Dana's Semester in Ecuador: Mindo!

Hey Everyone!

I had an amazing weekend in Mindo this past weekend. My friends and I left friday morning. Mindo is a small town about 2 hours away from Quito. It is in the mountains in a could forest that is very similar to a jungle. The weather is warm and humid all year round and there are tons of butterflies everywhere. When we got to Mindo we went to our hostel which was a treehouse. The rooms were all open air rooms with huge mosquito nets covering the beds and there were a bunch of hammocks to relax in. The first thing we did was go tubing down the river. We all expected it to be a lazy river type activity where we could relax in tubes while the current carried us down the river. we were very wrong. We got there and they gave us life jackets and orange helmets to wear. It turned out to be giant rafts made out of tubes and each raft had 2 guides that took us down the river, over the rapids, and around the giant rocks. It was crazy but very fun! Our guides were our age and were very friendly so we made friends with them and they invited us to go out with them that night. So after some relaxing in the hammocks and a delicious dinner, we met up with our new ecuadorian friends. They took us to one of their friends bars where we danced and hung out for a while. Then some of our friends left to go find a karaoke bar while the rest of us (5 of us girls, 2 of our american guy friends, and about 6 Ecuadorian guys) decided we wanted to go to a waterfall. 2 of the Ecuadorians were guides so they said they would take us. We told the Ecuadorians that our friend Richard was in the army (because hes huge and very strong) so they were a bit scared of him which made us feel very safe. So we found a truck and all hopped in the back and drove up the mountain for about 30 min to the waterfall. Our friends said it was a short hike to the waterfall down the other side of the mountain. They kept saying "cinco minutos mas". So after about 45 min of hiking down an incredibly steep and muddy mountainside wearing flipflops and using cellphones for lights, we made it to the base of the waterfall. It was too dark to see anything because it was about 1 in the morning but we could hear the water. And our friends told us the base was very shallow and safe to go swimming. So we built a bonfire and went swimming in the waterfall. It was so much fun! After an hour or two we decided to make our way back up the mountain and find a car to take us home. After another 45 min hike up the mountain, we all laid down in hammocks at the top while our ecuadorian friends called a taxi. However, since it was about 2 in the morning, no one would come pick us up. So we had to walk 2 hours home down the mountain on a very rocky road in the pitch black dark. It was definitely an adventure!

The next morning we woke up bright and early with the sun (since our treehouse didnt really have walls) and went ziplining through the cloud forest. It was awesome! It lasted for 2 hours and we got to go on 12 different lines. The guides taught us cool tricks like going upsidown and "butterfly" where a guide goes with you and holds ur legs behind u while u let ur arms hang free. After zip-lining and lunch at the juice bar (a hut with rope swings and 75 cent bowls of fruit and ice cream) - we all took 3 hour naps. Then we cooked dinner. Our hostel had a big outdoor kitchen right on the river that we used to cook. It was delicious!

Sunday we went to a butterfly place where butterflies landed on your head. Then we laid on rocks in the middle of a river. And then took the bus home. The best part of the weekend was that our entire weekend, including bus fare, hostel, tubing, zip-lining, food, drinks...only cost $50! Our next adventure will hopefully be to the coast to go to the beach!