Mindo Adventure

We had so much fun this weekend in Mindo!  It was a beautiful place.  Mindo is in the rain forest and it did rain a lot, but we planned for that so we still had fun.  We started our trip at 7:00AM with a bus ride to Old Quito.  I have never seen Lucas walk so fast.  I think he was the most excited about the trip.  After we got to Old Town, we walked to the next bus station and caught a bus to the North Terminal.  We had a little trouble communicating with the bus terminal people, but eventually I said the right words to get us on the right bus.  We took that bus to the bus terminal where we bought the tickets to Mindo.  The bus ride from there was 2.5 hours and we were able to see a waterfall and some really tiny towns along the way.  You could watch as we climbed into the clouds.  Mindo is known as cloud forest and it fit that name.  When we arrived in Mindo we decided to find a place to eat lunch.  We voted for some pizza, which was really delicious.  When we finished eating, we took a truck with a sign that said taxi in the window to the hotel.  The hotel was five separate cabanas and then a lodge area, a pool overlooking the rain forest and a game room.  When we arrived the owner greeted us and got us a pitcher of guanabana juice on the house which was delicious.  Then we were taken to our cabana which had three double beds and a twin bed and two bathrooms.  The bathroom upstairs had a jacuzzi tub that had a huge window overlooking the rain forest.  Matt and I's bedroom was upstairs and had a balcony.  When Lucas went out there he said, "If grandma was here, we wold have our coffee and graham crackers out here."  It was really sweet.  After we settled in a little, we went for a little exploring of the forest.  We saw a parrot and a bunch of ants carrying leaves in a long line.  It was really cool.  It rained on and off, but we had fun.  We also walked to the Rio Mindo, which is the main river there and threw in some rocks.  The water was really cold and very rapid.  After that we tried to go swimming, but it did not last long since it was raining and the pool water was only a little warm.  It was really pretty though.  That night we ate dinner in the lodge and had trout with different kinds of nuts on it and shrimp with a an amazing sauce on it and fried bananas.  We also had blackberry or mora juice.  It was delicious.  In the morning we were up before breakfast was served, so Matt to the kids to play Foosball so I could read for a little while.  It was so nice.  For breakfast we had fresh off the trees mango, papaya, bananas and watermelon from the vine.  We also had fresh bread and scrambled eggs.  We all thoroughly enjoyed it.  Next we headed to town to get a guide to see the waterfalls.  Our guide was about 16 years old and she hiked with dress flats on, but she knew what she was doing.  It was beautiful and I wish we could have hiked longer, but it was too hard for the kids to get to the other waterfalls.  We headed back to town to eat at the recommended restaurant from our travel book and were not disappointed.  We had huge hamburgers and french fries which hit the spot.  Lucas almost ate more than Matt and I.  Needless to say it was really good.  After that we head back home on the bus which was very full due to elections being held on Sunday and people traveling back from voting.  When we got home dinner was waiting for us and it was back to soup and rice with vegetables and hotdog pieces.  It was good too.  We were tired, but it was a wonderful birthday weekend and I came home to 75+ birthday wishes.  Yet again feeling blessed!

Getting started on the bus

The driveway of the hotel

Free juice!

A view from the patio of the lodge

Bird watching area at the hotel

Hummingbird

A wild parrot

Our patio

Our cabana

Ant trail carrying big leaves

They had to watch for ten minutes it was so cool

Exploring

Captain Lucas!

"Fishing"

Skipping rocks

Our Hotel

The cool pool

Tub with a great view before bubbles

After bubbles and the jets on!

A friend at breakfast

A jungle soccer field that Lucas asked if he could play on if the people asked him to.

The view from our bathtub

The parrot was back in the morning

Lucas and our guide

The first waterfall

"Did It!"

The second waterfall

LUNCH PLEASE!

Our lunch place El Cheff

Two hungry guys