Mindo, que lindo!

On Saturday, June 10, I went with a group of college students from HCJB on an excursion to Mindo - a small touristy town on the western slopes of the mountains, about 2 hours from Quito. Mindo is located in what is called the cloud forest. These types of forests exist here in Ecuador at higher elevations, they trap alot of moisture, and help create clouds - hence their name. These clouds cause the forest to often be drenched in a fine mist which allows for some pretty amazing flora and fauna. The vegetation is very lush and dense, and appears to be a mixture of all sorts. Butterflies, hummingbirds, orchids, and ferns are very common sites in the cloud forests. Also present, but more rare, are the woolly tapir, the Andean spectacled bear, the puma, and various tropical birds like parrots or toucans. We didn't see any of these larger, rarer animals, but we did we see plenty of butterflies, hummingbirds, and flowers.

Our first stop was a butterfly farm where they raise over 20 types of butterflies. They have everything from newly hatched caterpillars (as small as the tip of a pen), to huge caterpillars (as big as the space bar on your keyboard), cocoons of all shapes and sizes and stages, and of course hundreds of flying butterflies. It was all extremely fascinating and incredibly beautiful. The cocoons amazed me the most. The diversity, intricacy, and colors of them all were unbelievable. The largest of them looked exactly like dead, brown, dry, hanging leaves - perfectly camouflaged. Others were bright green and perfectly shaped like a hanging flower bud. Others sat on the leaves and looked just like a bird dropping. All of these appearances were in the hope of deterring birds and other predators from making an easy meal out of the defenseless cocoons. But the most fascinating of all, were the cocoons that appeared to be metallic. They had the exact appearance of polished, shiny metal and looked like jewels or earrings hanging from the leaves. We were even fortunate enough to actually watch one of the green cocoons hatch, and see a newly transformed butterfly emerge. The butterflies were just as diverse. Some were as big as your hand, with a rather plain brown coloration on the outer surface of their wings. But when they flew and opened their wings, the inner surface shone with a dazzling deeply irridescent aqua blue color. Other butterflies were smaller, and even more brightly colored. Some had yellow and black stripes like a tiger. Others were black and orange. Some had tails hanging off their wings. Some had large round spots on the their wings to mimic the appearance of eyes. It was an amazing display of colors, shapes, and sizes that provided a powerful statement about the creativity and nature of the Creator.

Our next activity after the butterfly farm was a hike into the forest towards a remote waterfall. After about 45 minutes hiking up a rough dirt road, we reached the edge of a huge, steep valley that dropped several hundred feet below us. Across this valley, high above the trees, is strung a cable with a raggedy, run-down, old looking...uhh...i'm not really sure what you would call it. Some might say a "gondola", others would disagree saying that a "gondola" is a type of boat found in the channels of Venice, and prefer instead to call it a "sky tram" (Ver Heul, I believe we had this discussion on the sky lifts in Colorado, no?). I'll just call it a rusty, old, sketchy, four seat poor excuse for a bucket on a wire across the great abyss of forest. Whatever you call it, it costs $3 per person to ride it - and you must if you want to reach the waterfalls, because bush-whacking down and back up the valley to the other side is out of the question due to the extreme angle of the slope and dense undergrowth. But to me, being the heights-seeker that I am, it was great and well worth the money. That thing flew - faster than you would really expect. It was kind of like riding the zipline at Eagle Lake, except you weren't strapped in to anything. But, in spite of the trepidations of many of the students, we all made it safely across to the other side. After a 10 minute hike we were at the waterfall, called Cascada Nambillo.

Oh!, but first things first. On the hike, as we neared the waterfall, we encountered a vine. Yes, a real-life Tarzan vine hanging from the trees of the forest! Not a rope that someone had put up - a real vine. So of course, I had to swing from it...


Ok, the waterfall. It was a bit disappointing due to the number of tourists there, but nonetheless, very beautiful. There was a ledge on the side of the bank from which you could jump into the water below. Of course I took the plunge. It was an invigorating 30 foot drop into water that was pretty chilly. It was great! How often do you get to go cliff jumping into a remote river in the Ecuadorian forest? It certainly was a first for me. After making my second jump, we dried off and hiked back to the town (this included another trip across the abyss in the aforementioned rusty bucket on a wire).

For lunch we ate at this beautiful little restaurant out in the forest. It had an authentic thatch roof and no walls. All around the sides were hung hummingbird feeders in order to attract the numerous different species in the area. It started to rain just as we arrived, which made the ambience even more spectacular. As we dined, dry under the thatch roof above us, multiple colorful hummingbirds hovered nearby, and the rain poured through the forest. It's hard to describe the feeling of having a wonderful and tasty warm meal, in the rainforest, with hummingbirds all around, after a long day of hiking and swimming in remote forest rivers. I'll just say that it is pretty nice. Due to the rain, we decided to skip the orchid farm that we were planning on visiting in the afternoon and instead, return to Quito for the day. All in all, the trip to Mindo was the best day that I have had here in Ecuador thus far. It was great to get out of the noise, pollution, and crowds of the city, and actually get to play in some real forests and see some beautiful animals.