A couple of Days in Mindo

Mindo is only 2 and ½ hours from Quito and I feel it’s a godsend to anyone living in the busy, chaotic and at time’s frustrating capital. Was bliss to sit and not be surrounded by the noise of car alarms, terrible techno music and people trying to sell me avocado’s (however, I do feel my hair is much more shiny for it).  So having to get up at 6am was not the most pleasant, anyone who knows me knows I don’t communicate till at lest 2 coffees have been consumed or 9am, so I just didn’t speak for the first 3 hours. Which was nice for the two guest who came with me, ‘ so Michelle is this the right bus?’ then me to the as always helpful bus driver- ‘ Este bus Mindo?’ See no matter what the language I am not talking till 9am or coffee! Once again sleeping on buses no problem so after a 2 and ½ hour nap we arrive in Mindo at 9.30, I find coffee and the world is restored once again. Then we start on our trek up to the waterfall route, this was truly spectacular walking through the cloud forest listening to nothing but Mother Nature. Finding waterfall after waterfall along the way, the weather improved so much we even enjoyed swimming.

We finished off our day by taking the chocolate tour, there I was expecting willy wonka and a group of umpa lumpa’s….. so it was a bit of a let down to find an old guy from California talking about how he can even make chocolate honey dressing. However, even with the lack of umpa lumpa’s I enjoyed seeing how they still use old school methods to make chocolate.    

Carnival in Ecuador

I made it through Carnival only being water bombed 5 times, you may think that’s a lot but there was some quick manoeuvring on my part on quite a few occasions! Now for those of you have not had the pleasure of being in South America (Being half a foot taller, blonde and basically standing out like a sore thumb) life is very dangerous during Carnival.

Everyday no matter the weather I would have to wear a raincoat with hood up, carry a spare set of clothes, which means carrying a backpack everywhere I go.  A friend told me as a kid he would save up food waste on the lead up to Carnival, once it was adequately decomposed and very smelly he would then make nice little bombs to throw at people! Thank god this did not happen to me, I did see the remains of egg or tomato wars but never got hit by one.

 I did enjoy joining in with this tradition on days when I didn’t have to be somewhere that meant turning up dry and looking non harassed,  other more busy days I am constantly scanning the street for signs of attackers or the trail they had left behind —a clue that a bucket full of water, a neon-colored water gun or balloon was not waiting around the corner for me. As you can tell I am now a nervous wreak… well safe till next year, I hope!  

El Teleferico

Deciding I have been in Quito for long enough and craving the country, fresh air and space, Amy and I head up in the Cable car to Cruz Loma that is the edge of Pichincha. He is the magnificent mountain that gives Quito such a wonderful backdrop. The hike wasn’t that bad but the weather changed quickly once we started up the steep slope so we were unable to climb right to the top. However, here are some photos from our half hike….    

Goooal

Eric and I have been looking to go to a Ecuadorian football match for a while now so we decided to enrol the help of Tom a long term expat here, and he did not fail us. He sent his assistant down to the grounds of Catolica early on Wednesday morning for that afternoons match against Emerlec. Deciding to really get in the swing of things we try to buy knock off Catolica shirts from the little women outside. However, they only have Emerlec ( Guayaquil team) or SD Quito so of course we buy the Quito team. In hind sight we should have checked which side we were sitting in, yes there we were in the guayaquil side in our black shirts surrounded by blue emerlec supporters...... thankfully no one jumped us, so not like a Manu v’s Man city match. The atmosphere was amazing for such a small match everyone had flags, horns and were singing loudly, the type of atmosphere we would have at a world cup final. The main point was everyone was enjoying themselves and there was absolutely no trouble, even though there was a heavy police presence.      

 

After the football and 4 large beers later I decide it’s a good idea to go to Ladies night once again at the famous Bungalow, why do I never learn! Ok so best philosophy ever for a ladies night, get this they only let the girls in between 8-10pm and give them strong free drinks before opening the doors at 10:00 and unleashing what can only be described as crazy animals…… the aftermath is too extreme to be described on here but everyone was a disorganized mess the next morning. Last thing I remember was telling my boss there was not a hope in hell of me getting up for breakfast shift, I think this information was past to him at 3am!