantial breakfast at 7:30 (provided by the hostel), we go for a hike or a walk in the cloud forest (waterfalls, exotic birds and butterflies are the pleasures of each day). This is followed by a big lunch mid-afternoon (our main meal of the day), and then some down time – maybe a siesta or a little reading or writing.  In the early evening, we walk around town and then enjoy a beer or two and a snack on a patio on the main street, watching life unfold in Mindo.  It’s been an easy, relaxed pace in beautiful surroundings that has put us both in a very good place.  We almost feel guilty about enjoying this life without responsibilities.  I heartily recommend it!

The Mindo-Nambillo forest is a protected 22,000 hectare reserve harbouring a great variety of birds as well as orchids and bromeliads.  The area offers activities for the nature enthusiast and thrill seeker alike.   Zip lining and river rafting are very popular attractions – neither of which we did.  As Chris likes to describe us – we are adventurers, not thrill seekers – so we spent most of our time hiking and bird watching (and relaxing and eating) instead.

The following are some of the week’s highlights, in no particular order. There weren’t too many lows in Mindo.  We didn’t see any exotic orchids in the wild – probably just the wrong time of year.  But we did see other beautiful flowers.  Like any town that depends on tourism, we found there were those who tried to take advantage of the tourist with inflated prices, but this was not the norm in our experience.

Waterfalls

Our first hike, last Thursday, took us to the Nambillo Waterfalls.  These falls are located about five kilometres outside of town.  We decided to walk to the falls – a mainly uphill slog along a dusty, pot-filled road.  This gave us an opportunity to bird-watch and offered some pretty spectacular views of Mindo and the surrounding area.  We were amazed at the lush, tropical vegetation of the cloud forest.

At the trailhead to the falls, we were accosted for an “entry fee” of $3.00 each.   We realized we had somehow passed the trailhead to the base of the falls and were now at the tourist attraction that was created at the top of the falls – a water slide, diving ledge, artificial pools, etc.  We figured we would check it out even if it wasn’t where we had intended on going.  It was a difficult hike down (and even more difficult coming back up).  I took out my walking sticks for the first time on this trip (definitely not the last) – and I was glad I had them.

At the bottom, we changed into our swim suits and cooled off in the pools of frigid water, relaxing for a while. We had the place all to ourselves except for a couple of guys who were doing back breaking work hauling sand from one side of the river to the other in order to mix cement for another structure that was being built – all by hand.  While we couldn’t get a good view of the falls from this vantage point as we were above the falls, we could hear the thunderous power of them below.

On Sunday, we spent the day hiking to a group of five waterfalls.  I’ll write a separate post about this excursion.

Butterflies

On Friday, we walked to a butterfly “farm” where we had the opportunity to see 25 species of butterflies in a confined setting.  This was a drop in the bucket when you consider the Mindo-Nambillo ecological reserve is home to 350 species of butterflies and there are over 3200 species of butterflies in all of Ecuador!  Still, it was a marvel to be in a greenhouse surrounded by hundreds of beautiful butterflies fluttering all about.  We spent a couple of hours here, taking photographs and just sitting amongst the butterflies, admiring the beauty of these insects.  We took over 300 photographs that morning between the two of us, but don’t worry, we won’t bore you with all of them.

Birds

Serious bird-watchers flock to this region to view the 320 species of birds that make this reserve home.  This area is renowned as one of the best bird watching spots in South America.  The handful of tour operators in town offer a variety of organized bird watching tours, ranging in price from $60 and up.  After a few days hiking, we decided against a guided tour – we were seeing lots of birds on our own, and didn’t really care to go traipsing into the forest at 5:00 am to track down some elusive bird.  Guess we’re just not that into bird watching.

That being said, we could not get enough of the hummingbirds.  They were everywhere and came in all different sizes, shapes and colours.  We awoke to the sight of hummingbirds in the tree outside our bedroom window.  As we ate breakfast each morning, hummingbirds flitted amongst the bushes in clear view and just a stone’s throw away from us. On every hike, we were treated to their magic. Check out the video Chris took of hummingbirds at the Tangaras Reserve.

Throughout the week, Chris was on the hunt for big, colourful birds.  The little birds, as beautiful as they were, were very difficult to photograph as they just wouldn’t sit still long enough to capture them – a source of endless frustration for Chris.

On our last hike, we were treated to a spectacle that took our breath away.  We had just finished hiking to the Tangaras Reserve and realized that we were going to have to walk the three kilometres back to town since it was pretty unlikely a truck would be coming our way on a quiet Monday afternoon.  We were tired, dirty and really hungry. We just wanted to get back to town as quickly as possible so we could get cleaned up and find food.  That was our mindset as we trudged downhill towards town.

Suddenly, we both stopped in our tracks at the sound of loud rustling noises in the trees above.  We searched the tree tops with our binoculars and lo and behold a beautiful toucan was perched high up in a tree.  As he flew to another tree, his powerful wings sounded like the propeller of a helicopter.  We looked at each other in amazement.   Then another toucan whizzed by overhead and parked himself in a tree in clear view.  Chris was desperately trying to capture these beautiful birds but it was a challenge as they didn’t sit in any tree for very long.  Over the next few minutes, half a dozen toucans whirled around us – flying over our heads from one side of the road to another and from tree to tree.  What a show it was!

Hiking

On our first day in Mindo, we met a New Zealander in a restaurant who briefly told us about the Tangaras Reserve which was located adjacent to the Mindo-Nambillo reserve.  It was accessible from a trailhead on the main road – between the zip lining and the waterfalls.  On Monday, we decided to hike to the main cabin in the reserve with plans to visit their Cock of the Rock lek – reputed for offering some spectacular views of up to 18 cocks displaying their mating ritual at any one time.

As we left town, we flagged down a truck, the driver of which was more than happy to give us a lift as far as the zip-lining – no charge.  This saved us two uphill kilometres of effort – effort that would be needed later in the day.

The trail to the research cabin was one of the muddiest trails we have ever navigated.  The trail itself was relatively easy, mainly flat, downhill near the end.  But the mud!  My goodness, it’s a wonder we didn’t lose our boots in the muck.

The Tangaras Reserve is run by Life Net, a non-profit conservation organization.  The purpose of the reserve is to provide habitat and protection for native plants and animals at elevations that are typically deforested for agriculture.  A small research facility is located on the property; it doubles as housing for volunteers and visitors alike.

We arrived at about 10:00 in the morning to an empty cabin.  We rested for a while on the deck and were entertained by a handful of hummingbirds darting back and forth to the feeder.  We headed up a trail – which was very well marked – in search of the lek.  Up and up we went.  This was a tough hike.  Along the way we met Jamie and Bex, the New Zealander volunteers who had been clearing a new trail further ahead.  Unfortunately, this was the quietest time of the day for the birds (best time is at dawn and later in the afternoon) and the likelihood of us seeing anything was next to nil.  Oh well, the hike was amazing just the same.  We found the lek – a little wooden, lean-to structure tucked against the side of the hill, with a clear view of the valley below.  We sat in the lek for about an hour (nice little rest) just enjoying the view, the tranquility and the solitude.

We made our way back to the cabin, just in time for lunch – their lunch, not ours.  No problem, we had some snacks with us that would keep us going for a few more hours.  We took the opportunity to learn a little more about this reserve and the work this young couple were doing.  They had been living in this isolated cabin for two months already, and had another month ahead of them, after which they were planning to travel throughout South America until next May.  Their work was focused on making improvements to the reserve including increasing its visibility and viability as a tourist attraction.  The well posted signs both to the reserve as well as on the trails within the reserve along with the posters we saw around town were all products of their efforts.  To date, they had 16 visitors of which only a couple stayed overnight.  This was definitely off the beaten track.  Jamie has set up a blog for the reserve and is blogging about his experience as a volunteer.  Check it out.

Weather

Every day brings the same weather.  We awake to warm sunshine and partly cloudy skies.  Clouds are always present – guess that’s why this is called a cloud forest. Daytime temperatures are in the low 20’s, but it often feels much hotter because of the humidity, especially when the sun is out in full force.  Night time lows are in the high teens – very comfortable sleeping weather.  By the afternoon, clouds begin to roll in, and it may rain a little late in the day.  One day it rained quite heavily for about an hour, and one night it rained almost the entire night.  The weather is really quite idyllic and something we have just taken for granted each day.

Food

In an effort to spread our tourist dollars around, we have eaten in most of the restaurants along the main road in town and have not had a bad meal yet.  Whether we are eating the fixed plate lunch or choosing from the a la carte menu, food is simple but consistently of high quality and very tasty.  One thing I’ve noticed – vegetables are rarely served.  I can’t figure out why because it’s not like they aren’t available (and they’re cheap).  Vegetables just don’t seem to be very popular – something I am missing a lot.

Accommodations

Despite our original misgivings about our hostel (Bio Hostel), it really hasn’t been bad at all.  In fact, we’ve been downright comfortable.  Most nights we have had the whole place to ourselves.  Breakfasts have been varied, delicious and substantial – they keep us going easily until mid-afternoon.  Internet connection, while slow, has been quite reliable.  The hostel is a little rough around the edges and appears to be a work in progress – for example, there are no windows or doors on the first floor, and the staircase continues to what looks like is going to be the third floor – but for now, it is all open to the outdoors. Regardless, it’s been a good place to kick back and relax.

The Final Verdict

Mindo was a great place to enjoy nature, relax and de-stress.  We would highly recommend it.