Mindo

Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been a week since my last post. I had an exciting weekend and wanted to wait until afterwards to write again…

This weekend the Education tutors went to Mindo. It is a LITTLE tourist town about 2 hours north of Quito in the jungle. Our group arrived early Saturday morning to a nice hostel (nicer than the house we are currently living in and equipped with a hammock!). We went on a tough hike with our host dad that ended at a waterfall. Some people decided to be brave and jump off a cliff into the pool of water. They regretted it after they had bruises on their backsides from the water impact (!) Later we went zip-lining on 10 cords! It was great! We got to do it in superman and upside-down positions. Later that night we ate a delicious lunch/dinner of trout, rice, lentils, hearty chicken soup, and fried plantains – served with delicious ají (hot) salsa. The next day we had a tour of an orchid and butterfly garden. It was awesome! (Check out the picture of the butterfly whose wings look like an owl’s face. It is an evolutionary mechanism that wards off predators!) That was followed by a really fun (and cold) white water tubing ride. We rode in two groups of interlocking tubes down a rocky, fast river with two guides in each group to navigate. It was a great weekend! Stay tuned for more edventures… :-)