Each trip we take here in Ecuador we are amazed at the sites we see. Today we took a two hour trip north of Quito crossing the equator to a little place called Mindo. The bus trip took us from Quito down to about 3,000 feet through a spectacular rain forest. Never having been in anything like this before we were both amazed at the dense, lush green forests. There were some in our group who have been to Costa Rico who said that this was not as lush as there but to us it was superb.
We were again on a toll highway which meant there were not pot holes but it wasn't all that wide and it was very winding. I am never going to again panic on our Hope/Princeton or the Salmo/ Creton highways they don't have anything on the roads we have been travelling!!! What gets me is where they pass going about 100 km an hour and a blind corner coming up. I am glad we were sitting in the middle of the bus and we couldn't see the road in front of us.
Baring all that I had to hold my breath at some of the sites, it is just too bad that we couldn't stop to take pictures. I did snap a few pictures driving along from the bus window which will give you an idea of how the fields go up the side of the mountains, I am sue some of the fields must be at at least 75 degree angles. Our first stop was to look out over the valley, enjoy some fantastic orchids and watch a couple of humming birds. Here again I am sad I didn't have the other camera so that we could have taken better pictures. One piece of information as we looked out over the valley we could see this tree in bloom which I can't remember the name of but it is what the sloth eats and why he is so dopey as it is the drug in the leaves that causes his stupor.
Our 2nd stop was into a water fall call The Thunder, it was only 39 metres high but in the lush growth it was an awesome site. We trekked about 15 minutes into the jungle over some pretty unstable bridges to get to it. We encountered a snake on the way in, neither Bob and I moved forward to take up the front of the line. I did take a number of pictures in the area.
Our last stop was in the little town of Mindo which is suppose to be a tourist town. I don't know with all the gravel potted roads it didn't look too touristy to us. We all had pizza which was very good and a nice change. We went to a place that normally has hundreds of hummingbirds but we were not in luck today, there were only a few flying around.
Another hair raising ride home and then we had a few hours before dinner. Since we had to be up at 3:30 am the next morning we influenced Pablo to changing the reservation time to 7:00 as we wanted to be back in time to have some sleep before getting up early. One of our couples was finishing up their trip with us so we went to a 5 star place for dinner. We were all shocked when the bill came for our drinks and after drinks being around $2.00 each my wine for one small glass of wine was $9.00!!! I couldn't believe it I was sure they had mischarged us but no they hadn't. Oh well we know now to ask the price of drinks before we order. I was glad they had mixed my order up as I had ordered a 1/2 bottle- can't imagine what that would have cost.
Off to bed and not much sleep
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