Trips
I thought it would be easier to write about our second trip here on this page. For the second weekend, we traveled to an area of the coastal jungle known as Mindo. We stayed at a resort owned by the Universidad Tecnologica Equinoccial. The university owns this resort so that its students in gastronomy and hostelry can have practicum experiences. It is located 2.5 hours west of Quito. We had to travel up and over the mountain range and descend through a tropical rain forest before arriving in the rolling hills of a tropical jungle. Along the way we visited a volcanic crater that was over 300 years old.
Crater del Pululahua
Because it is a volcanic crater, the interior land is saturated with incredibly rich soil and families have started farms inside of the crater. The picture shows only one half of the crater. The other half wraps around the center hills to form the entire crater, but the land is not flat and cannot be used for farming or living. The best time to view the incredible panoramic view of the crater is in the morning before the afternoon clouds roll in. This was the delineation line between the more arid plateau and the coastal side that became the cloud forest.
We left fairly early from UTE and some of the girls decided to take advantage of the 2.5 hour drive and get caught up on some sleep.
Katie catching some Z's
Why do you ask would these young ladies need sleep? Well, they decided to experience some night life of Quito. The girls went our Friday night to Hotel Quito with some of their family members. The Hotel Quito has a casino and a beautiful view of the valley and suburbs outside of Quito. After the casino, they ventured to an 80’s disco, appropriately named “Flashback.” We got a lot of mileage this weekend from the name. They had so much fun that they didn’t get home until late. (It was worth it.)
Laguna Azul
Pool at Laguna
Just as the tours we had during the first week, we were accompanied by an English professor and two of her students who would give us information about different areas along the way. This was part of their practical examination. Our first stop was a hike in the jungle to get to La Laguna Azul (The Blue Lagoon). At the bottom of the waterfall was the lagoon in which some of us swam. The spray from the waterfall was strong, and the mist allowed all of those watching to get wet also.
Allsion, Katie, and Lauren preparing for the switchbacks
The hike to and from the lagoon was wonderful. This hike differed from the hikes in the Andean Mountains. It was hot, moist, and slippery.
Bridge crossing on way to Laguna Azul
We had to hike over bridges and streams, traverse the side of hills using switchbacks, and descend stairs made of rocks and mud. The vegetation, flora, and fauna was magnificent. The leaves on every tree were enormous.
Humming Birds
We were able to see many birds. Notice the picture of the colibris, humming birds, on the right. One of them had a long snout and the other has a smaller one. This is nature’s way of having different species of birds adapt to the different kinds of flowers. The different length of snouts allows the birds to be plant specific in their nectar gathering. I keep looking for the humming bird with a tail twice as long as its body, but I have yet to see it.
After a restful swim in the Lagoon we hiked back to the bus and went back to La Selva Virgen for lunch. After lunch we quickly got ready and left for an hour and 15 minute trip to Tucanopy. This is where we were able to “fly” over the canopy of the tropical rain forest. This is extreme zip lining.
Getting ready to zip. Safety First.
Katie zipping through and over the trees
We first had to be fitted with a harness and helmet. During the instruction, we were told how to break and slow our progress if we went too fast. The guidelines or zip lines were stell cables strung over a small farming valley. We were able to fly over the floor of the valley at heights of about 10-70 feet. The speeds we reached on some of the lines reached 55 mph.
Allsion showing how easy it was to zip over the valley.
Lauren showing you how high we were at times.
Any fears we had about flying over the valley floor were quickly thrown away after the first line. There were a total of 6 lines of differing lengths and angles of descent. Some hiking was involved in between the lines so that we could maintain our height and thus our descent on each line. The farm is actually a hostel and organic farm which accepts volunteers from anywhere in the world to come and farm. Volunteers help raise and sell food and stay in the hostel.
We finally made it back to the resort around 7 and ate dinner. We were all so tired that we didn’t get a chance to do any kareoke. It would have been fun to have some “falshbacks” from the previous night, but that may have to wait until this week.
On Sunday, we all sleep in and rested by the pool while Lauren went on a 1.5 hour hike with the guides. Rested and ready to go, we ventured back up through the tropical jungle, through the rain forest,
Cloud Forest
and past La Mitad del Mundo before arriving in Quito, just in time for an asado.
Asado at house of the Director of Acadmia Cotopaxi
A typical asado or cookout in Ecuador involves a lot of sausage, steak, chikcen, and sides. There were no hamburgers or hot dogs at this cookout.
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