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Published: October 25th 2005
El Rocio
View out my hostal window.Rumor has it that biblical scholars think they have found the location of Eden. Standing here, at my window in the hostal El Rocio, I am fairly certain that I have found it, too. Eden is in Mindo, Ecuador.
Mindo is located approximately two and a half hours north-northwest of Quito in a cloud forest roughly 1500 meters above sea level. It is a world teeming with life. Vines, flowers and plants with leaves the size of a person (and larger) grow everywhere; it's what I imagined a tropical forest would look like minus the humidity and abundance of large insects. Apparently Mindo's cloud forest is home to over 400 species of birds, more than Costa Rica, a country famous for its birds. The air is clean, the people are friendly, and we have fallen in love.
When we first arrived yesterday we spent a little time getting our bearings, buying a bus ticket home, finding a hostal, chatting with the folks at the tourist center and eating a delicious lunch of rice and veggies, all the while keeping a sharp eye out for bicyclists (Mindo was host to a twelve hour bike race yesterday).
It didn't require
La Cascada
Hiking through the cloud forest to the falls. very much discussion to decide where to head first: La Cascada del Nambillo. We had two options for the falls -- we could walk along a four-five km road and then hike another two km through the forest or we could get a ride to the forest trail. Initially we decided to walk, but after about 15-20 minutes along a hot, dusty road we copped out and went back for a ride. We were glad that we did. For the first thirty minutes we followed a steep trail up into the forest, and then for the next thirty minutes it was down and up and down again before we reached the falls. Whew. The view was absolutely fantastic, so in spite of the fact that my face was beet red and I was wheezing my head off, it was a great walk. Along the way we passed twenty or more gringos on their way out, so when we got to the falls there were only a handful of people there.
The river was beautiful. Clear, clean and cool, it was like being back in the Sierras, wading in the Truckee or American River. I scrambled over rocks while Brenna
and Ami voluntarily crossed another wood and rope bridge suspended over part of the river. It was utterly peaceful and refreshing.
After a few hours we had to head back (our ride was meeting us at 5:30). In the gradually fading light the forest was even more beautiful than before, which was good since we were a little more exhausted than when we first hiked through it. When we reached the end of the trail, the men who had pulled us across the river in the hand-operated cable car were gone, so it was up to us and our buff selves to get each other across. I was highly amused (in a shocking turn of events).
Back in town we set out to find food. Eager to try a new restaurant, we found ourselves at a small place with two veggie options on the menu: veggies and rice and veggies and pasta. Pretty standard. I was feeling a little tired of rice (I'd had it for lunch) and since my illness a few weeks ago I've been reluctant to eat pasta. Not being a vegetarian -- just a wuss when it comes to foreign meat -- I decided
Bug
This one's for you, Earl! at the last minute to be completely daring. Brenna's professor had told her that Mindo's specialty was trout, so, in a brief moment of insanity, I ordered fried trout. The second our waitress walked away I my brain cleared and I panicked. Not out loud, of course (at least, not right away). I suddenly had a vision of all the fried fish I'd seen since I arrived in Ecuador, their little bodies crispy and completely intact, eyes included. Moments after I had this thought, Ami did, too, and he voiced it to the rest of us. For the next fifteen minutes or so, as we waited for our food, I sat there nervously drumming my fingers on the table. Ami and Brenna seemed significantly less freaked out than I, probably due to the fact that their food wasn't going to have eyes. (Brenna was thrilled, in her usual, calm, Brenna way, that one of us was going to be eating like a local. I was not nearly as thrilled.)
Sure enough, when our food arrived, there was my lovely little trout with his lovely little dead eye staring at me. Thus began one of the oddest, most hilarious meals
Bridge
Ami braves a rickety wooden bridge. I have ever eaten. It wasn't enough that I was already on edge about tearing into an animal that was looking at me; Brenna and Ami -- Ami in particular -- spent a good portion of the meal analyzing the entire fish-eating process. Ami comes from a family of red-meat eaters, so this was completely new to him. He was fascinated with the small rib bones, and couldn't believe that they were all that was holding the fish together. Well, it's a small fish, I explained; therefore the bones are smaller. And fish need to be light and buoyant so they don't sink. The entire de-boning process was riveting for him, too, and so I had to explain that when fish is cooked correctly, the meat should just peel away from the bones, all the while demonstrating this. And we discussed how light the meat was, and how fish is much healthier for you than red meat. I am also the slowest eater in the group (which isn't saying much, since Ami eats like his food is going to escape, and Brenna, since living with him, has learned to a eat faster), and to top it all off I was
Bridge
. . . followed by Brenna. eating a food that require more time to eat. Thus they spent much of the meal watching me consume my trout. Despite the fact that I have grown accustomed to this, in this case it was quite unnerving. I'm not a huge fan of being on display. Overall it was, as previously mentioned, in many ways hilarious, but I'm not quite ready to give an encore performance. 😊
*******
Today we visited a local orchid and butterfly garden. The best part of the tour were these two Ecuadorian boys who were there with us (they looked to be about 9 or 10 years old). When we got to the butterfly garden (an enclosed area near the orchids) the darting butterflies startled one of the boys, and he almost wouldn't go in. He was absolutely hilarious to watch. Whenever a butterfly "sneaked up" on him, or flew over his head, he would duck and yell. I guess butterflies aren't that common in the city.
From there we lounged on a patio and watched dozens of hummingbirds zoom around. After awhile they grew used to our presence, and would sit still for about 1/100th of a second longer, but
they were still difficult to photograph. They were a variety of colors -- blues, greens, purples -- unlike any hummingbirds I've seen before. Unfortunately, it was about this time that I began to feel nauseous, so Brenna and Ami kindly escorted me back to our hostal.
Even though we had already checked out for the day, the hostal owners were allowing us to store our stuff in one of the rooms until we left Mindo. I was able to crash on one of the beds, and one of the owners even brought me something to settle my stomach (which was completely unexpected, and I was completely overwhelmed by her kindness). Fortunately my illness -- whatever it was -- was short-lived, and after napping for a couple hours I felt much better. All the same, we decided to head back to Quito a little earlier than planned. We mutually agreed to pay the hostal owner for storing our stuff and taking care of me -- unlike the hostal owner in Otavalo, she wasn't going to charge us anything -- and she seemed really surprised when we did. It was the absolute least we could do.
The trip back was
Ami and Brenna
Enjoying the cool, cool river :) pretty uneventful. Because we changed our bus ticket at the last minute Brenna ended up in a seat in the last row of the bus and Ami and I ended up in the front, right next to the driver. Needless to say, our view this time was much better than when we came in, and that wasn't always a good thing. I swear, we nearly hit several trucks and buses while passing them on that narrow, twisty, two-lane road. It's a good thing I'm not an Ecuadorian bus driver. I lack the nerve.
Anyway, Mindo was fantastic. We're thinking about volunteering there for awhile once we leave Quito, but nothing's definite yet. Our current, tentative plan is to leave Quito the first weekend in November, but we'll see . . . 😊
Hope all is well with you! Later, gators,
em
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