Ecuador off the beaten track - Mindo
Ecuador has everything - Amazon jungles, white sand beaches, sophisticated towns and blue footed boobies.
We enjoyed all the usual destinations - gorgeous cathedrals and great food in Quito, charming colonial architecture and panama hat factories in Cuenca and, of course, the never to be replicated experience of the Galapagos. Unexpectedly then, one of our favorite places in Ecuador ended up being Mindo, a tiny little town just a few hours by bus from Quito. When you get there you wonder what you are possibly going to do for three days but by the time we left, we wished we had at least one more day to explore. We stayed at the Yellow House and had the how two story building to ourselves. It has lots of walking trails around it but aside from a couple of hours the first day we didn’t really have time to explore them. In any case the walk into town was down a lovely green trail.
We enjoyed all the usual destinations - gorgeous cathedrals and great food in Quito, charming colonial architecture and panama hat factories in Cuenca and, of course, the never to be replicated experience of the Galapagos. Unexpectedly then, one of our favorite places in Ecuador ended up being Mindo, a tiny little town just a few hours by bus from Quito. When you get there you wonder what you are possibly going to do for three days but by the time we left, we wished we had at least one more day to explore. We stayed at the Yellow House and had the how two story building to ourselves. It has lots of walking trails around it but aside from a couple of hours the first day we didn’t really have time to explore them. In any case the walk into town was down a lovely green trail.
One of the reasons we had come to Mindo was it reputation as one of the top bird watching centers. Now, none of us are really that into birds but we figured, eh, if its that famous, we’ll give it a whirl and made sure the kids knew a 6 am walk up the mountain was non negotiable. You can imagine how enthusiastic they were about that. However, we had a great guide in Julia and she brought along not only binoculars but a telescope, essential for getting the kids to actually be able to see anything. The highlight of the day was seeing Toucans. It is crazy to think that those dayglow yellow beaks and red feathers can actually be camouflage but in fact it is practically impossible to spot them unless they are really close to you.
The girls turned out to be great bird spotters and we also saw some gorgeous plants and flowers. David Evan could not have been less interested and to be fair, starting before dawn was probably too much. Salt was rubbed in the wound the next morning when we went down to breakfast at the main house. Waiting for our eggs, we saw almost the same amount of birds we had seen during the four hour hike! Hummingbird feeders lined the large picture window and it was great to sit there with your coffee watching the tiny birds zoom around like aerial road runners.
The girls turned out to be great bird spotters and we also saw some gorgeous plants and flowers. David Evan could not have been less interested and to be fair, starting before dawn was probably too much. Salt was rubbed in the wound the next morning when we went down to breakfast at the main house. Waiting for our eggs, we saw almost the same amount of birds we had seen during the four hour hike! Hummingbird feeders lined the large picture window and it was great to sit there with your coffee watching the tiny birds zoom around like aerial road runners.
The other reason we had come to Mindo was for ziplining. The girls and David Evan had done some in Bali and were really looking forward to doing some more. But when I looked into which company to use I discovered some very unpleasant news. An American tourist, a mom in her thirties, had died while ziplining in Mindo when her cable detached from the tree. This put things in a new light and a definite risk assessment had to be made. On further research I found there were two canopy companies in Mindo, one of which had operated for twelve years and had never had any safety issues. The other had only been open for 4 years and had already been cited for a number of safety violations. That is where the tragedy occurred. The Ecuadorean government immediately shut down that operation and put the owner in jail where he might be extradited to the United States for trial. So after much discussion Vincent and I decided that if ever the remaining company was going to be super vigilant about safety, it would be now. However the girls were too nervous so just Vincent and David Evan went. When they came back, not only did they report that it was awesome with miles and miles of ziplines but that each was accompanied by their own guide and an additional couple of operators at every point. The next day Miriam went with them but Leontine and I gave it a miss not because we were scared but just because it is not our thing. Generally speaking we don’t have to make this drastic a risk assessment everyday but it did make me think how we each individually have our own comfort zone.
Lots of people wouldn’t travel to the places we have because of fears we think are irrational. We have stuck to bottled water but think nothing of using tap water for brushing teeth and have plenty of drinks with ice cubes. We’ve also eaten and loved street food in every places we’ve been and never regretted any of that. Lots of other people would probably jump on the things we have no interest in like bungy jumping or parasailing. Quite frankly we have also gotten tired of backpackers hostels with wooden beds and pillows so unless there is no other option we generally trade up.
The last two things we did in Mindo were to visit a butterfly farm and an orchid garden both of which were delightful. THe owner of the orchid garden took us on a tour of the hundreds of plants growing freely, pointing out the smallest orchids with a magnifying glass. Our favorite was the orchid that smelled like chocolate! You can see why three days just weren’t enough. We were the only ones wandering around with the butterflies and they apparently got very attached to Miriam and Leontine. One settled on Leontine’s finger and just didn’t move for 5 minutes. She finally tried gently shifting him off to a nearby leaf but he was having none of it. Miriam had more of a variety - one on her shoulder, one on her hand and one on the hem of her shirt. She was literally draped in butterflies.
We had to leave Mindo and rush back to Quito to meet up with my oldest daughter who was flying in from the US. On the way back however we consoled ourselves with a quick stop at Mitad del Mondo, and joined countless hundreds of visitors who, like us, straddled the equator, standing for one moment "in the center of the world."
