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Just 2 hours out of the big city of Quito lies Mindo, the Cloud Forest and one of the most beautiful places I have ever come across, both the place and the people!
We arrived at about 17.00 with no map and no clue where Rubby Hostel was and so came the attepmted spanish once again, Henrry from the Tourist Information drew us a detailed map that led us right to the front door of Norma and Marcello the lovely owners of Runny Hostel, named after their first and only daughter.
We settled in to the hammocks on the verander to watch the humming birds come to feed off the sugar water - a beautiful sight to witness and highly relaxing!
Went to bed early doors and woke up to the cockrel at about 5am that continued until you are forced to get up and go down for a hearty breakfast cooked fresh by Norma... Fruit, juice, choice of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, eggs and toast! Awesome and set us up for an adventurous day in the cloud rainforest!
First up was the Taravita, a basket on a steel cable 500+m in the air and ovet the forest! It would have been a wonderful view if I wasn´t holding on for dear life!! JOhn Henry was in charge of photo taking - I apologise if they´re not very good :)
The scary journey was worth it when we arrived at the Cascadas, waterfalls! A bit gutted we couldn´t go swimming, the rain the night before had made it too dangerous but even so it was great and we did get to paddle!
Taravita back. Long walk down to Canopy Adventure! Zip lines from one platform to another all varying in length and height!! Up to 500m!! AWESOME!!! We were even offered to do tricks - the superman and the mariposa (the butterfly) and you´ll be delighted to know i did both!! ahhhhh! The superman was like you were flying forward and the butterfly was upside down whilst you went across the canopy! SO so scary but the one of the most fun experiences EVER!!!
Lots of chilling in the hammocks later and watching Arsenal get beat by Barca... We went bird watching... at 6am for 5 hours! Worth it. Another yummy breakfast sent us on our way with Marcelo. We saw lots of beautiful birds but I can´t remember them all, the ones I do remember are.. The Toucan (which i spotted... woo), roadside hawk, wood pecker, humming birds, female c*** of the rock (very rare)! You´ll see pics soon on facebook!
So tired after all that walking we went for lunch then headed to the street side bar that was showing the UTD match. Lets not talk about it.
Overall, Mindo was amazing and I would love to go back one day and see Norma and Marcelos new cabins! Only been away a week but can safely say it will be one of the highlights!
Oh and i´ll finish the quito blog in a few days!!
PICTURES ON FACEBOOK!
Love you all!!! xxxxxxxxxx again pictures failed to upload but will sort out asap. xxx
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