Walking the streets of Mindo

Last saturday we arose in the middle of the night to catch an early bus to "Mindo lindo". Armed with hiking boots, water and a lot of sandwiches we took our seats in the bus and woke up two hours later surrounded by lush forrest and low hanging clouds.

As soon as you're stepping out of the bus you breathe humid and heavy air and your clothes will stick to your limbs like a stupid song sticks to your brain.

(p.s. remember that song "I'm a barbie girl, in a barbie woo-oo-oorld" muahahaha)

But it belongs to a true tropical feeling, and you feel relaxed almost instantly at arrival, as the pace in Mindo is definitely not the same as in buzzy Quito.

We strapped our hiking boots a bit firmer and started to hike up to the canopy zip lines, stretched above the trees of Mindo. It's about a 40 minutes walk through incredible green forrest, crossing some small but wild rivers, where tubing is the thing to do (white-water rafting with bound together inner tubes). We skipped all touristy adventures and went directly to the most touristic one: canopy.

About 12 zip-lines are stretched from one side of a small canyon to the opposite side. There's a brief explanation about what you should absolutely not do while zipping and shortly after I found myself flying through the air, almost losing my helmet (what exactly would you need a helmet for anyways?), but with a big grin on my face. So what you're basically doing, you zip from one point to another until you're back again where you first started. After about three zips I got brave enough trying the "superman". Your strap gets fixed at your back as well as to one of the two guides. Then you have to swing your legs around the guide standing behind you and (the actual hardest part) let go of the zip-line, so your floating in the air with your upper body, only a few meters above the tree-tops...

Flying above Mindo's lush forrest is quite exciting and gives you a "king-of-the-world-kinda-feeling". Pretty cool.

After burning up all our adrenaline, we were in serious need for some super-delicious coffee and brownies. The brownie actually is a hyper-compressed mass of dark chocolate with a thin, crispy chocolate mantle. I'm not much of a chocolate-lover, but this dark, squared lump of chocolate was just soooo good, you can't stop eating until your body is shaking in severe sugar-overdose. Qué delicioso! 

The rest of the weekend was spent with some walking through the streets of Mindo. There aren't many streets, actually, but walking the same pace as Mindo's citizens you can spend a lot of your time just strolling around. 

We were almost instantly fascinated by Mindo's buildings. You could call them actually sustainable.... as soon as they're fallen apart enough so it gets a bit dangerous living there, the houses are given back to the nature: bamboo plants grow through wooden walls and ceilings, stray dogs nestle next to chicken on the empty ground floor, hummingbirds fly through open windows.

Peaceful recycling one could say.

But not only fallen apart houses are to be found, Mindo has some real nice wooden blockhouses with colourful gardens surrounding them. Walking past, you smell the lovely odour of big tropical flowers, you see butterflies, soundlessly clapping their wings to fly totally uncontrolled around you, even stray dogs seem more peaceful around those paradisal gardens.

Mindo is an absolute magical place, only a two hours drive from Quito, but still totally different

- slowly, peaceful, relaxing, hot n sticky and surrounded by the sounds of nature.

p.s. bring insect repellent!
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Semana Santa the Ecuadorian Way

Eastern and the holy week (semana santa) is the holiest and most important holiday in Ecuador. In Quito it's celebrated with a huge parade through the narrow streets of the old town, el centro historico.

The parade is held on viernes santo, holy friday, and Quito's town centre turns into a purple mass. Thousands of citizens walk the procession of "Jesús del Gran Poder" (Jesus the Almighty), dressed in purple robes or dressed as Jesus, dragging a huge crucifix made of big tree logs during the whole parade.

When the hundreds of Jesuses walk past you, you see them trembling under the weight of the crosses, some of them even walkin bare footed.. They want to feel and live the same agony Jesus was going through, which they obviously did.....

The parade is really impressive, but it goes on quite slowly and for a long, long, long time.

And being the tallest person there by far (well, not really, as Tessi is taller haha), soon you'll feel a bit trapped by purple dresses and thousands of visitors, which all seem to gaze up to you instead of the parade.. So, after an hour, the two giants at the parade left and made their way to Cotacachi with other members of the Gulliver team.

We had planned a weekend full of sporty activities. But instead it got a weekend full of shopping, some more shopping, eating and feasting.

In other words, awesome.

The first point on our weekend's bucket list was the leather market in Cotacachi. We expected it to be full of stands with thousands of leather jackets and boots and stuff. Well, it was full of stands with thousands of things... But mostly some clothes or food or jewelry. There were some shops directly at the feria (market) selling actual leather wares, but those were more expensive than expected. So after some leather gazing, touching and sniffing, we hopped off to the city center of Cotacachi, which is jammed with beautiful small leather shops. 

I guess I tried on every red leather jacked the city could offer me.. but after number 128 I had to realise, my arms were not meant to be short enough for those jackets... shame.

Full of hopes of still finding some things to spend money on, we went to Otavallo...

oooooh Otavallo.. a heaven for shoppers and souvenir gazers.

Jammed with fabrics, art, handmade silver jewelry, alpaca hoodies and souvenirs, tourists and Ecuadorian melt into one mass of crazy shoppers. Fun, Fun, Fun!

My eyes brightened up, my hands got sweaty, my heartbeat raced like a technobeat, and my knees trembled, as I was just happy to shoot myself into some bargaining and money spending fun!

Writing and thus thinking back to this very special moment, there still appears a smile on my face.

There wouldn't be enough time on earth for telling you what I bought, so I'll move on to the next day, which included my second favorite hobby... Eating.

After having a small breakfast at our hostel  we got ready to get the best breakfast our tongues will ever taste - el Café de la vaca.

After sitting down and ordering, your table gets filled with one deliciousness after the other. First, wooden plates with a divine hump of cheese for each one of us, followed by huge vases of fresh, selfmade juices, a basket full of fresh bread, croissants and mouthwatering biszcochos, an exquisite homemade "mora"-marmalade and to make an excellent breakfast complete, a steamy casserole of delicate scrambled eggs, refined with tomatoes and herbs, and topped with a layer of baked ham.

And what else is there to do after such a delighting feast than lay down on the grass and enjoy the sun.....

Semana Santa, me gustas tú. 

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New Blog for Gulliver Expeditions

The host of our previous blog, posterous.com, is closing down at the end of this month. So the interns of Gulliver Expeditions were working on a new blog to tell their stories, show their pictures and to share their experiences of Ecuador.

Here it is!

Have fun searching through our blog, enjoy the stories and let the pictures inspire you for your next trip to Ecuador!

Cheers,

the interns

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Three Great Months in Quito!

After 3 months of living and working in Quito I am now off to see more of this fascinating country. Within these three months I have seen a lot of the Ecuadorian highlands! Whether tours with Gulliver to Quilotoa, Cotopaxi, Otavalo or weekend trips with the other interns to Banos, Mindo or Cuenca; it’s been a great adventure filled with fun and many, many laughter. 

written by Monika M

Quilotoa is just a beautiful place and the Cotopaxi bike tour was thrilling and literally breathtaking regarding the altitude of 5000m. Otavalo’s market is worth going to a couple of times..because even though all of them seem to sell almost the same things, they are not..it’s fun to see what they are selling and how they are trying to sell their goods! The market’s colors are amazing..so colourful!

"Banos de Agua Santa" was a great adventure as well..simply the way there was worth being called “an adventure”. Two taxi rides, one bus ride and a minivan ride in the middle of the night where none of us was sure where it was taking us exactly. Mountain biking down the road of the waterfalls and a 3-hour hike along the many trails in the mountains surrounding Banos were part of our trip.

Mindo was not less exciting. A lot of nature to be explored and a fun canopy adventure with the 25 meter “Tarzan” free fall jump as great finish. Great chocolate and beautiful butterflies!

Cuenca is a beautiful colonial city in the southern highlands. Many old churches, museums and little market towns all around Cuenca! Great!

Living in Quito is as well excitement enough! The city is beautiful, especially the historic center. It feels like being in Spain! The Mariscal is the nightlife center of Quito and is fun throughout the week and throughout the night! Riding the bus is as well, let’s say..a cultural experience. In the morning and in the afternoon there is almost no bus that actually has space to fit more people..but it doesn’t seem to matter to the Quitenos. If there is no space, well, then they (and I accustomed to this manner as well) will just make space…with the arms, elbows, the forward facing backpack, a woman’s purse or with the words “permiso” or “siguan por favor”…a bus can therefore never be crowded enough! It seems like the Quitenos love it even more the more people are inside the bus and the hotter and the stinkier it gets! ;-)

Food in Quito is as well great! There are various options..from typical Ecuadorian food to burgers, bakeries or hot dog stands. Some European stomachs may like it, some won’t! But all in all – there is everything you wish for and many, many things to be tried out! 

I had a great time in Quito and with Gulliver and its employees – a fun, entertaining and instructive time!  

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Baños - a fine city.

A short story about my first days in Ecuador...

It all started with the plane landing on Ecuadorian soil in Quito. I arrived at the new airport Mariscal Sucre in Quito and got picked up by two drivers from Gulliver. They both gave me a kiss on my right cheek, and two minutes later I found myself in a van, surrounded by traffic and honking cars, totally exhausted from the long flight.

I arrived at the host family, where I met two other interns and a friend of them. They were sitting on their beds, obviously waiting for me.

We’re going on a tour, they said.

Come with us, they said.

It will be fun, they said.

My face was already asleep, I couldn’t move my legs anymore, had no money at all and I had already realised, that I didn’t understand a word Ecuadorians were saying.

Let’s go, I said.

On our way we picked up another girl, and so, jammed in a way too small taxi, the fellowship was born.

At the bus station we were told there weren’t any busses going directly to Baños, so we had to change the bus somewhere. As I didn’t understand anything at all, I was just following my companions around like an innocent puppy.

We took a bus to some unknown place, which didn’t matter to me, all I wanted was a place to sleep. After what felt like 2 minutes of sleep I woke up, standing somewhere between wild dogs, while the others were discussing something I didn’t understand with a taxi chauffeur. So again, the five of us climbed in a taxi, way too small for us.

And again I woke up, standing somewhere next to a food stand with some individuals and some more dogs. The taxi driver said, there will be a bus anytime soon to Baños, no worries. But the bus didn’t show up.

And again the girls discussed with some taxi drivers. But apparently they all wanted too muchosdolares for the ride to Baños, and some of them looked too groggy to be able to drive. After what felt like 5 hours of waiting, a small minivan drove past and someone screamed “Baños” out of the window. The next I know was, I was finally sitting again and so I slept for another felt 2 minutes. It was only after about 40 minutes of driving, that one of the girls said: “Well, that’s weird… We don’t trust any taxi driver standing there, but when some small minivan drives by, we all jump in without hesitating...” She was right, but I didn’t care, all I wanted was sleep.

The rest of the trip was not as adventurous, but still real fun and a good time.

So, the next morning, after a short night’s rest in a hostel, we were in for some activities. We decided to hire mountain bikes to visit the famous cascadas (waterfalls) of Baños.

The street goes up and down hill, but never really steep. However, as soon as I had to push a little harder into the pedals, I was breathing like a walrus running on land. Obviously, because of the altitude of almost 2000m…

On our way we had some nice activities like waterfall-spotting, hiking and, best of all, tourist-watching (it's fun to watch and hear tourists scream when they race down the canopy line between two brigdes). 

The bike trail runs through beautiful green hills surrounding Baños. It took us about 3 or 4 hours, including tourist spots and lunch. The ride back was easier, though.

The next day was a hiking day. After a good breakfast (delicious pancakes with fruits and dulce de leche, a must-eat!) we set up to hike to el Virgen de Agua Santa. About 600 steps and some brief stops (just for enjoying the view and maybe getting some oxygen into our lungs) later, we soaked in the amazing views over Baños and the surroundings.

After a few sips of water we were heading down a small path into the wild nature of Baños. Going up and down (more up than down, actually) we encountered some downhill bikers, cows and rain. Making the path wet and slippery, the rain was one of the not-so-cool encounters. Nonetheless, after about three or four hours we reached the top of 2,660m where we enjoyed a sip of a cold cerveza and where we swung ourselves into the air.

The rest of the day was spent with some souvenirs shopping, chocolate drinking (a must-do for all chocolate lovers out there!) and strolling around until we took the bus back to Quito.

Long story short, Baños definitely is worth a few days visit!

And yes, they were right to say it will be fun....

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Mindo Lindo - High Adrenaline Chocolate Party

After a rainy week in Quito two friends of mine and I decided to go to Mindo over the weekend.

So on Saturday morning we hopped on the first bus and arrived after 2,5 hours and a flat tire in the warm and sunny Mindo. We immediately started our search for the ultimate adventure and ended up in the small office of one of the numerous tour operators. They introduced us to the various options we had to get "adrenalized". Canyoning, Tubing, Canopy, Waterfalls, ...

It was really hard to decide what crazy thing we should try out first. We agreed on canyoning, 3 waterfalls and an amazing landscape. We were very happy with our decision to book this tour.

Totally wet, exhausted and smiling like idiots we returned to our hotel to get ready for the next part of the "ultimate Mindo-Experience": a Chocolate Tour. That even sounded delicious... and it was! We learned how to make the best cocolate fondue ever from scratch.

The next day we managed to squeeze canopy, jumping from a 12 meter waterfall and tubing on a crazy little river into 7 hours of fun.

After one last delicious "almuerzo" we got on the last bus back to Quito, wishing that weekends would consist of more than just two short days...

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