Friday, February 18, 2011
My day started out with getting up at 6:30am. I’ve been averaging about 5 hours of sleep nightly lately – that’s a good thing though, it means I’ve been productive. I got up and went to my salsa lesson at 8:00am. Afterward, I returned to USFQ to meet up with the group and head to Mindo. The drive was a georgous as the first time...driving through the winding roads between the rain forest mountains and hills… can’t find that in FIP land.
When we arrived in Mindo, we walked around the park for a little bit and took pictures. The sun for the first time in a long time was beating down on my skin, and I could feel the humidity. Yes, I’m in Ecuador where it’s always warm and sunny, but it’s more like spring. Come to think of it, I was probably just on an oxygen high from being 10,000 feet lower in altitude for the first time in 2 months. My mind was linked to the summer, cottage and everything good about the sun.
The guide then got the tours set up. Originally, we had planed to go to the Butterfly Garden ad the Orquid Garden, but I didn’t feel like two gardens – I wanted more of an adrenaline rush, so I asked if we could go rapids tubing instead of the orquids, and our guide said sure. Everyone was happy we were able to change our itinerary a little bit – that usually doesn’t happen (and usually doesn’t need to happen because the stuff planned is normally a blast).
First up, was the Butterfly Garden and it was very beautiful. Tons of butterflies of all sorts were fluttering around our heads. Everyone’s favorite was this blue type that never semed to land. There was also a brown one that when it opened its wings it looked like owl eyes!. So cool.
Next on the list was the Rapids Tubing (what I did last time when I went with José and his friends). It was different with this experience though.
- It wasn’t as cold and
- the guides weren’t scared to death since the river wasn’t as hight and strong today.
They actually had smiles on their faces and they were screaming “woo hoo” with us. Amanda fell indside her tube this time though which was a little scary at first, but the guides jumped over, grabbed and pulled her up. She also lost her bottoms for a second – fun trip for her, I laughed. Everyone had a blast.
We ate next and I had fish again like last time.
It was then time to leave and head more into the rain forest. We arrived and drove onto a gravel road. There were 2 small pools and one pool had a stone table within it. Our little hut was covered with brown shrubbery and we had a single chair hammock on the porch. At one point in the night, there was a frog sitting in our shower. It wasn’t like a toad though. It was a sticky one that can stick to walls – So rain forest!
Soon after we got there, we decided to go on an adventure into the small town we passed on the way in. It took us about 30 minutes to walk there, but on the way we saw a river and decided to swim in it, so it took us a little longer than expected. It had a rapid current, and there were some Ecua Children in the river floating down on tubes. They all had smiles on their faces when Meredith was crossing the river… in her minimal clothing… nothing more said (it was Kevin, Merideth, and I crossing the river while Abigale stayed on the shore to take pictures).
We swam to the middle where there were rocks, we took a picture, and swam back. We finally made it into town where we bought our materials fro the night. It was precious – animals running in the street, trysicle taxies (motorcycle) and just everyone hanging out in their shops.
When we got back to our “hotel,” we ate dinner and after met at the pool with the group where we shared stories the whole night and learned about each other. After everyone else went to bed, Kevin and I returned to our hut. We sat for an hour with Cigars and drinks just reminiscing about our experiences so far. We almost fell asleep outside where we’d be eaten alive, but fortunately, Kevin caught us and said we should go inside. We entered our hut, threw our mosquito nets over us and drifted into a tropical rest.
Ciao,
Michael
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