On the Road Again! Ecuador

Tuesday, April 6 – Today was a day of buses, planes, trams, more planes, and taxis. After a very early start to our day (2:30 a.m. to be exact), we finally arrived in Quito, Ecuador. We checked into our hotel, around 10:00 p.m., a nice little spot in the heart of “New Town” called Mariscal Sucre and promptly headed to bed (which, though comfortable, was about a foot too short for Keith!).

Wednesday, April 7 – My Lonely Planet books describes Quito as the following: “Spread across a spectacular Andean valley and flanked by volcanic peaks, Quito's setting alone is enough to strike you speechless.” Waking up and looking out our hotel window, we were amazing by the huge mountains that surrounded us. We spent much of the day wandering around New Town – an area of Quito filled with cafes, restaurants, hotels, cybercafes, bars and hotels. Around 2:30 pm we headed over to the bus station to catch a two hour bus ride to a small town called Mindo. With neither Keith nor I speaking much Spanish, it proved to be quite an experience. The bus ride was beautiful (though a bit odorous at times) as we drove through the green lush mountains. The drive was a little scary as one mistake by the driver would have us plummeting down a ravine. We checked into our bed and breakfast in Mindo, a charming spot that was recommended to us called the Dragonfly Inn. We strolled through the one street town, drank a bottle of wine, had some dinner and called it a night.

Thursday, April 8 – We awoke to the sound of the street dogs barking and roosters cock-a-doodle-doing. The town of Mindo is surrounded by 48,274 acres of forest and is home to over 450 species of birds. Our day was packed – after doing a little humming bird watching and having some breakfast, we set out for the day. Our day was filled with doing a zip line course, with 13 different zip lines in total, a rickety cable car ride across a gorge, a long hike to several waterfalls, a tour which took us through the process of making chocolate from the cocoa bean to the chocolate bars and, towards the end of the day, lots and lots of rain (it is, afterall, the end of the rainy season here).