Mindo Part Deux

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WHOOO! I'm back baby!
Been a little while since I've written, sometimes I feel like I'm not that journaly inclined. So, though it was a long time ago, I'll pick up on the Mindo story (by the way, just a thought, I think the best places in Ecuador are places with lots of cows, very tranquil).

Anyways, I got the name of the hostal way wrong, it's on Danny's (our guide) shirt in the pictures, can't remember the name though. To describe Mindo, it's basically got one main drag, which has lots of advertisements for crazy adventures, but as you keep walking down it there are lots of little restaurants and cafes, very calm. The had a little park too (I remember an Ecuadorean attempt at a recycling trashcan, but it was overflowing with crap). Our hostal though was a little ways out off that road, on a rustic dirt road that headed towards the river. When we got there with Danny, we all plopped down for a bit on the beds (comfy). One thing about the rooms there was that they were semi-open at the top and there are spaces by the ceiling, so that night there was a couple next door to me and Rick and there was lots of sappy music and suspicious giggling going on!). Danny decided he'd accompany us on whatever adventure we chose, so we chose to take the cable-box (tarabita, gondola in English?) over the forest and visit five little waterfalls. Beforehand Danny took us to an awesome restaurant on the first floor of a hostel in mid-construction. The owner was American but had married an Ecuatoreana and now there build this hostel, pretty idylic. I admired them, got there own coffee-grinder out in the shop! The brought us soup, Sopa de Menudenses (basically what ever is left over after you cut the normal meat of the chicken), but I didn't know what it was. Imo (or Imogene or Lily), was still vegetarian, having been vegetarian for a long time, but was lacking protein in the ecua-diet and so was trying to wean herself. However, this soup was really cloudy and we didn't know what was in it, so Lily put her spoon in and pulled out an entire chicken foot! She made a sound kind of like, "aaaaauuuhh". I quickly reacted and snatched said foot from the table and tossed it into the woods. Such a gentleman. Then they brought us out a certain juice, said to have aprodhesical powers, very good. Lily said, "Wow... Max. Ohh..." and I suddenly felt its power and said, "I think I´ll start a family here." Good food, good people.
Next we all piled into a truck that would take us up to the gondola launch pad. Bouncy ride for the buttox. At the gondola launch I bought a bottle of soda, which cracked me up because it was orange soda called "Fruit", with the quotations included. Who are they fooling? The launch point was guarded by a really small dog. I got a little scared on the gondola, but mainly I really loved it. It takes you over a big forested river canyon, and the trees are purty. That's the only way to travel! (as Toad would say). Over on the other side there are trails leading to the different waterfalls.

Man, this is super fun to write but time consuming, I gotta go to yoga class. Quick update: I'm in my 8th week of school and just finished the first spanish cycle (Spanish 5) which was 15 hours a week. I also am in Kichwa I, Anthropology of Tropical Forest Societies (the bomb), and Yoga. So I'm very studious and busy, which was hard at first but now I got over myself. I've been to Mindo, Baños, Otavalo, and Papallacta outside of Quito, all little forest towns and farm towns (which is what I like, except Otavalo is in the Andes and is an indiginous market town). Tonight I'm leaving for Bahía de Caraquez and Canoa on the coast. Beautiful! Take care everybody.

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