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Our next stop was Mindo in the cloud forest, an apt name which perfectly describes the area. On the drive down from Quito airport, we passed the area that was burned in a fire that we witnessed two years ago. The road from Quito to Mindo is 120km long and a very narrow and windy road with numerous landslides and road damage. It was kind of scary! Thank God, it wasn't raining that day!
We checked out possible places to stay once we arrived in Mindo and decided on the Menyang Hostel where we could park and plug in for $5 per night. We stayed for four nights to explore the area and did a five hour walk at the Hacienda San Vicente on the next day. We'd wanted to set off early but it was raining, which it does a lot in the cloud forest. It was 10-30am by the time we could set off and paid $6 entrance fee each to walk along privately owned trails on the other side of the town.
We had to wait under a roof at the start because it was raining again but then we had 3 hours of dry weather so we could walk along four trails. We saw an agouti right at the start and quite a few toucans. We also went up to a viewpoint above Mindo on trail 3. Unfortunately it started raining so we put on our ponchos to do the fourth trail. The rain was quite heavy and the paths got more and more slippery. Of course that meant I went arse over tea kettle but at least there was a toilet and sink on the trail so I could wash off the mud when the rain stopped.
We had to sit out the following day because it just didn't stop raining but the next day we went on a waterfall walk. We walked into town and managed to get a taxi to take us up to the Tarabita - a cable car, that was just a yellow cage, across the forested valley which cost $10 for the two of us. On the other side we went for a 3 hour walk to see 5 different waterfalls. The trail was sometimes wet and muddy and the first part had been taken out by a landslide 3 days ago. They were busy creating a new path. The landslide had disturbed the earth and we spotted a very fat grub or earth worm that we wouldn't have normally seen. We really enjoyed the walk and the waterfalls. We saw lots of insects and a toucan and I nearly trod on a bright green gecko as it raced across the path. I must have frightened it because it just stopped and posed for lots of photos and videos!!
We got the Tarabita back and then walked 200 metres to get onto a chair lift which cost $10 for the two of us. Wow, that was a thrill ride!! We were even higher above the forest and Kirsten was really uneasy, especially when it just stopped and we were left dangling with a drop of at least 60 metres down to the forest below!! I told her to look straight ahead and tried to take her mind off her fear of heights. Fortunately it was only a few minutes and we set off again. We managed to get safely down to the bottom and then walked 3 km in the drizzle, back to the town. We had planned to go for falafels at a restaurant but it was closed. So we picked up some empanadas and a custard filled donut instead!
It was a super day and well worth the $20 for the cable car and chair lift but we hadn't finished yet ... we booked a night tour online for that evening! We were picked up at 7pm at our hostel and then picked up 4 others, all women. Heather and Kate with their guide Amanda, and Nairovis. We were driven back up towards the Tarabita and were dropped off at Eric's house. He's Canadian but has been living in Mindo for the last four years. He took us on a super 2 hour tour around his property for $15 per person.
We saw a Motmot, which are quite rare, bats, a large mouse, lots of tiny frogs and a scorpion. For the latter, Eric got out what he called a black light so we could see it illuminated because otherwise it is brown and can't be seen in the dark. With the black light it was green!! We saw lots of insects, caterpillars and woolly caterpillars. Another fantastic tour that we thoroughly enjoyed and had fun with the others on the tour. We swapped emails with them and were driven back home.
The next day we had a lot to clean up - for example muddy boots and sticks. Then we packed up to leave. We got our transformer and electric cable and then were told by the manager that we had to pay extra for the electricity - the owner wanted $15 per night!! We had agreed $5 per night at the start and refused to pay extra. They can't treble the price as we're about to leave!! The discussion took a while and in the end we gave the manager a small tip because it wasn't his fault that the owner was leaving him to do the dirty work!
Such a pity that our super time in Mindo was marred right at the end. It left a bitter taste in our mouth as we left and headed north east for the coast.
