Up in the cloud forest

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Well we arrived in Mindo and on the recommendation of the Quito gals (thanks guys!) made our way to La Casa de Cecilia which was a really cool wood lodge with a deck fulll of hammocks (always the most important consideration when choosing a hostal!) Went out for lunch and then came back to chill and met three other backpackers staying there, Matt from Oxford, Emily from San Francisco and Froydis from somewhere unpronouncable in Norway. Had a relaxed afternoon before finally dragging ourselves out to do something - which turned out to be visiting an orchid farm. Well, got to be done when you're in a country that has over a quarter of a million species really and it was quite interesting in the end. Had dinner and then our visits got even weirder with a visit to a frog chorus. Basically a walk in the pitch black down to a pond where all the tree frogs come down at dusk and make a hell of a lot of noise. Very weird but kind of cool and it was really beautiful with hundreds of fire flies around. Love Mindo - the only complaint so far would be the hundreds of mosquitoes that seem to think I'm the free buffet!

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