We were originally scheduled to spend Day 10 and 11 in Cotopaxi, but after a group vote we decided to go to Mindo instead where it would be warmer and we could do the zip lines. We left Otavalo early because we planned to take a ride on the teleferiqo and go to the middle of the world monument in route to Mindo.
We arrived to the edge of Quito about 10:45 where we were going to ride the Teleferiqo, but by the time we got to the end of the line we saw that it was going to take several hours to go through the line AND at 11pm they had to turn off the electricity and were going to be powered by a generator so instead of taking 25 minutes to get to the top it would take 45. We opted to wait and try to arrive earlier on our way from Mindo to Quito.
We arrived to the middle of the world (standing on the Ecuador) about lunch time. We saw the monument, which was actually pretty lame, but hey can you be at the middle of the world and not go take the Corney picture where one foot is on one side and one is on the other? So yes we did that! After our photo shoot we had lunch and went to the local museum, but we cut it short when we saw that is was about to start pouring.
We loaded back into the car and continued on to Mindo. The drive from Quito to Mindo was VERY windy, the roads were decent, but lots of curves as we were circling up a mountain. We arrived to Mindo about 5:30 to see our $6 per person accommodations. It was actually a really neat place, it kinda reminded me of the tree house in Swiss Family Robinson. We all had our own room and a hot shower. The facility was not completed so there was plenty of opportunity for bugs, mesquito's, etc. to crawl into your bed and sleep with you, but we didn't have any problems. Luckily this was at an altitude where we didn't have to worry about the Malaria mosquito's.
The next morning we started with a butterfly exhibit. We saw 28+ different kinds of butterfly species and Blythe thought they were very pretty. Yes she tried to tug at their wings, but we did our best to make sure they all stayed in tact.
Next stop was the zip lines! We went to 2 waves, boys then girls. The course consisted of 13 zip lines and would take about an hour and a half. Blythe wasn't quite old enough for the zip lines so us girls played with Blythe while the boys went and then we switched. I thought it might be a little intimidating being so high up on zip lines that I am sure are not inspected with scrutiny like they would be in the US, but I actually never thought twice about it. The zip lines were a lot of fun, but after 13 times the harness started rubbing and you were pretty much satisfied. Did I mentioned that you got 13 zip lines for only $10 a person...WOW..yes things in Ecuador were much cheaper than in the US.
After the zip lines we headed to lunch and on to our last stop. Our last stop was a hike in the cloud forest and bird watching. We didn't end up seeing very many birds, but we did see a good variety of humming birds.
We arrived to the edge of Quito about 10:45 where we were going to ride the Teleferiqo, but by the time we got to the end of the line we saw that it was going to take several hours to go through the line AND at 11pm they had to turn off the electricity and were going to be powered by a generator so instead of taking 25 minutes to get to the top it would take 45. We opted to wait and try to arrive earlier on our way from Mindo to Quito.
We arrived to the middle of the world (standing on the Ecuador) about lunch time. We saw the monument, which was actually pretty lame, but hey can you be at the middle of the world and not go take the Corney picture where one foot is on one side and one is on the other? So yes we did that! After our photo shoot we had lunch and went to the local museum, but we cut it short when we saw that is was about to start pouring.
We loaded back into the car and continued on to Mindo. The drive from Quito to Mindo was VERY windy, the roads were decent, but lots of curves as we were circling up a mountain. We arrived to Mindo about 5:30 to see our $6 per person accommodations. It was actually a really neat place, it kinda reminded me of the tree house in Swiss Family Robinson. We all had our own room and a hot shower. The facility was not completed so there was plenty of opportunity for bugs, mesquito's, etc. to crawl into your bed and sleep with you, but we didn't have any problems. Luckily this was at an altitude where we didn't have to worry about the Malaria mosquito's.
The next morning we started with a butterfly exhibit. We saw 28+ different kinds of butterfly species and Blythe thought they were very pretty. Yes she tried to tug at their wings, but we did our best to make sure they all stayed in tact.
Next stop was the zip lines! We went to 2 waves, boys then girls. The course consisted of 13 zip lines and would take about an hour and a half. Blythe wasn't quite old enough for the zip lines so us girls played with Blythe while the boys went and then we switched. I thought it might be a little intimidating being so high up on zip lines that I am sure are not inspected with scrutiny like they would be in the US, but I actually never thought twice about it. The zip lines were a lot of fun, but after 13 times the harness started rubbing and you were pretty much satisfied. Did I mentioned that you got 13 zip lines for only $10 a person...WOW..yes things in Ecuador were much cheaper than in the US.
After the zip lines we headed to lunch and on to our last stop. Our last stop was a hike in the cloud forest and bird watching. We didn't end up seeing very many birds, but we did see a good variety of humming birds.
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