El-monte lodge = heaven!

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El-monte lodge is like a dream! It is so tranquil and beautiful. It really feels like home. I would be falling asleep with the sounds of a rushing stream and the many insects and birds living around me. It feels so natural, just like Sadhana. Not to mention the cabins, they’re incredible! So beautifully and skillfully designed and built. Tom and Mariella (the owners) really have outdone themselves. They built El-monte from the ground up and I really admire their achievement. This definitely is 5* backpacking. You could see up into the cloud forest mountains right outside my window. It’s so green and isolated. The pictures really do not do this place justice. If you are in the Mindo area I definitely recommend coming to this place. If I could turn back time I'd have spent much longer here and used it as a retreat!

The first thing you experience when you arrive is the cable car stylle thing to cross the stream. You sit on a wooden seat and you're pulled across and above the stream. From this point on, you have officially crossed into nature. This adds to your sense of isolation from the modern world and into the natural one! I think it's a great idea, much better than having an ordinary bridge!!

Another of its similarities with Sadhana is the fact that they practise sustainable living here. They use solar power, hydroelectric power and have a bicycle powered blender. This is eco-tourism at its finest. I’ve already fell in love with the place and expect to come back here to volunteer before I return to England in late April. So you may be hearing a lot more about El-Monte!

To tell you a little bit about the activities we have done here with our guide Fernando who by the way, is extremely helpful, friendly, funny, knowledgable and his help is included in the experience for free. On our first morning we rose at 6 ready for our 6:30 walk through the cloud forest in the hope of sneaking a peak at the many colourful birds, insects and flowers that call the cloud forest home. It was certainly an experience, as it’s nothing like Sutton park, that’s for sure! We spotted the likes of Toucans and hummingbirds.

We then visited a butterfly farm that is right next door. The butterflies there were stunning, of all colours, shapes, patterns and sizes. I found the cocoons the most interesting of all though as one type of cocoon disguises itself as a water drop whilst another disguises itself as jade, the stone. I’m unsure as to why the latter would be useful as camouflage but it obviously works for them!

I also went for a horseride, which was by far the highlight of my stay here! I was riding through the streets surrounding the cloud forest Mountains on the back of an incredibly placid horse. I really enjoyed it, even if it has left me with the sorest arse ever! We rode pretty high up and slowly, taking the scenery in as we went. On the way down though, we went up a notch and were trotting and galloping virtually the whole way. It was truly incredible. I’m glad there are many other places with opportunities to horse ride on the rest of my planned travels!

I’ve been brushing up on my Spanish skills also. I’ve had some pretty good conversations, if a little haphazard, with the owner’s brother, Marco and our tour guide Fernando. My Spanish is coming on pretty quickly. It’s so much nicer when you can speak the language as you can actually interact with people here more effectively as English is barely spoken. They seem to really like it when you try and speak in Spanish also!

On one of the final days I even plucked up the courage to go on the ziplines, where I was strapped to Fernando, our amazing guide, and went whizzing across ziplines from mountainside to mountainside. It was incredible! Almost like flying, so after all that birdwatching I actually got a taste of the day in the life of an Ecuadorian bird!

Oh and I almost forgot....how, I do not know...but the food here is out of this world! If anything, come for the food (if you’re a veggie). I have never tasted vegan food like it! This could either be a blessing or a curse, as it’s given me a taste of how my cooking could be, but probably never will, as I’m nowhere near as skilled as the lovely cook here, Carmen. She cooks everything from scratch and some of the ingredients come fresh from their vegetable/fruit garden! To give you an example of the food....

Breakfast: freshly baked bread and cinnamon and raisen bagels with guava jelly, fresh juice and fruit salad (and eggs for the non-vegans)

Lunch: lentil mash and rice in a wrap with grilled aubergine and a garden salad with a garlic dressing, followed by freshly baked blackberry pie.

Dinner: Miso style soup with falafel sprouts and carrots inside and deep fried lettuce and spinach leaves, a baked aubergine dish with garlic bread, followed by a strawberry jelly!

p.s. I'm a little too crazy about food.... I'm not sure if you noticed.

All in all....El-monte is heaven on earth!!

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