Mindo Weekend 2

... The following morning, we went downstairs for breakfast. The owner told us we could have breakfast for an extra $2.00 apiece. We had coffee, which with sugar and chocolate in it, was actually very good.. and scrambled eggs, cheese, and bread. Oh, and fresh juice, of course! It was delicious. We walked the block back to the main street, harassing the roosters that had woken us up so rudely the night before. A sweet man in town who sold us the tickets for the waterfall hike offered to buy our bus tickets while we were gone, so we killed two birds with one stone. The price was only $10 for the admission to the park and the cable car ride. We rode in the back of a pickup (which was an adventure in itself) about 6 kilometers to the cable car. Of course, this is after it has rained, down dirt roads with huge holes everywhere! My bottom will never quite be the same... The cable car was craziness! One cable, one rectangular ¨car¨with poles put together, riding thousands of feet over the jungle. It was so fun, though! (The other girls had nicer cameras, so they have tons of pictures I will get to you eventually) We then attempted to find the 7 waterfalls, or cascadas. We found 4 I think. The trails were not really marked very well. We think because it is rainy season the others were roped off for safety. It was hard work! I am SO sore from that hike. I have no idea how many miles it was, but I think it was about 2 and a half hours of climbing up and down mountains. The last one we saw was so beautiful and we waded in to the crisply cold water! It felt heavenly compared to the extremely humid air that made you feel as though your clothes were permanently stuck to your body. I loved the hiking! It was great to be out in the wilderness with nothing but us. We finally made it back to town (oh - and there was the absolute CUTEST puppy you have ever seen that followed us the entire way to the cable car from town! Marathon runner puppy! Something like 4 miles of straight running! I wanted to take him home so badly.) Anyways... back to lunch. We ate at a ¨nice¨restaurant which meant our meals were between 3 and 5 dollars.. I had veggie pizza and it was excellent. Then it was time to head back on the bus again... this time I forgot to drug up until we left, so the ride back was not as happy. As soon as we got off the bus, it was freezing! Mindo was so warm... a nice change, and it must have been in the 40s when we returned to Quito. It has been cold since.

To be continued... (Again, I know!)