Saturday, September 8, 2007

Hummingbirds, Butterflies, and Waterfalls...OH MY!!

Last weekend I went to the lovely, ¨eco-conscious¨ town of Mindo for a nice weekend get-away with a lady I met from Colorado and a few other people. The people of Mindo have not been tainted by over-tourism yet, so it still has that cozy, everybody-knows-your-name small town feel. It was the perfect weekend before my big trip into the Amazon!!
Our little bed and breakfast
The one main street of Mindo

Riding the Taribeta

Leave it to good old Ecuador to think of the scariest, most rickety way to travel between two mountains. But then again, if I´m not fearing for my life the whole way across...well, where´s the fun in that?

The Cascadas

OK. We made it! Now we hike three hours through rough terrain to the waterfalls. Sarah, of course, did not know that it would take that long and brought no water with her. This resulted in her getting REALLY sick later that day from dehydration and having to spend the night in bed with a fever and nausea.

Let the hiking begin!

Dear Ecuadorian Cloudforest,

We get it. You are big and wondrous and awe-inspiring.

Stop showing off with the big leaves already.

Love,

Sarah

A little waterfall on the way to the "Reina." Where´s Waldo....er, Sarah?

Almost there...There she is!Self Portrait...(yes, Nil I am still doing this, even in South America!)

Ok! Now it´s time to hike to another waterfall where there is a swimming hole!
Freezing...absolutely freezing.
Zip-Lining!

(Ashley, you should appreciate this, as you just went yourself!)

Hiking up to the start of the course. I figured out how to do this "color accent" thing with my camera. I´m a big fan...

The Mindo crew ready to zip-line! From left to right: Dan from Atlanta, Vince from San Francisco, Bettina from Germany, me, and Kristine from Colorado. The course has 10 lines through the mountains.

Wheeeeeeee!

Finished! Another Ecuadorian cable holds strong! Those were our guides...

I loved this restaurant. It was like a big tree-house! Fried meat as usual. But in Mindo, they REALLY, REALLY deep fry it. It was actually kind-of too much to handle...even for me.A view from the bar inside.

Once again, more signs protesting Bush´s environmental policy. If you can´t read it:

"Bush´s first year: A chronology of environmental destruction."

...and an attached article on birth defects caused by oil drilling.

A few final shots of beautiful Mindo for you nature lovers out there!

Barrels set up everywhere to seperate organic and inorganic trash.The flowers were amazing!
There I go with the "color accent" again...

OK guys, here is my first EVER video upload to the blog! Hope it works!!


Sarah Zip-Lining!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like you're have fun thats whats up. oh yeah and no more doing butterflies lol.

Unknown said...

Yes! Excellent zip line form!

Love you!!

Anonymous said...

Dear S: We now believe you should be in the business travel business.
No? Well, one day at a time. j