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| Mindo Garden |
Took the two and a half hour bus ride to the cloud forest of Mindo.
It tops off at 4700m above sea level.
Its beautiful
All lush and green.
Very very rural, peaceful
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| View from Hostal El Rocio |
$10 a night. It has a lovely garden
with a lagoon and big barbeque area
ideal for late night bon fires.
The owner is super nice.
Bit of a character, but in a good way.
Owns 8 dogs mostly rescues.
For the amount of pets the place was very clean and fur free. If dogs are not your thing, they leave you alone if you ignore them.
But they love to bark at you like
some common thief sneaking in every
time you come in. Not much good as guards
because once you close the gate behind you they drop
down for naps.
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| Man on horseback |
It is a 4km walk in the blazing sun
They raise different species of butterflies
and then release most of them out to the wild.
Bit over priced for $5, but I did get to see
a few butterflies being born
They come out all big, wet and swollen.
Takes them about 4 to 5 hours to dry out
Then they take off.
Had loads of them land all over me.
On the way out there is a sign.....
"No repellent" .....oops!
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| One of Las Cascadas de Nambillo |
That is a beautiful spot, ideal for watching
Several different kinds of humming birds and butterflies
while enjoying slightly over priced beers.
My favorite was "El Santuario"
And "Cascadas de Nambillo"
It's $5 for the "Tarabita de Mindo"
Which is a 530meter cable car over a huge
ravine. Moves a lot faster than "El TeliferiqO"
in Quito but for some reason a lot less scarier
Even though it looks rusted.
Once you get to the other side
you begin the hike to the waterfalls.
There are at least 9 that are easy hikes
But I believe there are over 15 cascades.
The first and over crowded one is Nambillo
Then you follow t h e trail back up to the other 7 waterfalls that
make up "El Santuario".
Heard beautiful birds. All the birds in the area
Are endemic. Saw toucans and humming birds
It's a great work out.
Very tranquil and had almost the entire
trail to myself. Stopping at each fall to cool off in
the pristine white, turquoise blue water.
HUGE mosquitos!
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| My little friend accompanied me on my hike |
Had a beautiful butterfly land on me
on the way down. It landed
on my right forearm and stayed for the
entire trek back down.
Even when I slipped and my heart
was pounding out of my chest, it held on.
Had another on try to french me. I shook it off on
instinct.
The 9th waterfall is "La Reina" .
It is at least an hour hike there.
I missed it because I wanted to head out
and did not want to miss the bus.
Only thing I regret is not doing
the canopy ride for $12 with the Costa Rican
"Mindo Canopy Adventure". 13 zip lines and
2500meters.
There is another canopy company
but they are not safe. Someone died there a few weeks ago
and loads of unreported injuries. Unfortunately the unsafe
people are expanding into the Amazon and Galapagos.
There lines are not nearly as thick as they should be
And the line that snapped was rusted all the way through.
Left after three days. If I had not
I would still be there on a hammock
Trekking in Ecuador by Kunstaetter, Robert/ Kunstaetter, Daisy/ Box, B (Google Affiliate Ad)
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