Mindo Trip

So we made it back from Mindo last night. Here's a link to some pictures.. click on Mindo trip.

http://s1185.photobucket.com/albums/z347/cooperky/

The trip was amazing. I did and saw more things in two days that I ever thought I would see or do in a lifetime. The trip started a little rough. Me and Meghan took a taxi together to meet the other two girls at the bus station since she lives right down the road from me. But the taxi driver took us to the wrong bus station. We were looking and calling Katy and walked around the entire station before figuring out there was no way we were at the same station as the other girls. We figured this out about 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave. So we jumped on another taxi and headed to the correct station. Luckily, Katy was able to hold off the bus leaving for about ten minutes.. and we got there just as the guard was yelling at the bus driver to leave because it was already late. But we made it! The bus is like a greyhound and it was pretty empty which was nice. The ride was crazy though! Once you get out of Quito and into the mountains you are never going straight or on a level road for more than 100 feet probably. Its constantly winding back and forth up and down with mountains on one side and huge valleys on the other. And the bus driver tries to make really good time so he's on the gas and then riding the air brakes down hills and around corners. To make it crazier, we pass cars, trucks, other buses, and anything thats in the way pretty much. They pass around blind corners and going up and down hill and into oncoming traffic.. once it was a cop. Theres a video on the link to pictures of some of the ride but it doesnt really do it justice. If you get motion sickeness easily you wouldnt last more than a few minutes on the bus. But we got there Tuesday at about 1130.. we found out later that the other guy (Peter, who's also student teaching at the school)that was supposed to be on our bus ended up missing it because he got rear ended in the taxi cab on the way to the station and also got brought to the wrong station. The town of Mindo is tiny.. there is one main paved road and thats it.. the rest are some gravel roads going from it. But there is a lot to do there... its a town that Quito people go to on vacation. When we got there the town was dead but by the time we left it was crazy busy because Tuesday and Wendesday were Ecuadorian Holidays and then everyone has the rest of the week off so Thursday everyone was coming into the town and it was a lot more busy. We got some pizza Tuesday afternoon which was really good and then we went ziplining. We did ten lines and you hike a little bit between each line. There are two guides that go with you that hook you up. The views were awesome! Your going across huge valleys sometimes hundreds of meters below you. One time the guide hook me up to him.. and I flew like superman the whole way across the line.. so basically I was facing down towards the ground across the entire line.. it was crazy but really cool.. I dont have the picture of it but hopefully I will soon. After ziplining we went back to the hostal which was really nice and ate some dinner and just hung out there the rest of the night. Wednesday was really busy.. we waited for Peter to get there because he finally caught the bus and got to Mindo at about 11. Then we took a 25 minute truck ride up into the mountains on some really bad roads to a really long cable stretching across a huge valley.. I dont know how they got it from one end to the other but it was a really long distance. So we packed into this little car hooked up to the cable and two cables below the car that go to a small motor that a guy operates and it makes a pulley turn so the car goes away from the starting spot and towards the ending platform across the valley. It moves pretty fast and it still took about 2 mintues to get across the valley because its so long and deep. The views below were crazy.. we were so high above the valley floor and surrounded by mountains. Once you get to the other side you have to hike down to the waterfalls. Once you get to the first one you hike uphill to the following 5. The hiking was really cool because your going on a tiny trail through the jungle. It took a while to get to each one and it was pretty tiring towards the end. The waterfalls were all pretty big. One was probably 60 feet tall and we went in the water near it. Once your in the water your surrounded by rock and jungle.. it was amazing. On the third one, which was only maybe 30 feet high we swam right under the water. The water was pretty cold and with so much cold water hitting you it literally takes your breathe away. We only made it to four waterfalls because we had to get back to the cable car and back to our hostal  before 4 to get to the chololate factory tour. Hiking through mountains was a lot of work and you could tell the altitude made it harder to breathe but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We got back and went a chocolate factory just outside of town. They showed us how they make the different types of chocolate and their plantation. We ate chocolate straight from the bean and he peeled open a fresh lemon from one of their trees which was really good and sour. At the end they gave us a free brownie and let us try the different chocolate sauces they make. After the tour we walked to a small lagoon further outside of Mindo for the frog concert. There is this pond with hostals and a restaurant around it deep in the jungle that a guy pretty much made for frogs and other insects to live because their habitat was getting destroyed. We ate dinner at the restaurant which overlooks the pond and then at 630 the guys talks for a little bit and all you here is different types of frogs croaking. After he talks we followed a guide through all the trails with a flashlight and he points out different types of frogs, spiders, and other insects to everyone. Some of them were posinous but they never got to close. It was all really cool but we couldnt take pictures because the flash would scare them away. He also showed us pieces of old dead wood that bacteria live in and they make proteins that illuminate the sticks so at night in the dark they are glow in the dark basically. They were actually really bright and really weird to see laying on the ground. Thursday we went in the morning to this butterfly garden where there are hundreds of butterflies flying around you. You can put some mashed up bananas on your finger and they will eat right from your hand. We also saw one coming out of its cacoon.. theres a video of it on the link. We left Thursday at 330 on a bus that was packed. People had to stand in the aisleway because all the seats were taken. It was a long ride back! To add to the crammed bus and winding roads it was pretty cold and rainy so we were literally driving through clouds most of the way back. Sometimes you couldnt see the trees in the valley because it was so thick. I was really glad to get off the bus and get back home! Last night everyone was pretty tired so I just went with my family to get something to eat. We got some burgers and fries at a little shop alongside the road. It was actually pretty good.. my host brother, JuanFrancisco, said that he usually only eats there after going to the bars.. I think that my real brother would probably agree ;)
We went back to eat with the brother, the mom, the daughter, and their cousin who comes over a lot. The dad is at the beach for the holiday and the middle brother is in Brazil. They are a pretty typical family and very laid back.. more than I thought they were at first. The older brother and dad pick on the daughter and the mom sticks up for the daughter. The two boys like to pick on the dad and vice-versa. They drop the F word in front of the parents sometimes.. even the daughter. They spend a lot of time with each other. Several times they will all hang out in the parents room and be on their laptops or watching TV. If I come in from somewhere the mom or oldest brother always will stop what their doing to talk to me.. so they are really nice. Last night we talked about how JuanFrancisco was at a concert and ate some "Magic Brownies" not on purpose but was freaking out from the weed they had in them.. it was really funny. He wanted me to go out  with him last night but I was dead tired.. and he said today that he stayed out until 4am. Today I have to do some things for school. Tomorrow we might go to a town that has a huge open fresh market but I'm not sure yet.