Back to Civilization

Most of yesterday was spent in travel - although we managed to squeeze in some fun in the beginning.  The only rough start to the day was the fact Andrei did not really enjoy the lodge's breakfast - he doesn't like pineapple juice (fresh and awesome), he didn't want bread and jam, he doesn't like coconut so he couldn't enjoy the homemade granola, the milk was strange so he had water, and the eggs had tomatoes, peppers and onions so he only ate a couple bites.  He did eat a bit of plain yogurt, but how blah!  (Mom, I know you will totally appreciate reading this after a lifetime with this picky eater!)  The up side was that they had chocolate oreos at the honor bar, so bought him a pack for later....

After checking out of the lodge, we drove into Mindo (about an hour away) and went on a series of canopy zip-lines - most awesome!  This totally made up to Andrei for the bird watching he endured on Tuesday (post on the 'lost days' to follow).  Mindo is a little tourist village where they do river rafting (they lash together about 6 giant innertubes and then float down the river) and have other natural tourist attractions, and not one, but two, zip line companies.  (The entrances are literally 30 feet apart.)

There are 13 sets of cables that you cross, zig zagging over the trees.  Not sure how high up they are, but pretty high, and some of the rides are pretty long (200 yards?).  On the 'slow' cables you just have to hang on; on the 'fast' cables to hav to keep one hand on the cable to balance yourself and also to brake.  In addition to a helmet and the riggings around your waist/legs, you wear suede heavy duty work gloves that they cut extra pieces of leather for and glue a double thickness of across the palm of the gloves . 

On some of the slow cables you can do tricks, if you ride with one of the guides.  There are two guides in every group - one goes first and is in charge of stopping you at the end, the other stays 'til last and gets everyone riggged.  For the tricks, you have a choice between the butterfly and superman.  The butterfly is when you hang upside down and the guide holds your legs - killer on the waist because all your body weight is on that and the rigging kinda digs into you - but totally crazy.  Andrei, of course, was the first to try this maneuver (we had a group of three 20-somethings from Philly with us).  Your other option is the superman, where they put your pulley in the back, and the guide holds your legs and you fly parallel to the ground - like superman (with your arms out, of course!).  And yes, Andrei went for that move too!  We did take some video, but I'm not sure how to load it, and you have to watch it with your head turned sideways because the camera was hanging from a strap off our necks, and it hung sideways!

Lunch at a lodge nearby, and then three hours in the car to Otovallo.  Amazing climate changes as you travel, I think there are about 20 microclimates in Ecuador - driving along and suddenly you're in the desert, wait a while longer and your in sub-tropical rain forest...  The elevation changes are insane too, as you ride up and down mountains - one minutes you're at 3500 feet, then you're at 6500. 

I think I like Otovallo the best so far, what little I've seen.  It's very fertile ground from all the volcanic soil, and everything is nice and green.  The city is not humongous like Quito (which has 1.5 million people), and seems a much easier pace. 

Saw two snow-capped volcanoes on our ride - one of which is the only snow covered volcanoes on the equatorial line in the world (but this picture is the other one...)

The other thing I saw, that I haven't seen for ages is people riding in the backs of trucks - the one below is definitely the most dangerous one I've seen so far....

Well, tons more to tell you - but gotta get the boy up for breakfast so we can meet Jose at 9:00.  Oh, did I tell you that we are the only ones at our hotel?  I guess there are others coming in today, but last night we had the place to ourselves - ha!  Even got to meet the chef, Claudio!

Well, TTFN - try to catch up with you later!