Mindo- OH MIS DIOS!

Let me start at the beginning of this lovely weekend of TRUE giggling & smiling. Yesterday we got into Mindo, a small jungle town about an hour & a half Northwest of Quito. It's completely different from Quito in a very good way...less people, safe, right smack in the middle of the rainforest & the people seem calm, content, & happy. When we got here, we checked in to our hostal called the Birdwatcher's Hostal (which if you ever go to Mindo, this is THE place to stay). It's owned by this sweet family (2 bros + mom/dad). The dad is an ex-policeman, the mom cooks food, & the son plays music/speaks english to the gringos/us :]

After we checked in, we went to the smallest/best place for food in Mindo. A little boy that was 10 years old took our order & we watched them grill our peces (fish), chocho (corn), carne (meant), y bananas verde all outside on hot lava rocks (see picture). It was an elderly woman and two little boys making the food...I ordered grilled chocho con queso (corn with cheese and parmasean) y patacones (fried plantains) & I ate every single crumb (It was $2.50 by the way). The whole family seemsed so happy, sititng around cooking, eating, talking to locals, drinking beer....so relxed. After all that food, we came back & slept/read in our hammocks. We were going to go to a chocolate tour, but we decided drink our $5 box of Ecuador cabernet instead which was a great because we drank it walking to el concierto de la rana where they only gave us a little wine. It was fate, though, because at the frog concert we met a twelve year-old nino named Steban. This kid was the essence of a perfect student/teacher/human. He was our teacher/guide for the frog conert, bringing us on a night hike & teaching us everything he knew about spiders, frogs, the plants, bacteria, water...EVERYTHING. He didn't go to school very often because he liked learning on his walks mostly (an experiential educators dream, right!). So now this blog entry is mainly going to be about two people that we met at the frog concert & spent the whole next day with: Steban y Laura. After our night with the frogs & bugs & a stick that glowed in the dark (yes, it glowed in the dark because of the microbacteria on it...only on dying plants. Granted I heard all of this en Espanol but I saw this glowing stick with mi ojos, it was awesome). We asked Steban if he'd hang out with us today because we wanted him to take us to all of his favorite places & a chick named Laura from Buenas Aires wanted to come, too. Immediately I fell in love with both of these humans. I spoke Spanish with them a lot the next day so that was encouraging.

That night we were all so exhausted (I literally fell asleep in the shower mainly because of wine, walking, & how warm it was). The next morning el madre de hostal made us desayuno of pan con jam, bananas, deviled eggs, queso, jugo, cafe, & yuca. It was delicious. Then we met Steban y Laura in el parque at 9 a.m. By 11:30 we had walked 3 KM & zip-lined through the canopies (10 zip-lines for $10!). At first I didn't want to do this because I'd wanted to hike around/explore, but I was glad I did it because you could see a lot of the rainforest from a totally differnet perspecive up there- it was awesome. The guides let us superman (they called us superchicas) or mariposa (upside down superman backwards) through the jungle so we could look down at el rio pequino y banana trees & all the plantas. We could see all of Mindo from there...it was beautiful. They let Steban come for free & he had a lot of fun giggling with us. Laura was also smiling the whole time. This 26 year old Argentine was not only gorgeous with short curly hair, artisitc, & funny, she also had the aura of love around her. She's this skateboarder with a pierced lip who goes to school & works on films in Buenos Aires. She's traveling all around Ecuador by herself & told us about places we should visit (like Isla de Palta/Playa los Frailes instead of Galapagos because it's a less touristy/cheaper island with the same wildlife). She was a total free spirit, a happy lady that wrote a lot & was very curious. I think I'm in love with her.

After the canopies we walked about 3 more km to the cascades which were beautiful. We were in the clouds so it was pouring rain, but my kayaking friends would have been aching to climb in their boats & jump in this huge river. It was smaller than the kings in CA, but it has just as much water pumping through it. Apparently there are 3 big cascades there, but we were so tired to we only saw 2 & called it a day. Brittany & I got in the waterfall pool even thought it was freezing, but how many opporunities do you get to be in an Ecuadorian waterfall pool, really? There was un perro (a dog) that followed us from Mindo all the way to the cascades. We fed him some sausage (yeah, there were kabobs of sausage & plantains on the way down the trail...like I said, I BELONG here).

 Steban y Laura found a truck that would bring us back down the mountain which was great because we'd walked something like 7 km up the mountain in the rain only on brekfast & sausage kabobs. The truck ride was cool because we flew down the mountain listening to French music & I was laughing so hard, taking the moment to just enjoy how great the days was with all of these people I'd fallen in love with in the back of a truck. I have a problem with always looking ahead ("I can't wait to start teaching Monday!" "I'm so hungry/tired & ready to eat/sleep!", etc.), so this was a rare & special moment for me to realize how blissfully happy, wet, & giggly I was just to be completely exhaused from having so much fun before 3:30. The rest of the day was equally lovely: we ate food (again, $5 talapia with rice, tomatoes) and  coffee, vanibrowni halado with Laura (again, just fell more in love with this girl as she told us about her plans & her life...she'd one of those people you WANT to listen to, not a gir/dudel who talks a lot about nothing...), then we came back to the hostal to drink some wine & listen to the brothers play music.

I realize I haven't said anything about the 4 girls I'm wisht: Carol (I've written about her before), Fausat ( beautiful afro-reina), Brittany (mentioned her on my first blog), & the coolest little lady who acts like Morgan from Eng. Ed. Cohort so I feel like I've already been in love with her (Kat). I'll write more about them as we get to know each other, but we're all very different so it's a nice balance.

I love Mindo. I WILL come back!!!!!!!