Zip-Trekking in Mindo's Cloud Forest

May 30th 2008

Mindo is about 2 hours NW outside of Quito with floral gardens everywhere that appear quite well maintained. Mindo has a nice feel to it and out first stop was the Butterfly farm.

We were walked through a room equipped with a visual lifecycle of the butterfly from egg to larvae, to caterpillar, to cocoon, to butterfly.

In the next room we were able to walk around the hundreds of contained butterflies. There were 19 species to take pictures of while the fluttered around there flowered sanctuary.

The next event was the orchid garden but unfortunately it is not orchid season. There were hundreds of different types of orchids that would have been astonishing to see in real life (based on the pictures I saw).

On the way out from the farm, we stopped in the Humming bird room to sit back and watch different types of hummingbirds approach the feeders and quickly fly away. To my surprise, it is possible for humming birds to stop flying (maybe I was tricked when I was little or some species actually never stop flying).

The next event was zip-trekking over the valleys of the cloud forests. It was sunny at this point and the rush of being suspended over a valley was only heightened when I performed the "up-side-down trick" with a guide that meant, I was upside down while i zipped across the valley. Yeah, I automatically screamed profanities (the type you scream when you go cliff-jumping). Les was courageous enough to do that one first as I snapped some photos.

The final event for the day was water tubing down the river. The cloud forest weather changes in a blink of the eye and a torrential down pour started just as we were getting in our shorts. We were encouraged that the ride down the river is best just after it rains because the levels increase.

Nevermind, we were going even if it was cold outside. Our 2 guides dropped the 6 inflated tubes (tied together with rope in a flower shape) into the water. We embarked and the water was freezing. A few more screams were let out (the type that occur when someone drops cold water on you when you are not expecting it).

The ride lasted about 15 minutes and the guides would scream out FUERTE when we were meant to hold on tight. This usually meant we were pushed halfway under the water as we dropped from a ledge.

Luckily we were offered hot showers as we changed into our clothes for the trip back to Quito.

Les leaves really early tomorrow morning so we hit the hay after a nice dinner in the city.