Mindo cloud forest

Hi friends!

This post is overdue, but I wanted to write about the weekend Amy and I spent in Mindo (two weekends ago) with three other students from the program. Mindo is a small town located in the “cloud forest” region of Ecuador. A cloud forest is a tropical evergreen forest where the clouds literally hover and float at ground level. It is a disappearing habitat, and it is beautiful.

After a two-hour bus ride winding through the mountains and down into a valley, we arrived in Mindo. I was immediately struck by the incredible flora – it looks like a temperate jungle, where the trees have huge leaves and vines and mosses are abundant. After a filling and very cheap lunch, we set out into the forest with a local guide, hiking across rocks and small rivers, uphill to the top of a waterfall. We learned the word for mud ("lodo"), which was slippery and thick in spite of this being the middle of the dry season. At the peak of the waterfall, our guide launched into a long set of instructions in Spanish, during which my anxiety and anticipation grew exponentially. We all strapped in to our harnesses – which, amusingly, were bright red with the word “mammut” and a picture of the corresponding animal printed squarely on the butt (see attached photo of Amy´s arse) – and then took turns repelling 80 meters down the waterfall to the river below. It was terrifying, exciting, cold, and magnificent. Amy was a rockstar hopping down the rocks, and I - while not quite so graceful or daring - made it down in one happy piece.

On Sunday morning, we got up at 4:30, piled into a pickup truck, and drove 20 minutes out of town to hike up another hill in the dark. By the time the sun rose, we were waiting in a little lean-to for the "gaillo de la pena," the "cock of the rock." This rare bird performs an intricate mating ritual every morning, in which the males court females by calling out, bobbing their heads, and spreading their wings. Their squawking was unique and charming, and their heads were the most brilliant red. We could hear them even before the sun came up, but over the hour or two we were watching there was a lot more waiting than seeing birds; which for me was part of the fun – anticipating the payoff when you finally catch a glimpse of such a beautiful bird.

Later that day, after a hearty breakfast, a short but necessary nap, and a very hot shower (a luxury we have experienced but few times during our month in Ecuador) I visited the butterfly farm while Amy and the other gals checked out the coffee plantation and the chocolate shop. I always enjoy the chance to wander through a place on my own, and the garden was a perfect end to my weekend. I saw caterpillars, cocoons, and countless species of butterflies, as well as the establishment´s orchid garden. My self-guided tour concluded with fifteen minutes of lounging in a brightly colored woven hammock overlooking a row of hummingbird feeders which were visited by one exquisite bird after another.

If my descriptions sound a bit over-idealized, it is because this place truly felt like paradise to me. It was hard to leave it behind, but made us excited for the upcoming visit to the Amazon rainforest… More to come!