We woke up early and had breakfast in the hotel: fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, cheese, chocolate crepes, rolls with butter and rich honey. Jose, our driver, picked us up at 8 am and off we headed to Mindo.
On our way to Mindo, we stopped at Pululahua. This is a crater inside a volcano where a community of sixty families now resides. We walked over to the edge to peer in below. When we visited, it was sunny but Jose told us that the fog rolls in densely in the afternoons.
From there we continued onto Mindo and stopped at a hummingbird habitat. Oh my! They had tons of feeders out filled with a simple clear syrup. There was a lot of activity. Bees, birds and best of all—hummingbirds. There was also a perch with bananas on it. Here we saw an agouti, an animal that resembles a guinea pig but is much larger and not as tasty.
We stopped for lunch at Restaurante El Cheff in Mindo where the specialty of the house was Lomo a la Piedra, or steak cooked on hot stone. Mason happily consumed his entree while Bill sampled the almuerzo. Walker and I each tried seafood. He had corvina (sea bass) and I had tilapia. Our meals came with more patacones (fried plantains), rice and salad.
After lunch we were supposed to go ziplining but a large group arrived just before we did so we swapped our agendas. We drove to La Tarabita. The boys knew of this wire mesh cable car that traverses over a lush river basin over the thick cloud forest to the Bosque Protector Mindo-Nambillo. The car itself travels on a steel cable 152 m above the ground.
Once we crossed over, we had the option to hike to any one of five waterfalls. Our guide had a preference and we soon had snaked our way into the jungle. There was a small audience of swimmers and spectators at the waterfall. The boys were brave enough to face the cold water while Bill and I happily spectated. We made our return single file back to the tarabita, enjoying the jungle foliage along the way.
We returned to Mindo Canopy Adventure and suited up in helmets, waist harnesses and, new to us, gloves. The tour included ten zips that got progressively longer and higher. We had two friendly and engaging guides. Walker, Mason and I did a few zips upside down and Superman style. Flying upside down over the cloud forest was exhilarating but the head rush was pretty intense!
After the zips, Jose drove us to our accommodations for the night. We were more than surprised and truly delighted with Hosteria La Roulotte. The rooms resembled wooden train cars; they were small, quaint and full of charm. The owner was very hospitable and the grounds were well-kept and luscious. Mason was delighted that two friendly dogs resided there too.
After dropping our luggage off and settling in, our driver delivered us to the chocolate factory at El Quetzal. During our chocolate tour, we walked the property and went from cacao to chocolate bars. We tasted fresh cacao which comes from bright yellow chocolate pods. The flesh holds the beans. From there, the beans are extracted and laid out to ferment over three days. Drying the beans is a several day process in these giant trays with mesh bottoms. The beans are then roasted in small batches. The cocoa nibs are refined and milled by either stone grinding or ball refining. Over many hours and with heat, the nibs become smooth molten chocolate. Then sugar is added, the chocolate is tempered and then molded and wrapped by hand into bars.
The boys and Bill happily sampled chocolate of varying concentration, the molten chocolate syrup and a very sweet and dense fudgy chocolate brownie. We left there with souvenir bars to share and a sweet taste in our mouths.
We walked to the town square in search of the locals’ restaurant. On our lap around the center, we encountered a street vendor selling hot and fresh pan de yuca, cassava cheese bred. Off the beaten path we found a total hole in the wall. The chef was willing to make whatever we wanted from the menu as well as special requests. Mason ordered a pizza cooked in the wood burning oven, more trout for me, a vegetarian empanada and the most amazing salad with fresh herbs and vegetables for Bill.
We took a taxi back to the hotel and were about to settle in for the night when the owner invited us to join him in search of the frogs. It was pitch black and we found ourselves weaving our way in and out of the bamboo labyrinth on the heels of this kind man. After what seemed like an hour but was probably only 20 minutes, our efforts were rewarded in two locations. First we found them nestled on the walls of the well and then scattered on the lily pads in the pond. They were wee little frogs. Mason had the best eye for them. Once he spotted a few, the rest of us were able to see them as well.
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