Hi Everyone.

We have been very busy during the week building in Otavalo so we went to Mindo last weekend for some fun.

Mindo is in the Cloud Forests and is known for it's adventure activities, tubing, zip lining and partying. We went there with six other volunteers and the first day we went tubing. We all thought it would be a single tyre floating along a lazy river... Not quite. It was eight tyres tied together on a fast flowing river which was three to four foot deep. So all eight of us got on these tyres. We did move but only just. We spent most of the time stuck, sunk down low in the shallow water. The chaps pushing us along were wearing heavy jeans and struggled to get us to the end. It was an experience! Lindsey's bum hurt afterwards where she banged it on a rock.

After our water ride we decided to walk to the waterfall. We got a lift in the back of a pickup, which was cool but not comfortable.

We drove for about 20 minutes up into the mountains. We then had to walk down hill for a good 20 minutes. Lindsey and I still had our flip flops on so we took a lot longer. We met the others halfway down the hill where they had decided to do a bungy / zip line jump for $3 over a gauge. Lindsey and I just watched!!

We carried on down to the waterfall. We walked along the river where we found a swimming area with a jumping point and slide but the water was not deep enough so we could not jump in. You could however use the slide. Unfortunately the slide was not fit for purpose as halfway down there was some concrete in place of the slide and a small drop - but you only found out when you where already on the slide. No health and safety here! There where lots of sore bums and cuts so this put me off!

Waterfall was nice but we did not have long there as we had to get back before dark. Some of the more adventurous guys jumped into the waterfall. Not my idea of fun or Lindsey's.

As we were in the jungle the mosqutios were massive, about the size of a penny. You can imagine what a bite from one of them looks like!

Now I said this was also a party town..... but we were all so tired we had dinner and went to bed early.

Sunday

Zip lining - Now we were a bit nervous about this and unsure of what we where letting ourselves in for....

We had a great time upside down, doing superman positions and other spectacles.... amazing experience I would highly recommend it.

We will blog again soon,

Graham and Lindsey

XXX