Mindo

Friday after school, two COST guys and I hitched a ride to Mindo with a guidance counselor from Americano. He and his wife own an inn there where we stayed. I have never seen so many humming birds come so close to people before than at the inn! I could have literally petted one if I wanted. Saturday the guys and I headed out for a hike and some ziplining. We took a cable car from one mountain peek to another. So we had an excellent view of the canopy and the river.  Mindo is a cloudforest (it's a lot like a rainforest). The hike was beautiful, but super misty and damp. We hiked for about an hour when the trail suddenly cut off. We realized that the block was not intentional; a tree had fallen so all the limbs were hanging over the path. We had to climb up the mountain face a a few feet and practically belly crawl between the bigger branches. With mud and debris smeared all over us we kept on. We finally made it to a waterfall. There was a staircase in the middle of the water leading to the top of the waterfall. As vicarious as it was, the boys decided to go up. Of course I had to follow. I mean, I'm only going to be here once, right? So I ditched my stuff, took off my socks and shoes, rolled up my jeans, and waded out to the ladder. Good thing I climbed it because there was a waterfall twice as large as the other. It was la Cascada Reina (Queen Waterfall). After taking some pictures we left, soaking wet from the waterfall spray, rain and mist, and wading in the river. We shimmied back under the fallen tree and booked it down towards the ziplines.
We decided to wait until Sunday to do the zipline. We walked all the way back from our hike which was another hour or two of walking. After getting back to the inn we stayed in all day because of the rain. Then is rained all day Sunday so we missed out on the ziplines. But we decided to go back for a day trip to do it. We took a bus back to Quito.
The pictures are of the hummingbirds and the views along the hike. The last one is of me in front of Cascada Reina.