Travel alerts straight to your inbox:

Ecuador Field Trip: Escape to Mindo

March 12, 2008 at 2:05 PM | 0 Comments

Two of the Lost Girls are sharing their trips with us this week. Amanda just returned from Ecuador while Holly ventured to Antarctica.

One of Quito's greatest selling points? Within less than a day's travel from the city, you can reach the Amazon rainforest, the Andes mountains, the Pacific beaches, active volcanoes and of course, the country's namesake attraction: the equator.

My BF Jeff and I decided to skip out on the big painted stripe at Mitad del Mundo. (It's disappointing, we'd heard, since GPS now indicates that the actual equator is hundreds of feet away from the touristy hooplah.) Instead, we hopped a bus to a town called Mindo.

We'd attended an informal barbecue the day after our arrival and everyone--our hosts Andrew and Lau, their ex-pat friends, backpacker buddies and dozens of local Ecuadorian attendees--had recommended it as one of the best short trips from the city. If you can't make it all the way to the Amazon basin, Mindo will give you all the rainforest you can handle.

Almost the second we left Quito for Mindo, the skies opened up and doused everything in sight. With only daypacks, no change of clothes and a single poncho to share, we were completely unprepared for the deluge that greeted us once we arrived in the tiny town. We raced inside the very first guesthouse we spotted and waited for the storms to pass. They didn't.

By the following day, we decided that if we couldn't handle a little rain, we certainly didn't belong in the rainforest. Jeff, in true Eagle Scout form, fashioned a second poncho out of a garbage bag, generously gave me his oversized one, and we set out to find the town's best rumored attraction: Mindo Canopy Adventure.

This series of 13 ziplines zags more than a mile through the treetops and takes just over an hour to complete. Best of all--at least from where we stood--it's just as enjoyable on not-so-sunny days.

After it became clear that our two guides didn't speak English, I got slightly concerned. While I could ask for directions and order all manner of beverages in Spanish, I wasn't sure I could understand specific safety procedures as they related to not falling 200 feet from the zipline into the valley below.

But somehow my high school Spanish came roaring back and I caught every third word of what our guides said. I relayed the info to Jeff, and together we managed to scream and shriek our way across all 13 lines without incident. (I may have screamed a bit more than Jeff.)

With some additional instruction and a few questionable gestures, we even figured out how to do the famous "mariposa" move, where you zip across the rainforest upside down as your guide flaps your legs like a butterfly. Classy stuff!

Related Stories:
· Jaunted in Ecuador: Trying to Get off the Ground [Jaunted]
· Jaunted in Ecuador: Quito for Beginners [Jaunted]
· Jaunted Field Trips coverage [Jaunted]

Where: Mindo, Ecuador

: / / /

Author Photo: The Lost Girl by The Lost Girl

0 Comments

Return to » Ecuador Field Trip: Escape to Mindo

Leave a Comment

Not yet a member? Click here to become a member.
Already a member? Login below:

Nickname:

Password:

Send us a tip