It’s hard to give up the good things in life-so it was the same group and Marc, and an older couple from Australia –all from the latest Galapagos group- who went for a day trip to Mindo from Quito. I grabbed all my gear as I was going to get dropped off and stay for a couple of nights; while the others were off to Lima.
After a 2 hour trip we got to the first stop- Tarabita- a simple cable car that is powered by a Nissan engine. We take the cable car across the ravine and go for a two hour walk through the rain forest and between a few small waterfalls. The guys even hopped into one of the pools by the waterfall and slightly froze their bits off J.
The boys and I carried on across and up the ravine, while the others caught the cable car back across.
After the hike we drive a short while to get to the butterfly farm. There is a short and sweet introduction to the lifecycle of the butterfly and then we walk into a netted space where the butterflies are abundant. There are several species – the most attractive being a large sapphire blue colour. There are also cocoons on the display and I witness two butterflies breaking through their cocoons; stretching and drying their wings.
It turns out that Marc was a skilled butterfly whisperer and collected butterflies and passed them along to me while I sat and enjoyed watching them eating banana or just relaxing.
Going through the first enclosure there are high platforms and hummingbird viewing areas. It was the first time I saw hummingbirds- seeing their wings beat as fast as they do is fascinating! They come down to drink sweet water provided in small feeding hangers.
===Funny interlude… we came across an Ecuadorian guide and Dutch tourist agent that we had shared a cable car with in Quito the day before. We had joked that we were stalking them before on the mountain… now they were stalking us.
The garden area also contains incredible flora- flowers that I have not seen before. Most are really large and have flamboyant colouring.
With that colourful part of the day done; a hungry bunch of us headed off to lunch. Then the best part of the day… tour of the local chocolate factory- El Quetzal. A guide took us through the process, we tasted the fresh cocoa seeds, and the dried version as it goes through the process. A walk through the garden revealed the actual flowers of the cocoa plant. The tree produces 3,000 flowers, of which approximately 100 are pollinated by a tiny mosquito! We saw (and smelt) the fermentation boxes as well as drying racks, then went through the roasting process and separation of shells and bean. Finally, the cocoa butter separation and drying (for hot chocolate).
The best part was of course the tasting at the end…yum! I might have gone back the next day for a cappuccino and more brownie 🙂
Like the chocolate- a bitter sweet moment comes to pass- and I have to say goodbye to my travel buddies and hug it out until the next time I might see them somewhere on the road!
I get to my accommodation and make a plan for the next day. I was looking forward to joining a group to do bird watching early the next day. There were however no groups available… and 75USD for a few hours was a bit steep for me. Giving up on that idea I decided to go for a morning run- it was fabulous in the fresh air and at a relatively low altitude of 1,400m. I took the dirt roads to the butterfly farm and along the river, it was refreshing and great to hit the road after such a long time!
I went to the chocolate factory and spent some time around the village. I was hoping to go out that evening, but found out that it was pretty dead in town. The time in Mindo was quiet and relaxing…really pleasant.
