MINDO!!! Round 1...

Sunday, January 30, 2011

1. 6:00am: Wake up to be at the university at 7:00am
2. 6:30am: Ready to leave to university
3. 6:32am: check phone and realize José now says we're not leaving until 8:00am
4. 6:34am: take a chill pill and identify with Amanda for waking up way earlier than need be. Then proceed to check e-mail and be productive some how
5. 7:30am: Start walking to university
6. 8:00am: Arrive at university and nobody is there
7. 8:15am: Amanda and Roya show up
8. 8:30am: José shows up with 3 friends but still waiting for the other friends (Gabriella, Paula, "Passion" [a guy])
9. 9:30am: Finally leave because we come to the conclusion that the other friends aren't showing up = Ecuadorian time

On the ride to Mindo, it was primarily all Spanish. We were driving through some of the most narrow and curvy roads you could imagine. For some reason, Ecuadorians always seem to be racing or they just can't stand someone being in front of them, because they will try to pass on a one way road just to get in front of your vehicle and not go any faster when they're in front. Instead of being scared out of my mind about the road, I sat in a seat facing the back, buckled my seat belt and enjoyed Paula's CD of amazing 90's boy/girl band music. All the time, we're zig zagging through hills, mountains, volcanos, all covered with plush plant life, monkey filled trees, vines, and much more. In the morning, the mist started rising from the forest and it looked like a scene out of King Kong. I had a craving to go searching for him, but that didn't happen. Then, this big giant green bean looking plant caught my eye, so when we stopped the car, we bought it and started chowing down. It was filled with seeds about the size of your palm covered with a furry white coat of some sort. They looked like little mice; you eat the white coating then throw away the seed. It was interesting and tasty. 

Finally, we arrived in Mindo where we first went and got lunch at this very unique restaurant. Everything was made out of trees cut from the forest including the chairs, tables, and the building itself. We all ordered our meals, and when we were waiting, we were lucky enough to see a stray dog fight. It was pretty gruesome. They jumped at each other and were biting at each other's necks. One dog had a gray muzzle and looked like it could have rabies. This went on until one of the owners of the dogs came and ripped the two apart. 

We then went to go pick our extreme sports for the day. First up was zip lining. It was a lot like what I did in Costa Rica, zipping through the rain forest at all different levels (10 lines). Although the difference was that this zip line course had no safety chords. There was only one chord, and if it broke, sorry... (in Costa Rica, there were always 2 chords for security). It was great though because we could do a bunch of different positions that we couldn't do in Costa Rica. For instance, upside down, superman, and butterfly were all favorites within our group. 

After zip lining, the temperature dropped and we realized that we should have done that second. Our next adventure was tubing in the rapids. The water was bitter cold along with the air we were standing in. It didn't help that mosquitos were attacking us as if they were capitalists and we were sweating oil. Let me describe these tubes. There were six tubes strapped around one large middle tube, and you had to stratal yourself sitting between two of the smaller tubes while the two guides looked scared to death pushing off rocks and making sure we didn't hit anything that could potentially knock us off and sweep us away. The conditions were not amazing what so ever, but as soon as we started, it was one of the top thrills of my life with the exception of sky diving. We went over HUGE rocks, around branches and embraced the elevated level of the river raging faster than normal. As it ended, we all got out, not paying any attention our shivering limbs, just expressing the thrill that we just experienced... and it only cost $6!! The people who didn't want to pay the $10 definitely missed out.

It was then time to get home, but before, we stopped for some dinner where I ate a fried fish (head connected to it and all). It was great day that ended with a little nap, fun conversation, and watching the mist descend back into the cover of the forest. I'm excited to come back to Mindo in 2 weeks with the whole exchange group to experience even more of the thrills that it has to offer. I don't think I'll do zip lining again, but I'm definitely doing the rapids.

Ciao,

Michael