Ziplining Through Cloud Forests in Mindo

The road to Mindo from Quito winds through the northern parts of the city and then through dry mountainous cliffs and then finally verdant dense forests until you reach the tiny town. Full of charming bed and breakfasts and backyards that have been transformed into small orchid gardens, the town’s main industry is clearly tourism and the locals don’t waste any opportunity to offer their knowledge about the unique cloud forest climate in which they live. In addition to visiting the myriad of local orchid gardens and the butterfly garden, visitors can also hike outside of town in pretty much any direction for a spectacular day hike.




Our group went to the ziplines outside of town which were AWESOME and only $10 per person. I thought I would be slightly terrified as zooming along a large expanse of small cable suspended above a cloud forest sounds like something that might make me cry a little bit, but it was much less scary than I imagined and the views were much better.




The zip lining itself is very easy and there are just two things to avoid: Don’t put your hand in front of you on the wire as you will cut off or crush your own hand from the momentum, and do not brake while in the middle of a zipline as you will then either have to drag yourself across to the other side with your hands or a guide will have to fetch you by wrapping his legs around your torso and dragging your sorry ass across.

The most difficult thing was hiking up to the zipline platforms. There are ten ziplines and you do have to hike up hills to reach them and I was sweating and panting. Although you should keep in mind that I have a bum leg and could hardly walk for a year and have had two surgeries. In other words, I think most people could do it no problem.

The guides offered for me to go in tandem with them to try “the butterfly” and “the superman.” While performing “the butterfly” you face your guide, jump up on to him so your legs are wrapped around his waist, and then throw your torso backwards so you are upside down and then zoom across the cloud forest like that. I declined that one and went for “the superman,” which is actually more awkward if you can believe it, but so worth it.

You stand in front of your guide facing the same way as him, hold on to the wire and swing your legs backward so your legs are wrapped around his waist and you are more or less crotch to crotch, then you drop your torso so you are hanging forward and down, arch your back, spread your arms, and then when you zoom across you feel like you are flying. We tipped our guides at the end because they were so much fun and did things that felt dangerous like bounce the wires while we zoomed across so we bounced up and down about 20 feet.

I highly recommend visiting Mindo, but like most places in Ecuador Mindo is small, rural and beautiful with plenty of daytime outdoors activities, but not very much night life to keep you busy after dark. There is something called the frog garden which is a just after sunset walk where a guide shows you the animals that glow in the dark or fill the wet air with their various forms of music. We saw one pool hall filled with locals and there is a disco which was closed when we were there. I suggest going for an overnight or maybe two nights.

We stayed at a hotel called Caskaffesu which was really charming, with a great interior courtyard, delicious restaurant, and helpful owners. It was a little pricy at $15 per person, but we really enjoyed our stay. Try the homemade plantain chips as a snack and they also sell organic coffee from Mindo which is really quite good.




Tips for Mindo:

Bring bugspray and use it. We walked to the butterfly garden from town (really cool by the way) and I got bit up badly by giant sand flies. Really painful and the bites itched and swelled and didn’t go away for weeks.

Bring cash. There is no ATM in Mindo and the closest town with an ATM is an $8, hour-long roundtrip cab ride and when we got there our cards didn’t work. Bummer.

I feel I should pass this along although I can’t verify whether or not it’s true and I don’t want to negatively affect tourism in Mindo, so heed the warning and do what you think is best. We were all set one morning to go tubing down the river, which is a really popular thing to do in Mindo. We were strongly advised against it and warned that five people had died doing this in the last two years. So we opted not to do the tubing and went for a hike instead.

Curiosities in Cuenca

Cuenca has a beautiful colonial city like Quito, but it is much smaller and cleaner with less traffic and pollution. The unique skyline is full of spires and massive rotundas and their main plaza, Parque Calderon, features a spectacular church with large blue domes visible throughout much of the city. Most people who visit Ecuador say Cuenca is their favorite city, although I still prefer the craziness of Quito. If you are in Ecuador and find that Quito is just too much for you (too loud, dirty, polluted, crowded, etc) I suggest spending some time in Cuenca. Cuenca feels very safe and is definitely a nice walking city as it seems like around every corner there is another plaza or church filled with uniformed school kids lounging on wooden benches shaded by flowering trees. Although it is a very picturesque city, you can definitely find the unusual too.

On one of my solitary walks through Cuenca I found a museum called Prohibido Museo de Art Extremo, which sounded interesting. I tried the door, but it was locked and so I rang the bell. After a minute a man wearing all black and covered in silver chains answered and motioned for me to follow him and then locked the door behind me. I found myself trapped in what looked like an S&M dungeon. Skeleton chandeliers hung from the ceiling, murals of demons crawling out of vaginas adorned the walls, statues of grotesque, nude, half-creatures leaned against walls, and dismembered mannequins dangled from above.

Those of you who know me well know that I would rather die than admit shock, so I acted half-bored and unimpressed despite temporarily fearing for my life. Luckily the man acted just as indifferent and bored towards me as I did to him and quickly walked away to a desk off in one corner and began typing vigorously. Relieved of any immediate danger I decided to explore the weirdness. The more I walked around the more oddities I discovered such as the toilets are statues of troll-men whose arms you urinate into, etc. I realized it also functions as a bar during the evenings and a café during the day, although at the moment I was the only patron.

After a few minutes I asked the man to let me out and made my way to the Panama Hat Museum called Barranco located on Calle Larga. Cuenca is famous for their Panama Hats and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that the Panama Hat is a misnomer, and they actually originated from Ecuador. The confusion comes from the fact that they were exported via Panama, hence the name Panama Hat. It’s interesting because the indigenous wear them, but the typical Ecuadorian does not. They indicate wealth and power in the United States, but here in Ecuador they are associated with the poor. However, that doesn’t stop tourists like myself from snatching them up. You can buy a hat here for $15 which would easily cost you $100 in the States. Anyway, Barranco has a great selection of hats including unusual colors, sizes, and designs. I bought a yellow hat and we actually managed to find some that fit Zach’s large head a few days later. There are cheaper places to buy hats that are of equal quality and also of unusual design at Casa de la Mujer in Plaza de San Francisco, although if you have a particularly small or large head you will probably not be able to find your size.

I ended my walk at Museo Centro Inter Americanas de Artes Popular, a free museum at the base of La Escualinta Staircase near the river, which features indigenous outfits from different areas of Ecuador. It’s definitely interesting and worth checking out.

Zach and I went to Museo Del Banco Central, which was a wonderfully laid out and interesting museum. They had a few rooms devoted to Oswaldo Guayasamin’s work, which is amazing. They also had an entire floor devoted to spinning dioramas showing scenes of typical Ecuadorian rural life in the different regions. We saw some shrunken heads and other curiosities as well and then went outside and explored the archeological park out back that features the ruins of the old Incan city of Tomebamba. It’s not spectacular, but very lovely and enclosed by small paths through botanical gardens. There is also a bird sanctuary in the park with parrots, macaws, tucans, hawks, and an eagle.


Tips For Cuenca:

There are two great breakfast places in Cuenca that we found. The first is located conveniently next to our new hostel and called Bananas Café. It caters to tourists, is a little pricier than the usual Ecuadorian breakfast, ($2-$6) but has the greasy spoon options we all know and love like eggs, hash browns, and bacon as well as pancakes and healthier options like fruit plates and oatmeal. It’s run by some young, friendly women and is always packed. The second place is in Hotel Victoria on Calle Larga. The dining room has beautiful views, an upscale atmosphere, and a tasty and well-done expensive Ecuadorian breakfast $6-$8. They also have a really nice bar for evening cocktails.

Our favorite restaurant was Moliendo Café, a delicious Columbian restaurant with yummy pitchers of sugarcane alcohol and lemonade that tasted exactly like bul, and good sized plates full of rice and beans, or meat, or all of the above heaped on top of a heavy corn pancake. This place is ultra casual and cheap. Meals are $3-$6 per person and the pitchers are $6.

There is a red tour bus for $5 with English-speaking, entertaining guides, that will take you all around Cuenca and transport you up to Mirador De Turi, a famous viewpoint. Not to be missed is the studio of Eduardo Varga, one of Ecuador’s most famous artists. His ceramic work is beautiful and affordable, and his studio, just below the viewpoint, is one of the loveliest spots in Cuenca.

I really liked a new café called Kookaburro located on calle larga 9-40 between Padre Aguirre and Benign Malo. It opens at 7:00 AM, has plugs for laptops, and features light café fare. For example: Tamales $1.70, fried tomatoes with pesto .60, toast with avocado 1.50, gluten-free deserts $2.00. It’s owned by a nice Australian couple who can accommodate special dietary needs. They also have a few elegant suites available upstairs for people to rent. Their website is KookaburraCafe.typepad.com.

There is a daily flower market in Plazoleta del Carmen that is a site to see. Bring your camera.

We loved Carolina Bookstore. It’s a great place to stock up on second-hand English books.

Multicines sadly no longer shows movies in English. They are all dubbed.

El Cafeteria Jhuly no longer exists.