Mindo Take Two

Let me start with yeah, my dad and brother are here!  Now I can talk about the day.  Matt, the kids and I headed out to Quito to meet Dad, David, and his friend at their hotel.  We were stuck in rush hour traffic for a while, but we made it by 9:00AM.  We were all very excited to get there.  We ran into my dad on the street and David was walking out of the building to see if we were there.  The first Lucas told my dad was that he farted in his bed.  It seems to be the boys and my dad's running joke.  They took us upstairs to the room and David gave us chocolate chip cookies which were gone in seconds.  Thanks mom!  After that we head out to get our lunches for the trip.  We ended up getting ham and cheese sandwiches which were really good.  We also stopped and hot a few snacks for the trip.  We then all hopped in the truck and took the beautiful 2 hour drive to Mindo.  The scenery is gorgeous with waterfalls and trees and vegetation everywhere.  After we arrived we ate our packed lunch and then started our hike.  You start by riding a cable car over the canyon which is gorgeous.  Once we were across, we hiked to five waterfalls that were all beautiful.  David tried to get a closer look at one and almost fell in and then after that took off his shoes and got it to get closer looks.  The water was actually very pleasantly cool.  Lucas was a great hiker today and never complained of getting tired.  I think he liked hanging with the big boys.  He kept talking about getting practice in Milan and Charlie's woods.  It was really sweet.  The rain forest did live up to its name and we did see some rain.  After we went back across the cable car, we changed into dry clothes and headed into the town for a little souvenir shopping and a little dinner.  We ate at a very authentic restaurant which had really good food.  After that we took the truck back to Quito and then home.  It was nice not to have to walk home from the bridge where the bus stop is for once.  What a great start to a great week!  Looking forward to an Old Town tour in the morning and dinner with good friends and family in the evening.  It is getting late so picture will be posted tomorrow.

Lunch before we got started

My little explorer

He just had to get in

Our crew

The terabita cable car

The first of many waterfalls

This is how she felt about the rain

What, I do not have to eat soup!