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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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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