Mindo

Mindo is in the Ecuador cloud forest, a 2 hour bus ride from Quito.  There wasn’t a lot of information available on the internet apart from the fact that it’s diverse in animal and plant life but we booked a week in an airbnb lodge anyway.  Initially Mike was concerned that a week would be too long there as it didn’t seem that there was much to do.  That was definitely not the case!

We arrived after a very scenic bus ride then our airbnb host drove us to our lodge.  To access the property we had to walk over a rickety old bridge crossing the river which felt very unstable, especially with our backpacks on!  The house was amazing.  It was built by a local artist who now lives in Spain.  It has a great balcony outside the bedroom which we sat for hours watching the hummingbirds, vultures, toucans and lots of butterflies in the garden.

Our Lodge

Rickety Bridge

When we arrived we were given instructions to feed the fish daily and our host casually mentioned that “some of the brothers” might pass by to pick the bananas from the garden.  What we weren’t quite prepared for was a machete wielding man standing at our gate shouting “buenas tardes” in the afternoon while we were taking a nap.  Seems that  “picking the bananas” was a family occasion as Mr Machete, his mother and about 4 children enter then try to catch the fish in the pond.  Meanwhile Mr Machete is at work whilst the teenage daughters laugh at Mike’s Spanish attempts.  Guess this is what they call an authentic experience!

On our first day we walked about 4 miles to a mariposa just outside the town.  It was a great place to visit with lots of butterflies and hummingbirds.  There was also a nice garden area to sit in.

 

In the evening we went on the Mindo Night walk which was through the forest in darkness by torchlight.  The forest was a completely different place by night and the frog calls were deafening.  We saw a good variety of frogs and insects such as stick insects, crickets, grasshoppers, a praying mantis, wing tailed scorpion and other insects.  We enjoyed it so much that we booked the Night hike which is a longer more in depth trail for later that week.

We took the chocolate tour, La Queztal, which explained the full chocolate making process and allowed us to taste chocolate at various stages of the process.  It was really interesting, especially the taste of the cacao fruit before being processed; very citrusy, like a mandarin orange.  Our favourite was the cacao tea.

Fruit

Drying

End Product

That night we went to the Frog concert which was at the Mindo Lago hotel a mile outside of Mindo.  When we arrived we were ushered into a room and given a glass of wine.  Half an hour passed and more people joined us in the room but we were a bit confused as to what exactly should happen next!  Finally after 45 mins we were lead through the hotel complex by the family where they pointed out various species of frogs and insects.  We kept to the back of the crowd and had our own personal guide; a 7 year old boy with much better eyesight than mine!

During the chocolate tour our guide mentioned that he also lead Bird watching tours so we booked him for a 3 hour trip into the highland region.  He was very good, pointing out the various native birds and explaining about them.  We saw a really good variety; vultures, hawks, toucans and hummingbirds to name a few.  It was a lovely morning walking around in relative silence looking for birds.

An Earthquake woke us both up the following day at 3.30am shaking the bed.  My first earthquake!  Afterwards the animals were rather unsettled; dogs barking and cockrels cock-a-doodling!  It’s any wonder we actually managed to get back to sleep.  When we finally woke up we walked the trails at Casa Amarilla; yellow house, which are well known in the area.  We weren’t quite prepared for the hour and a half climb to get to the trail, which, in the heat of the day was pretty relentless.  It was worth it though as the views from the top over Mindo were excellent and we enjoyed looking for animals in the forest.

On our final day we took a taxi to La Tarabita; a very basic cable car to Las Cascadas; the waterfalls.  The ride was a little scary but did offer some great views over the canopy.  We decided to walk to La Reina which is the largest waterfall as we’d had some torrential rains the night before so we’d hoped that it would be in full flow.  We were not disappointed and it was worth the 2 hour trek.  Unfortunately we ran out of time to walk the rest of the waterfalls, besides the afternoon rain had started by that point!

On our final night we took the Night Hike which was the longer version of the Night Walk.  It had been cancelled the previous night due to the torrential rain so we had to reschedule.  Our guide picked us up and took us to La Nambillo waterfall where we walked for about 4 hours looking for animals.  We saw lots of frogs, lizards and insects.  It was interesting to walk these areas in the dark but it wasn’t our favourite tour and we were a bit disappointed, it probably didn’t help that we weren’t too taken by our guide for this tour.

Overall Mindo was a great place to visit and we both thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  Apparently it gets very busy in August and other peak months but we were lucky to be out of season so we had all the trails to ourselves.  I would definitely recommend Mindo, and the lodge we stayed in, if anyone was planning to spend any time in Ecuador.  There were lots of day tours available from Quito but Mindo definitely warrants more than just a few hours stay!

Galapagos Islands

We took a Gadventures Multi Sport Tour to the Galapagos as we were informed that it was not possible to visit independently, however, having now visited, I think in future we would definitely take the trip independently.

On our first and last nights of the tour we stayed in the 4 star Quito Hotel, which is not quite what we are used to in terms of accommodation.  When we arrived the porters tried to take our luggage from us and gave us strange looks when not only did we carry our own luggage, which was on our backs at the time, but when we rejected the offer of a taxi, explaining that we were going for a walk!

After a restless night sleep with lots of noise outside the hotel we had a 4.30am pick up to take us to the Galapagos Islands.  Our first stop was Santa Cruz Island where we met our guide.  On arrival to the island it was much warmer than Quito and during the drive to our hotel we saw tortoises walking along by the side of the road.  After lunch and booking into our hotel rooms we walked to the Charles Darwin Centre to see the Giant Tortoises.

The following day in Santa Cruz we kayaked in the morning alongside lots of white tipped reef sharks and puffer fish.  The local guide asked me if I was “born with my skin condition” referring to my peeling sunburnt head and nose which I got during the first day in Quito!

In the afternoon we took a walk through the lava tubes then to another tortoise sanctuary then during some free time Mike and I walked along the promenade to the fish market where the pelicans and sea lions were begging the fishermen for food.  There were many iguanas sunning themselves on the pavements and massive red crabs on nearly every rock.  Further along the road we found lots of tiny fiddler crabs cleaning the sand and waving their big claws about.

On our third day in the Galapagos we took our first speedboat ride.  Mike and I were given the opportunity to sit upstairs with the captain.  Although the ocean was very rough I thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride and slightly over excited when we saw a pod of about 20 dolphins following the boat.  When we arrived into port we descended onto the deck to find that half of our group had got sea sick and the others all felt pretty ill.  Seems I had a lucky escape with my vomit phobia!

When we arrived at Floreanna it was such a different atmosphere with a small population and only a couple of streets.  We were lead to our little wooden cabins at the aptly named lava lodge which was directly overlooking the ocean.  This was by far my favourite island and more of how I expected the Galapagos to be.  In the evenings it was dark by 6.30pm and we could see the milky way.  Coming home after dinner each evening we needed head torches to find our way down a dark track and I found some scorpions hidden by the side of the track.  Mike and I got up early in the mornings and went for a walk along the shoreline on our own to see the sea turtles and sea lions, possibly the nearest I get to romance!

I was sad to leave Floreanna as I could have happily spent more time there in my little wooden lodge but after a short trip it was time yet again for our next speedboat ride.  It seems that lessons were learnt from the first speedboat trip as everyone had pills before boarding!  A whale was spotted from above deck but unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough to see it but hopefully we’ll have other opportunities to see whales in the next few months.

Isabella Island was more like Santa Cruz with a larger population and catering for tourists.  On our first afternoon there the rest of our group paid for the optional, and rather expensive $150 snorkelling tour, so Mike and I had a personal kayaking session with a guide.  The sea was choppy which made the double kayak difficult to control but we still had a good time kayaking alongside eagle rays and sea turtles.  We also saw some blue footed boobies on the rocks in the distance.

The following day we walked up the Sierra Negra Volcano caldera but it was too misty to see the view.  That said, it was a rather enjoyable walk at a climate more suited to us then later that day we took a walk through the nature reserves where there were flamingos feeding.  At night, Mike and I, bored of eating rice every night, ordered a pizza and sat on the beach in the dark listening to the waves.

On our last day in the Galapagos we took the speedboat back to Santa Cruz Island then, being the last night, we joined the obligatory lunch and dinner with the group where we had to endure listening to them compete over who’d done/seen the most and talk about how much beer they were going to drink!  After the evening meal our guide informed us that he’d booked karaoke but Mike and I made our excuses and headed to the pier where there were no less than 50 black tipped reef sharks swimming around under the bright lights.  A pretty amazing end to our time in the Galapagos!

We both loved the Galapagos and the animals.  Floreanna Island was by far my favourite as were the lava lodges we stayed in.  In terms of the tour, it was well organised and our guide was a marine biologist who had previously worked for the Charles Darwin Station so he was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the Galapagos.  The downside of the tour is that it felt rushed.  We’d happily have spent more time walking and looking rather than being ushered to the next place.  The other downfall was with it being multisport it seemed to attract people that weren’t too interested in the nature and more interested in taking the best selfie!  Needless to say, we didn’t join their WhatsApp group and we hid in the hotel corridors back in Quito rather than endure an elevator ride with these people.

Quito

We arrived to Quito late after 18 hours of travelling; our longest day so far.  Thankfully we’d pre-ordered a taxi to take us to our accommodation and arranged to collect the keys to our airbnb accommodation from the security guard.

Despite getting to bed at 1.30am we were up by 7am, albeit not very well slept!  We decided on the easy option and took the Quito Bus Tour around the main attractions which allowed us to get our bearings.  Before boarding the bus we had a walk in La Carolina Park which is near to our accommodation.  Randomly there is an old abandoned airplane in the middle of it which we watched a young couple climbing on it then getting stuck!  They were saved by a couple of local body builders walking through the park; or rather the girl was saved, they left her boyfriend stuck on top of the airplane!

As we were waiting to board the bus there was an old man selling hats, we declined as it wasn’t that sunny, however, this was much regretted later when both of us had very blistered and sunburnt faces.  Ironically we didn’t find the weather particularly warm but both of us have struggled with breathing due to the altitude.

For lunch we went to the old town in Quito to a local vegetarian restaurant.  The waitress was very happy when we selected the menu of the day but neither of us had any idea of exactly what we were served and just politely ate it anyway!!!  That said, it cost us $2.75 for a 3 course meal, such a massive price difference from Boston!

At the Virgin Mary monument at the top of the town we watched the afternoon storm coming in then decided to call it a day and head back to the apartment.

The following day we got the 25 cent bus into the old town of Quito then did several of the walking tours indicated on the map thereby covering most of the sites on foot.  Throughout the old town there are random people selling things everywhere; coat stands, laundry baskets, clothes, shoes, food…..

On another day we took the teleferico to the top of Pinchincha Volcano at an altitude of 4050m.  At the top the altitude was very evident and walking took a lot more effort.  We reluctantly had a cup of coca de mate tea, which had been described as drinking tobacco, but thankfully it tasted more like green tea.  I’m not quite sure on it’s ability to help with the altitude as both of us were still finding it difficult to breathe but it wasn’t unpleasant.

Quito is a very bustling city with a good vibe and the people are friendly.  There at lots of tourist police in the old town so it feels safe but I’m not sure how safe I’d feel wandering around at night.  The only area we didn’t like so far was the mariscal district which is evidently the tourist area.  We stayed in the Financial District near La Carolina Park which was about 25 mins on bus from the old town but at 25 cent a bus journey we definitely can’t complain.