Today was my first day in Mindo. We woke up early to catch the bus and it was a 2 hour drive here. It was a beautiful drive!!! They played a weird Ecuadorian movie on the bus that was half Spanish, half English though. It started out with a guy sleeping around with a bunch of women and one day a lady dropped a baby off to him saying it was him. Long story short, the mom returned when the girl was 6 and tried to get custody but lost. Then after a paternity test, the guy was actually not the father, so the mom got the daughter back. Then somehow it jumped to all three of them at the beach together happy and then the little girl dies in the dad's arms and it's over.... Ummmm. I feel like I missed something, but oh well. So once we got to Mindo, we ate breakfast and checked into the hostel. The hostel is La Casa de Cecilia and it's the cutest tree house type of place. There are hammocks upstairs and you can hear lots of birds talking at night. Kinda peaceful. Mindo is much cleaner than where I stay in Quito. It's also safer because it's a tourist place. So, after we checked in, we went to scope out the price of going tubing. We found a place and booked it. I was a little scared at first because it's not the warmest here and it's a foreign place. Once we got there with the tubes, we felt the water and YIKES! It was cold! But, no going back!! In short, the tubing was so much fun!! There were some sketchy parts, but nothing too dangerous. The scenery was beautiful and every chance I got I looked around. I wish I had a camera, but I have the mental pictures :) then it was time to head back and we got dry clothes on and got some lunch. We found a great pizza place and the chocolate factory :) it was a good day and I really enjoy being in Mindo!! The night life here on the other hand es malo. There were two bar/discos open but neither very fun. I will say, it is refreshing to see people salsa dancing instead of dancing like Americans!

Yesterday was the second day in Mindo and it was pretty relaxed. I woke up feeling refreshed and so happy to have slept in a comfortable bed again. It was really nice falling asleep to the rain and the birds. I was the first one up and ready (nothing new) so I decided to go eat breakfast. The hostel we stayed at provides breakfast, but for a price. It was a perfect morning just sitting by a creek and drinking coffee. It's so introvert of me, but some of my happiest times are similar to this experience. Only thing that could have made it better is if my parents were there to experience the beauty of that place, too! The other kids had a night filled with drinking, so it took them a little to roll out of bed. When we all congregated in the hammock area, we decided to not say two nights and catch a bus back last night. I felt that was a good idea, because my money was flying out of my pockets with all the goodies to buy there!! The five girls decided to go to the Mariposaria (butterfly farm) and I loved it! They showed us all the stages of the metamorphosis, which I'm pretty sure we learned in first grade... But the farm was filled with beautiful butterflies all over. You couldn't realize how many were in there until a worker would shake the tree branches and they'd all fly out and in your face! It was fun :) after that we had time to kill before the bus arrived, so we swung on hammocks and then ate lunch. We had some great pizzas both days at two locations. I thoroughly enjoyed being in a tourist town where a lot of them speak English and have Americanized bars/restaurants. The bus ride home was miserable, because I was tired and couldn't sleep. It got dark as we grew closer to Quito, so that made it more exhausting. It was the "all I want is a bed" feeling. The bus ride was about 2 and a half hours and I knew right when we were close to the bus stop. I heard a "BEEP BEEEP BEEEEEP" from a taxi. Boy, I did not miss that sound this weekend. Quito is not a tranquil as Mindo, to say the least. All-in-all the trip to Mindo was refreshing and one I will never forget.