Mindo - Falling in Love All Over Again

Javier and I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Mindo.  We had gone just the two of us on our first overnight trip out of Quito last year, but we also took the Bottoms and Dave and Alex for a quick day trip when they came to visit.  While all of our visits have been fun-filled and adventurous, I think the hurried pace of our last two day trips clouded the tranquility and beauty of the small town in my mind a bit.  This past week reminded me how much Mindo has to offer in not only adventurous activities, but quiet and natural wonder.

This is the Dragonfly where we stayed for the weekend.  It's an adorable B&B right on the river.  Ours was the middle balcony you see on the second floor which was great.  We've heard that the attic can be hot and front rooms a bit noisy, but we definitely enjoyed and would recommend the inn.  The restaurant also serves lunch and dinner and smelled delicious each time we were in and out.  We will definitely have another meal here the next time we are in Mindo.

Cleaning potatoes

We hopped in the car right after school Thursday afternoon (having Friday off for Guayaquil Day) to arrive in Mindo for dinner.  We spent our evening at a new restaurant: Taco Loco, watching the Ecuador v. Argentina (at Argentina) World Cup qualifier.  We were pleasantly surprised to start our fun weekend off with a WIN by Ecuador 2-0!

We had planned to hike to the large waterfall that we had never been to in person but learned Friday morning that the tarabita was temporarily closed, making a hike to the waterfall impossible.  So instead we ventured to the trail behind the Yellow House which had also been recommended.  We started our hike up the road to the trail and found these cows hanging out with what appeared to me to be egrets.  I wonder what the symbiotic relationship is here?

along the road we also found some baby cows

We were on a bit of a mission to find some monkeys and/or the Andean bear as both had been seen recently along the trails.  I'll end the suspense and tell you that we were not successful regarding the monkeys or bear, but we did see some pretty awesome flora along the way.  Doesn't this leaf look like it's having its nails painted?

interesting fruit? hanging from a tree (looked like little green bell peppers to me)

look good (Javier and I agreed that we'd swiftly poison ourselves on good looking fruit like this if we were forced to survive in the jungle on our own....)

braided branch

On one trail we had a gorgeous view of Mindo in the valley below

Cabezas and far away Mindo

huge (and random) patch of these gorgeous orange flowers

hard to see in my photo, but these were bright red bunches hanging from this (what we thought was a) palm tree

my attempt to capture the cool vines that hang down from so many trees

we were looking for the native orchids that pepper the Ecuadorian landscape...not sure if these are they, but very pretty

jungle flowers

white butterflies hiding under leaves (butterflies were everywhere!!)

Javier and I thought this guy reminded us of the Birds of Paradise guy

After our hike we went back into town and grabbed a pizza to go to eat at El Descanso.  We took both the Bottoms and Dave and Alex here on their visit.  The hostel includes a big back deck that looks out on many bird feeders.  The hostel is known by bird watchers and has become a favorite spot to lunch for the Cabezas.  It once again did not disappoint. 

We actually stayed watching the hummingbirds and finches (hoping for a toucan sighting) for a few hours.  Then napped and went to dinner with some friends that were also spending the weekend in Mindo.  We had an early night in preparation for our early morning; we had scheduled a bird guide to take us to see the famous Cock of the Rock at sunrise the next morning.

We drove about 25 minutes outside of Mindo to this little perch to look for the Cock of the Rock.  (Javier joked as we huddled under the shelter...'two of these things are not like the other...' as we brought the average age of the bird watching crowd down pretty significantly).  We were also the most ill-prepared and were happy to be paying our guide handsomely after she supplied us with fine binoculars and an awesome telescope we could use to watch and take pictures.

The Cock of the Rock was pretty cool.  I was expecting more of a mating dance, but mostly they flew around and squawked at each other.  Mostly, I was impressed with their bright red color and totally rad hairdo.

Unfortunately for me, I was suffering from some tummy trouble and needed to return to bed after our Cock of the Rock sighting.  We had booked our guide Julia for the morning, so I convinced Javier to press on and take some cool bird pictures for me to view later.

and he accomplished my request completely, seeing and documenting multiple toucans

including this green guy that I mistook for a leaf earlier

this guy is nocturnal and hiding a newly hatched chick (you can see the egg shell still sitting in front)

all Javier's pics were taken using Julia's awesome telescope!

Here she is notifying a fellow bird watcher of the next bird pictured 

This is a male trogon.

After Javier returned and we enjoyed breakfast (I was feeling better after several more hours of sleep), we headed to El Quetzal for a chocolate tour.  While we had patroned the chocolate shop for their famous brownies and cocktails, we had yet to take the actual tour.  It seemed like the perfect addition to our little visit to town this weekend.

cacao beans still covered in the white mucus found inside the cacao pod

raw cacao  

beans are kept warm while they drain/dry out

cacao beans being dried around the back of the chocolate shop

dried cacao lined up on the back patio of the shop

The tour was quite interesting and ended with some tastings (my fav part).  The paste on the right is pure cacao and very bitter without sugar.  We tried it in combination with different spices and honeys before enjoying our brownie!!

It was a truly lovely weekend filled with the finest Mindo has to offer.  It put the little town back on my top list of Ecuadorian spots to visit.  I told Javier as we were leaving that I couldn't stand for this to be our list time seeing it, so I know we'll return before we head out of Ecuador.  It was a great first getaway to start the year.