JKB meets Ecuador: Mindo, Ecuador

830 am, we´re the first passengers of the day

Kelly and I sporting our gear--- thick gloves are necessary to brake on the cable for the fast zip lines

my first trip across, I needed moral support from our guide

tarzan through the trees

Gabriel, our awesome guide

Here I am doing my best to stall our guide before we take last & furthest zipline

Kelly + JKB = Team Spirit

Chris and I riding the Tarabita to the waterfalls. This was, by far, more terrifying than the zip lines because it was an open-caged rickety gondola.

Attention Fast Cable (oh, but could they mention how HIGH UP it was? yikes!)

At the end of the Quiteños´ 5-day vacation week (10/30-11/3) I decided that it was the perfect time for me to leave town and travel. We left on a Friday afternoon and as I had hoped, the roads were clear, the air was fresh and the hostels were vacant. I traveled with CFHIers Kelly and 2 Chris´s to Mindo, Ecuador which is 2 1/2 west of Quito. It is set in the heart of a temperate rainforest and neighbors 2 rivers. To make an understatement, it is absolutely stunning. I found it ideal because I had been wanting a break from the city pace and smog for quite some time leading up to this excursion. Upon arrival we stumbled upon Hostel Armonia and la dueña (owner) Alicia showed us cabin accomodations entwined in tropical plants and an orchid garden; we were sold! In Mindo one of the main attractions are hundreds of rare bird species. I spied a toucan during my first breakfast at the hostel!

Saturday was packed with thrill-seeking activity & pure indulgence. We began early on Saturday, beating the rush to a local canopy company. The modest price of $12 included 13 ziplines of varying length (long ones were 300-400 meters) at nauseating heights. We had 2 guides to help me through my sweaty palms and moments of terror; i was on the verge of bailing out, but somehow I followed through with it and had the time of my life. For those who don´t already know, I have terrible fear of heights so this was a huge leap of progress to battle my fear, and the 2nd act since arriving in Quito (the first being climbing to Rucu Pichincha to 15, 000 ft.)

my transportation: Prospero

our adorable guide explaining the life cycle to us

the owl butterfly hatches

the cocoons are hung in pairs, like earrings, until they hatch

At the end of our ziplining adventure we were picked up by a guide with 4 horses; one for each of us. We rode horses to a butterfly farm. The owner gave us a tour and showed us the life cycle of a butterfly, beginning with the larvae and ending with a live hatch of an owl butterfly. She knows the timing of each species´hatch cycle so we lucked out to watch one hatch; the entire process took 2 minutes as the butterfly slowly tore out of paper-like layers and emerged from it´s cocoon with wrinkled wings. It was beautiful to watch the evolution of a winged creature. Afterwards I fed a butterfly ripe banana and watched in awe as hundreds of species flew around my head, occasionally landing on my sweater. We left on the horses and returned to town. Caught a taxi that drove us to a Tarabita--which is a like an open-caged gondola, another terrifyingly HIGH ride across a canyon---and the Tarabita dropped us off at trails that led to waterfalls. We stayed here for 1 hour or more, then returned to town for a tour of the chocolate factory. Kristen, our guide, showed us the chocolate making process from start to finish; it ended with samples! The cacao fruit doesn´t grow well in mindo so she and her boss have to travel to a farm one hour away from town to grow and harvest the cacao fruit; afterwards the fruit is brought to the factory and each fruit is deseeded, the seeds ferment for 2 weeks, dry, get transferred, get crushed in a machine, then get roasted and pulverized once again to create the cream of the cacao seed: 100% chocolate! her co. separates out the cocoa butter(naturally produced by the fruit) and then re-works it back into the chocolate for a creamy outcome. A certain proportion of sugar is added to make various grades of chocolate ideal for baking, or just eating. The brownie ice cream we had was TO DIE FOR! Absolutely terrific. For a refreshing break away from city life, I highly recommend Mindo.