Ecuador, Part 3 (Sept. 19th-23rd)

I woke up at 6am on the 19th (Friday) and watched the sunrise from one of the hot springs at Termas (unknown to us at the time, the stock market would lose 26% of its value over the next 3 weeks). Papallacta is high in the mountains and it had rained the night before, so the air was nice and cold. We got breakfast in the hotel after Daniela woke up and checked out by noon. An indigenous guy played us a song using a plastic bag full of holes on the bus ride back to Quito. It sounded like you would expect a plastic bag full of holes to sound when you mash your face into it and hum.

Our last destination in Ecuador was Mindo but buses there don't depart from the Terminal Terrestre (Quito's main bus station). We had to take a $6 cab ride way into the northern part of the city to catch a bus from La Ofelia Station. The bus to Mindo was full of tourists, mostly Americans. A pair of experienced travelers sitting in front of us were talking about accommodations in Mindo and said they had reserved a room days ago. The other pair mentioned they were headed to the same hotel that Daniela and I were, and they were just going to hope it wasn't full. So Daniela and I started to panic. We never imagined Mindo would be busy. We took out our Lonely Planet photocopies and checked the hotel's address again, realizing we would have to get off the bus running. When we finally arrived in Mindo the couple headed to our hotel had a fight with the bus driver -- something about their tickets -- so I pushed past them and Daniela got directions from a passerby to the Cabañas Armonia. Any foreign city looks terrifying at night but as many of the side streets lacked lighting, this was especially true in Mindo. As we passed a fully-lit soccer field we heard quick steps behind us. Daniela looked back and the two Americans from the bus were right behind us and almost jogging. So we, nonchalantly, matched their pace and kept our lead. We raced them to our hotel but when we got there it seemed almost empty. Cabañas Armonia has a few private cabins on a small piece of land, which is overrun by trees and an orchid garden. The trees have grown into the path so you have to duck and dodge, and it's hard to see because the motion-sensitive lights don't come on reliably. The cabins are the only things well lit, so naturally all of Ecuador's bugs hang out there. We decided to stay at least one night and dropped off our bags. Then we went looking around and got dinner at CasKaffeSu, a nicer-looking restaurant with a full menu not too far from the bus station. We asked the owners about their room rates and had a huge meal since we hadn't eaten anything since Quito. The Americans we were racing against also came in and got dinner. They were college kids from North Carolina and Iowa. Daniela did most of the talking while I put out the tough guy vibe. I got more talkative after a beer or two.

Mindo has a few things to do, but two competing zipline courses (called "canopy tours") are the main attraction. One of the courses is run by Costa Ricans and everyone in town bills it as the safer course. The newer one, run by Ecuadorians, was recommended to us by Daniela's brother David because while it has fewer ziplines, they are on average longer and more fun. We bought tickets to the course run by the Costa Ricans from a tour operator in town the following morning. We also paid for passes into a national park that is popular with bird watchers. The national park is farther outside of town and uphill from the canopy tour places, so we decided to take a taxi there and walk back, doing the canopy tour if there was time. We split a ride in a motorcycle-pulled cart with a weirdo from British Columbia (almost fully pictured above). A bird-watcher and obviously an only child, this guy was on a *very* tight budget, and we would eventually come to hate him. On the ride up the mountain he was only weird and quiet. The sun was shining that day and we were more worried about getting sunburns than say, getting caught in a torrential downpour for hours. Funny how that works. Our motorcycle taxi broke down halfway to the park and we had to be picked up another driver 10 minutes later. We eventually arrived and took an awesome cable car ride across a ravine to the park. We agreed to meet up with the weird Canadian guy in 3 hours to share a ride back to town. Mindo is known for its wildlife and it's the bird watching capital of Ecuador. We saw a few birds, a lot of butterflies, some orchids, and bugs fucking (pictured above). D and I took our time and got to the waterfall in about 45 minutes. We took off our shoes and walked right up to it, but I didn't go under the falls because I didn't want to be wet the rest of the day. We turned around and about 5 minutes later it started to rain. Then it really started to rain. The dirt path we had been hiking on turned into squishy mud in places and Daniela's glasses kept fogging up, preventing her from seeing anything. I tried to stay calm but couldn't help myself from getting angry. I was wet, uncomfortable, my wallet and camera were getting ruined, and I was short with Daniela while we marched in the rain. I tried to remember that there isn't a difference between being wet or dry because both are conditions of the mind. I tried to convince myself that being cold is no different than being warm but I couldn't do it. I would calm down for seconds and then get angry again. I think I would really benefit from joining a Buddhist monastery but I doubt I'll make it anytime soon.

We got back to the entrance to the park and the kid from BC was there. Being soaked and freezing cold wasn't enough to convince him we all needed to leave, and only after we told him he could just get his own ride back down did he reconsider. As soon as we got back across the ravine, a bus pulled up (charging $2 for a ride back to town instead of the $3 it would cost on our motorcycle taxi) that had room for only one more person, so our friend abandoned us for it. I wanted to wait until the rain let up a little bit before riding in the uncovered taxi, but after forcing Daniela to stand in a cold tent with me for a while, I agreed to leave. Two other people showed up at the last minute and split the ride with us, making it even cheaper than the ride up. When we got back to our cabin, we threw our sopping wet clothes in a pile and turned on -- what we thought would be -- a piping hot shower. The hot water came in 15 second bursts and was broken up by 2 minute long periods of ice water. Very disappointing. We warmed up in bed and then hanged our clothes around the room. It was 3:30 when we got back to our room and while we were hungry, we were sure the rain would stop soon and we could eat. Daniela fell asleep while I moved stuff in the room around to avoid the leaks in the roof. 7pm rolled around and we were famished. We only had one other set of clothes (Daniela had a white skirt left that was way too nice to wear anywhere in Mindo) and if it rained again we wouldn't have anything left. We were too hungry so we chanced it. We got some pizza and made it back before it rained again.

Ugh. OK, I'm done writing right now so there will have to be a part 4. Good night.