Mindo

Went on another two-day trip this weekend, this time to Mindo with the school. We left almost on time for once, only twenty-five minutes after scheduled departure, and arrived in Mindo two hours later. The hotel was pretty, actually made up of a bunch of separate buildings connected by paths and separated by trees. Our guide told us to put our stuff in our rooms and meet back in the center dressed in clothes that could get wet.

Our room:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1910.jpg

View from the balcony:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1911.jpg

More balcony view:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1912.jpg

Liz and I had heard a rumor that we were going white-water rafting, and we weren’t sure we wanted to go. I nearly begged off, given my unfortunate history with water, but we decided to at least put on our bathing suits and see where they were taking us. We met with the rest of the group and climbed back onto the bus. It was only a ten-minute drive to the edge of a river, where there was a small rocky beach and a truck full of black inner tubes. The tubes were roped together seven at a time into large rafts, and we were given life jackets and helmets and told how to properly sit and hold onto the rafts.

Each raft had two guides with it to steer. I didn’t bring my camera because I didn’t want to get it wet, but Morgan took some pictures that hopefully she’ll email to me, and I can post them later. The river was white water, all right, full of large rocks and “holes” and little waterfalls. The water was freezing cold, but I had had the sense to put jeans and a t-shirt over my bathing suit, so I wasn’t miserable. In fact, it was pretty damn fun. I felt like the raft was going to tip over a couple of times, but it didn’t, and when we arrived at the end point, we were all disappointed that the trip was so short.

Liz with a raft:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1946.jpg

Lunch was in the hotel restaurant; I don’t remember exactly what we ate, but everything they served us there was comida típica, which we’re all starting to get a little tired of. In the afternoon we went on a short hike to the mariposaria, or butterfly aviary. That was where I took the most pictures. The butterflies were neat (although unfortunately the only Blue Morphos we saw were dead!), and there was a huge spider that was probably the most picture-worthy of all.

Hotel dining room:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1915.jpg

Butterflies:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1917.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1919.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1920.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1921.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1923.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1924.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1925.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1927.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1929.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1930.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1931.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1932.jpg

Flowers and plants:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1926.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1935.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1937.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1938.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1939.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1940.jpg

Spider:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1934.jpg

Mariposaria:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1941.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1943.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1933.jpg

After the hike, we were looking forward to a rest, but instead they took us on the bus into the town of Mindo proper, and told us we had an hour and a half to wander. I don’t know what they expected us to do for that long, because Mindo is a tiny town, but they told us that if we wanted to, we were free to come back to the bus early and sit inside. Ali and Liz and I wandered around town for about forty-five minutes, then decided to return to the bus. When we got there, though, the driver was nowhere in sight, and the bus was closed. Ali tried to climb in through an open window, but didn’t quite make it, so we wandered off again. Liz bought a soda, and the three of us sat on a bench and waited.

Sign in the marketplace:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1944.jpg
(Translation: “We pierce ears, nosez, navels, painless and free.” Yeah, sure.)

Statue in the park:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1949.jpg

While we were parked there, Ali suddenly had another idea for how she might climb into the bus. Back we went, and this time she managed to get all the way up and into the open window. Then she opened the door and let us in, and closed it again. We sat in the dark in the back of the bus until the driver showed up again, and then we crouched down and hid. I’m not honestly sure why we hid, but we waited until more people came on the bus before sitting up again, and I don’t think the driver ever noticed that we broke into his bus. We could even have stolen it, as he had left the keys inside…but none of us had driven such a large bus before, so we contented ourselves with just breaking and entering.

Ali climbing the bus:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1955.jpg

Ali successfully in the bus!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1956.jpg

We crashed early after dinner, and the three of us decided to skip the hike the next morning. Our guide told us it was two hours to the top, a quick swim in a waterfall, and an hour back down. So we got up in time to eat breakfast with everyone else, and then spent the morning lounging by the pool, reading and sunning ourselves, and agreeing that that was a much better alternative to an exhausting hike. I read through another large chunk of the question pool in my geek book over the weekend, and I’m doing really well. I can’t wait to take my license test when I get back to the States.

The drive back to Quito after lunch was dreary, rainy, and uneventful. I was in bus coma the entire time, just sitting and listening to music and looking around, not talking to anybody and not sleeping. For quite a while, Liz and I were the only ones awake aside from the driver, which was fine with me. People started waking up again once we hit Pichinca province, and we got back to the school about six o’clock.

Spectacular storm clouds in Quito this afternoon:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1958.jpg