Ok….so we told you all about how beautiful and tranquil Mindo was, which is true, but we also had a blast seeking adrenaline rushes there too!
For the modest sum of around $12 each you can climb high into the cloudforest canopy, strap yourself to a bit of wire and throw yourself from one tree to another on HUGE ziplines….13 of them over 3650m of cable! We were fairly sure that at least Melody would be too small to participate (dumb western thinking again). No…this is Ecuador…anything goes!
The girls were fearless as usual, happily throwing themselves off very high ledges (around 500ft at times) and speeding headfirst towards the trees and platforms at the other end, whilst Amanda stood quaking and offering to go last. John, in super hero mode (again!), obviously had to try zip lining headfirst and upside down too. He escaped without injury, further supporting his ‘immortality theory’. We all had a great morning, and being with the Goodins meant that we all had lots of motivation and teasing from the sidelines too…a team event!
(We’ve got to admit, at this point in the journey we are becoming almost concerned at Naomi and Melody’s lack of fear. Surely it’s not completely a good thing? We’ve created small adrenaline junkies and need to find them an outlet for this when we return to the UK!)
We have some fab videos from the ziplining but we can’t upload them at the moment. Here’s some photos though:
The truck ride up to the canopies
'Gringo Man' the travelling super hero
Team Firth/ Goodin!
John soaring away
The girls flying (with a guide) down the fastest line....dangerous (in retrospect!)
El Nomo The Fearless
Amanda completely terrified
Melody preparing for take off
…and then the next day…
The Terabita, an engineering miracle (in everyway!). To access some walking trails at the other side of the forest you must take a cable car over a 500m deep gorge. Ok, that doesn’t sound too bad does it? What if I tell you it’s an open carriage on a line driven by an old car engine? There’s no escape exit if it breaks down either! It was so ‘Ecuadorian’ that we had to laugh…and try it out. We survived the journey there and took a hike to a waterfall before braving the journey back – a fun morning.
We took photos of this engineering miracle just for our fathers!
The highly trained operator and his rigidly tested, high spec equipment!
Do you dare? We do!
Don't look down!
The Goodins
Random funky lizard eating lunch
So there you go…the fabulous Mindo. We loved it here and would return tomorrow given the chance.
