Have you ever been somewhere so beautiful that it almost makes you ache inside? For us, Mindo is that place. Only 2.5 hours from Quito but such a startling contrast in every way.
The town (more like hamlet) of Mindo is set in the lush cloudforest. It’s kind of a sleepy place, only really coming to life on a weekend when visitors flock from Mindo. Meaning that during the week it is lovely and quiet, and at the weekend it is more lively and vibrant.
We stayed in lovely accommodation and couldn’t have asked for better hosts. Susan, the owner was originally from Chicago and made our day by providing brownies an ice cream on arrival!
On arrival we bumped into another travelling family staying at the same hotel – what a bonus and only the second other travelling family that we have encountered. The Goodins are from Washington DC and are over half way through their year long RTW trip. Naomi and Melody had great fun playing with Anna, almost the same age as Naomi. Jack (14 years old) and his love of music meant that John also had an extra partner in crime some of the time!
We enjoyed countless walks through the completely safe cloudforest. Someone described it as ‘like the jungle, only nothing here wants to eat you’ – I think that’s a pretty accurate description. We saw countless colourful birds in the trees. Naomi was in awe, it really surprised us how much of an interest she took. The bugs were pretty awesome too, although thankfully, no more huge spiders (that we saw anyway). We also didn’t see any snakes although there are plenty in the area. Snakes don’t particularly want to be purposefully near humans, thank goodness.
The butterflies were amazing and we saw plenty both in the wild and also at the local mariposario (butterfly house). Butterflies are bred here for study, conservation and tourism. Twenty percent of all the butterflies hatched are released back into the cloudforest. Melody particularly enjoyed getting friendly with a little red butterfly. The link will take you to a little video of her and her friend. (We’re having big problems embedding and uploading to the blog at the moment).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unaLVnUpEmM
Hi
The photos from Mindo are gorgeous, you all look so well, happy and relaxed. Now I know what I should be doing! You are going to write a book when you get back, it would be so interesting to re read your whole adventure in one go.
Really enjoying the blogs. Take care. Gill xxx