Zip-lining in the cloud forests!

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since we wrote a solid post so here we go....

Last week we had Spanish classes for four hours every afternoon with some local sightseeing during the mornings. In our weekly cooking class (included with our spanish lessons) we made "Locro de papas", which is a traditional Ecuadorian soup with potato, onion, cheese, and avocado - yum!

At the end of the week, we were excited about our pending weekend getaway to the cloud forests of Mindo. We got up REALLY early (5:45am) on Saturday met up with our two friends from school (and their 3 friends) and off we went. By 9:30am we were in Mindo! The town of Mindo itself was nothing spectacular by any stretch (it is pretty much there to serve tourists) but the surroundings were beautiful! You are in the middle of a mountain range covered by semi-tropical forest! Plus it was much warmer than Quito - a pleasant change!

The first thing we did after settling into our hostel was ride in a "taxi" (the back of a pick up) half way up the closest mountain to go Zip-lining (zooming across the jungle canopy harnessed to a wire). The views were fantastic and the zip-lines were by far the longest we had ever done. Two of the 10 zip-lines were longer than half a kilometer! Plus the guides were quite fond of helping you explore new ways to make the crossings (See Shaina upside-down in the pic below and Marsh in the 'butterfly')!

After the zip-lining we went back into town to the local "Casa de chocolate" to try some locally made chocolate. Everyone pigged-out on brownies and ice cream! From there we walked to a hostel with an amazing jungle garden/bird watching area! There were humming birds everywhere and even some toucans high up in the trees!

After taking way too many bird pictures we headed back to our hostel (with the sweetest 8 wk golden retriever puppy!!), regrouped, ate dinner in town and called it a night after a long but fun day. On Sunday morning we got up early (in part due to some pesky roosters) and headed back up the mountain to go on a hike to 5 different waterfalls. To get to the trail head, first we had to cross a big valley in this sketchy old trolley cable way above the canopy. The hike and waterfalls were pretty cool.

We headed back to town, grabbed lunch and had a few hours to kill before our bus went back to Quito at 5. We decided to go to the mariposario (butterfly conservatory) and just beat the rain. There were some crazy butterflies there and another Toucan outside the conservatory!

Then it was back on the bus and back to Quito where we have been learning Spanish every afternoon (as per usual) this week. On Thursday we head for the Galapagos! We're very excited! This will probably be our last post until we return from the Galapagos (July 21-28).

Hope everyone at home is doing well! Looks like you're in a heat wave!

Love Marsh & Shaina