Mindo Part III - The Tarabita and yummy foodstuffs

For our last couple of days in Mindo, we moved to the Cabañas Armonía y Jardín de Orquídeas in town. It had its positives, like getting to see cool tropical birds munching on bananas right next to our breakfast area, but it was a step down from Mindo Gardens, as I think all accommodations in town likely would be. However, this gave us time to explore the town and sample a variety of foods.

 Our favorites were a dive on the main street called El Tigrillo (pizza and traditional Ecuadorian - crazy cheap - like $2 a person for a full size meal) and a fancier place up the hill called El Quetzal (the chocolate restaurant).









 While in town, we also spent one evening at a 'Frog Concert' at the Mindo Lago. You arrive in the early evening and sit and listen to many different frogs as they sing for each other. It was very 'rain forest cd' esque :) After the concert, we went on a night hike through the rest of the resort, which appeared to be (creepily) deserted. To add to the creepy, there are most definitely all the bugs and what not that your imagination could come up with out in the tropical forest at night. It was really cool, but some of those insects are burned into my memory permanently.

The last, but definitely not least part of our Mindo adventure was the ride on the Tarabita. This is a steel cage suspended from a cable that runs across a canyon of cloud forest. No safely belts, no lid - all sorts of adrenaline :) The other side of the canyon is a seven waterfall hike, and we didn't want to miss that.

Of course as this is a well known thing in Mindo, we had read a lot about it before we came - even watching youtube videos of the trip across. When we finally rode it (after several preemptive safety talks), it was awesome! Just flying along - and over to the other side in just a few minutes. We took our own video below.

We got off, and headed down the trail. Interestingly, the way the hike goes is first, you go down to the bottom of the first waterfall, and then basically hike to the top of it where a little ways away would be the base of the next waterfall. It was the hike of a lifetime - one I will never forget :)

Of course, nothing that we do would be without some type of craziness - and the craziness of this particular hike was that Noah fell into the river - hence the one picture below of a shirtless glowing child :) As it is, the water and the air were warm so it wasn't as big of a deal as it could have been.

Enjoy the pictures!

 

Mindo Part II - The Butterfly Farm

After our walk down the mountain from our first hike in Mindo (which turned out to be over two miles down - but the kiddos powered through), we headed to the Hosteria Mariposas de Mindo (http://www.mariposasdemindo.com/) aka the butterfly farm. This would have been amazing just based on the butterflies - but it also turned out to have a fantastic resturant and we were famished from our hike.

One of the first things that was brought to our table was a pitcher of water and glasses with ice in them. Of course we were all well trained by now to avoid all water that didn't come from a bottle and ice was definitely out. Our server could see that we weren't planning to drink the water, and so she sweetly informed us that all of their water (and ice!) was filtered - so it was fine to drink. We, particularly A and N, were ecstatic and slammed glass after glass of ice water.

After we ordered our food, the owner came over and asked if we wanted to go in to see the butterflies while our food was cooking, as it was sunny out and they were active. We jumped at the chance and into the butterfly area we went.

The first thing we saw was all of the cool chrysalides (I had to look up the plural). There were several that were so iridescent that they looked metallic. The owner explained that those are from butterflies that dwell near water, so the chrysalis can blend in with the reflections.

Then on to the coolest part - the owner showed us how to pick up some rotten banana on our fingers and then coax the butterflies (including the huge blue morphos) up onto our fingers to eat. It was so cool and N and A just bounced from butterfly to butterfly studying them as they went. We finally went back out and had some delicious food - but the highlight for me (other than the ice) was seeing the thrill and curiosity in my kids holding butterflies.

I even got to hold some

notice the tongue out in concentration :)

To the trees! Mindo Part I

At the beginning of July, we took our first long distance excursion out into the country of Ecuador (Quito - the city, and Otavalo - the town where we were living didn't count as we roughly knew how to get around and do things).

This was our trip to the cloud forest in Mindo (town website) and was easily what I was the most excited to share with C, N and A as this is where I had spent most of my time in Ecuador previously.



The adventure began by figuring out the bus situation. We had two choices. 1) The start messy/end easy option - this one required busing down to Quito, busing to multiple other stations in Quito (this gets messy trying to carry luggage on the city buses) and getting on a bus that would take us right into Mindo proper. 2) The start easy/end messy option - this one was busing to Terminal Norte Carcelén in Quito and leaving right from there on a bus headed for the coast. For this one - a couple of tricky parts - first we had to ask the driver to drop us off on the highway at the turn to Mindo (including grabbing our luggage from under the bus) and then find a ride from the highway down into Mindo - or walk 6 or so miles. In the end, the decision was determined on when the buses left as the easy end option only left Quito super early, so the messy end option it was.

I do want to say that we really enjoyed the public transportation all over the country. The people were always friendly and only a few select times were we uncomfortable. On this trip in particular, we 'tried' to get off the bus at several wrong stops and the other riders repeatedly helped us :) When we finally exited at the correct turnoff, several of the other Ecuadorian families wished us well with smiles and waves.

We had read that this turn off wasn't a big deal as there was 'always' local taxis driving up and down the road. Once off the bus, we didn't see any taxis, and started walking. After just 100 ft or so, a pick up truck pulled up next to us to ask if we wanted a ride. It turns out that in Mindo - the taxis are not labeled in anyway - they are just a bunch of people that drive trucks.

This one of the first highlights - there was only room for two of us inside, so someone would have to ride in the bed of the pickup truck. I did this frequently as a kid, and anyway...when in Rome (Ecuador)...so we all piled in the back. The truck took off town the road and we were holding on for dear life, laughing and squealing the whole way.




The first place that we stayed was Mindo Gardens, which is outside of town on property that includes several hiking trails. We wanted to spend sometime in the cloud forest proper, and then a few days in town as well.

Mindo Gardens was beautiful. Amazing dispersed lodges all around the property, and a large central lodge where we ate and played games. We stayed in a lodge at the edge of the property right by the river. 

This was our room looking at the river

The main lodge was also where we got to see tons of hummingbirds and an elusive agouti (giant hamster looking animal).

Agouti!!

 

 

 

From Mindo Gardens, we did a couple of hikes. The first one started just over the river (we got to ride over in a little rope suspended basket) and went straight up the mountain. It was easily the greatest elevation increase hike per step that we have ever done as a family. Luckily there were lots of trees, vines etc. to help us get up, and even a spot with ropes leading up a rock.

The 'goal' of this hike was to reach a cascada (waterfall), but it turned out that it was actually a developed pseudo-water park, so we passed on that, admired the view for a while and started walking down the road to see where it would lead. Our other adventures in Mindo included the butterfly farm and the cable Tarabita - which each have a post of their own.

Otavalo excursion #2 - Parque Condor - awesome birds of prey!

We had read a lot about this raptor park and were so excited to visit. We actually put it off several days as we had cloudy/foggy weather and we didn’t want to miss seeing any of the birds in flight. Finally the day came (it was a Tuesday – we will get back to this in a sec) so we got dressed and sunblocked, and headed up to Otavalo. We had read that you could walk up to the park, but we decided to taxi up, and then walk down. This is another instance of a vast difference in time and scale in terms of distance and difficulty from other reviewers. This was easily 5+ miles up the side of a mountain with switch backs and rough roads. Nowhere in my book would this ever be a ‘mild, 1 hour walk.’ However, the scenery was breathtaking. 

Up above Otavalo you can see the whole city with the hand tilled agriculture rising up the surrounding mountains and volcanos. We were also above Lago San Pablo, the large lake our home base town is named for. We passed several people using a spade and animal to plow their fields, as well as many out weeding or harvesting by hand. It was a clear reminder of the pastoral style of life that is basically non-existent in the US these days.

When we finally arrived up at the parque (park), it was looking a little quiet. There were only a couple of cars in the parking lot, and the main gate was closed. 

 

Not a good sign, especially since our taxi had just driven away, leaving us at the top of the mountain.  The owner is native to the Netherlands, but has lived in Ecuador for 20 years (as he told us later), so he spoke perfect English which was definitely a change of pace. A small woman in traditional dress came up to us and talked a little in Spanish to us through the gate, and then left to get the owner.

He opens the gate and says “I am sorry, we are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.” C and I look at each other with the ‘Oh crap’ look, and I mention that our guide book had said that they were only closed on Mondays, so we had come up. The owner replies, no, that was a long time ago, and then looks down at A and says “Are you very disappointed?” A looks him right in the eye, and says “Yes, I am disappointed.” C and I look at each other again, not quite sure where this is going, and then the owner says “Well, we can’t have the little one disappointed. I can’t sell you tickets, but you can put some money in the donation box, and then walk through the park on your own.”

Inner voice shouts “What? And Woohoo!” at the same time, and for the umpteenth time this trip, I can’t believe how lucky we are.

So into the park we go, getting to take as many pictures as we want, and especially, getting to have some quality time visiting some absolutely amazing raptors. After we made our way through the park, we saw the owner again, and he shouted down to us that he would meet us in a few minutes at the front. We were thinking that he was going to let us out, call us a taxi, etc. but in the end it turns out that he was planning on driving us back down to Otavalo himself. We told him that wasn’t necessary and he was already beyond generous with us, but he just gave us a ‘don’t be silly’ kind of look, and said he was going down anyway. It was such a great experience, and an amazing example of kindness for A and N to see. If you are ever near Otavalo, it is a must see. Enjoy the pictures!

Female bald eagle

Andean condor - awesome!!

Another Andean condor

Sleepy owls

Harpy eagle