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Bikepacker's South American Adventure
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- South America
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Location Date Quito 1479945600 Cotopaxi 1479859200 Mindo 
1479772800 Otavalo 1479513600 Baltra Island 1479427200 Santiago Island 1479340800 Punta Espinosa 1479254400 Isabela Island 1479168000 Baltra 1478995200 Tababela 1478822400 -
Location Date Tue, 22 November 2016 1479839280 Mon, 21 November 2016
1479732900
NOV 21
Time for a little pampering in the little town of Mindo at the Mindo Coffee Lodge. This is a new lodge, only open for a few months, and it is gorgeous! My little cabana overlooks the pool and has a big patio to sit out on. I am currently sitting on the cafe balcony, listening to birds and looking at lush mountains. I could get used to this!
On the way up here, we stopped at the Mitad del Mundo to have some fun with the equator line. It is true, toilets flush the opposite way south and North of the equator. Water goes straight down right on the equatorial line. It is also very hard to walk a straight line with your eyes closed right on the line, pretty funny to watch people try. They have a little museum there which showed how people used to live and indeed how some people still live in various parts of Ecuador. They even showed how one group of people used to boil and shrink human heads. Now they just boil and shrink animal heads. That made me feel better. :-)
The drive was a bit long and winding but it was interesting to see how the vegetation changed as we went. It is very green here! Speaking of vegetation, I went on a cable car ride and hike to a beautiful little waterfall. It is very much like the Amazon jungle, except the tree trunks are smaller. Tons of cool plants and lots of birds. Cloud forests tend to be great places for birds, so it is quite the hotspot for the birding crowd. Well, birding isn't really a great past time for people with colour deficient vision, so I just enjoyed listening to them all. There are also many butterflies around. Maria (one of the owners of the lodge) showed me many different plants and trees along the way. We started out by taking a cable car across a valley to get closer to the waterfalls. We eventually made our way down to the river and just chilled on the rocks in the river, literally. We took our shoes off and stuck them in the water to cool down, it was wonderful. There is something so zen like, hearing the sounds of water rushing by and the feel of cool water going over your feet.
I am once again enjoying great cooking. Well, at least as much of it as my stomach will take but finally I am moving on from bread and water. Progress of any sort is good. Having excellent meals served on a lovely patio is reason enough to start getting better! I can't say enough good things about this place. Maria and Freddy are amazing hosts and this place will be very successful as word gets out. It is the perfect antidote to fast paced Quito. I kind of wish I were staying for one more night!
Time for a little pampering in the little town of Mindo at the Mindo Coffee Lodge. This is a new lodge, only open for a few months, and it is gorgeous! My little cabana overlooks the pool and has a big patio to sit out on. I am currently sitting on the cafe balcony, listening to birds and looking at lush mountains. I could get used to this!
On the way up here, we stopped at the Mitad del Mundo to have some fun with the equator line. It is true, toilets flush the opposite way south and North of the equator. Water goes straight down right on the equatorial line. It is also very hard to walk a straight line with your eyes closed right on the line, pretty funny to watch people try. They have a little museum there which showed how people used to live and indeed how some people still live in various parts of Ecuador. They even showed how one group of people used to boil and shrink human heads. Now they just boil and shrink animal heads. That made me feel better. :-)
The drive was a bit long and winding but it was interesting to see how the vegetation changed as we went. It is very green here! Speaking of vegetation, I went on a cable car ride and hike to a beautiful little waterfall. It is very much like the Amazon jungle, except the tree trunks are smaller. Tons of cool plants and lots of birds. Cloud forests tend to be great places for birds, so it is quite the hotspot for the birding crowd. Well, birding isn't really a great past time for people with colour deficient vision, so I just enjoyed listening to them all. There are also many butterflies around. Maria (one of the owners of the lodge) showed me many different plants and trees along the way. We started out by taking a cable car across a valley to get closer to the waterfalls. We eventually made our way down to the river and just chilled on the rocks in the river, literally. We took our shoes off and stuck them in the water to cool down, it was wonderful. There is something so zen like, hearing the sounds of water rushing by and the feel of cool water going over your feet.
I am once again enjoying great cooking. Well, at least as much of it as my stomach will take but finally I am moving on from bread and water. Progress of any sort is good. Having excellent meals served on a lovely patio is reason enough to start getting better! I can't say enough good things about this place. Maria and Freddy are amazing hosts and this place will be very successful as word gets out. It is the perfect antidote to fast paced Quito. I kind of wish I were staying for one more night!
- comments
Cheryl Duckworth Sooooo many adventures - and so many interesting things you are seeing & doing!! OMGoodness, I do wish I was there too, and feel I am with your travelogue - thanks for sharing it with us!! Glad you are feeling somewhat better.