After a good night's rest, we started our day with instant coffee and CNN en Espanol. Learned that we're going to make peace with North Korea, then got on with the day. We headed over for a lovely breakfast in a different room than dinner and lunch the previous day. It was just us, being served hand and foot by a nice lady, who spoke little English. Eggs benedict for Lisa and an omelette for me. It was all quite good. We hit the road with our conservative d...

The words 'cloud forest' don't adequately convey the beauty of this place we are leaving. Every day here we stared out at the forested hills covered with mist. Mist that crept and retreated shyly in the morning hours, only to blanket the area in the afternoon, seeding the clouds and setting the stage for thunderous displays. Displays we seemed to always be at the mercy of. Finding our way back to the safety of our bungalow always felt like an adventure. Today tho...

After all the trekking over the past couple of days, we decided to take it easier and just visit some sites near "downtown" Mindo. We got up a little later and ate our breakfast down in the lobby to avoid the nuisance of little black bees. They love the fruit and anything else on the table when we eat on the terrace in the room. There were still some of the little b*****s trying to OD on fruit juice, but not nearly as bad. After breakfast, one of the owners ...

Lisa here. I'm going to backtrack a little bit with a description of Mindo and our present surroundings, just for context. The small town of Mindo is located in the northern highlands of Ecuador. It sits in a valley surrounded by forested mountains. Rushing rivers bisect its rutted dirt roadways, although the downtown area is paved. The main thoroughfare features a collection of mostly ramshackle buildings housing various eateries and shops. As this is the rainy...

After 4 flights and a 2+ hour van drive on curvy roads, we finally made it to Mindo. We checked in and basically slept for 11 hours. Now we start on our first full day... At dawn, the jungle sounds awoke me. I heard many loud birds I call, alarm clock birds. It's as though they are telling every living thing to WAKE UP! Not deterred, I fell back asleep. A bit later I woke to a more subdued chatter of birds. Still, I went back to sleep. I finally woke aro...