I am movin faster than I am able to update! I am now in a coastal beach town called “Montañita” until Friday (taking spanish lessons!!) so hopefully I will catch up!
After the hustle and bustle of Quito I was ready for a slower pace so with 3 new friends from England, I set off for Mindo – a town just starting off slowly with tourism and nestled in the cloud forest.
Since the weather turned rainy at 3pm (as usual!) we opted for the indoor CHOCOLATE TOUR! YUM. Mindo Chocolate imports their coco bean from else where in Ecuador but this is what a coco plant looks like:
The pods are actually quite big and the beans are found inside – allcovered in slime! It was kind of alien like. I got to try peeling off the slime to expose the bean! The bean itself tasted super bitter!
The rest of the tour showed us where they dry, roast, grind and process the beans – it was so simple but also there are so many steps. Makes you wonder who decided to start making chocolate in the first place! The best part of the tourwas ehen we git to taste taste a brownie made from scratch!!! Like -REAL scratch using a giant hunk of dark chocolate made on site! It was the best brownie ever!!!
When the weather improved the next day we went ziplining! My friend Lindsay and I did ziplining in Costa Rica and it was just as fun as i remember. This time they even let us try going upsidedown! it was so disorienting! My brain couldnt figure out if I was up or down! They also let us try “superman” which was pretty cool and felt like flying! Also I am 95% sure this is where they filmed part of the Ecuador episode of Departures.
We did a sweet hike to the waterfalls too but to get there you needed to take the “terebita” or cable car across to the other side! This I know was 100% in that episode of Departures! It was so high up and I wouldnt let myself think about the safety standards (or lack there of) because it freaked me out too much. I wish I got a picture of the man operating this thing – he had a handlebar moustache like I have never seen!
Me and my new friends about to cross the valley
The cable car from a distancr
The view - nothing but cloud forest!
We hiked for a long time and saw 5 different waterfalls. We went swimming at this one!
The rest of our time in Mindo was dedicated to eating more brownies, playing cards/banan-o-grams, checking out the wildlife and going to a “birds and breakfast” (sadly not as many birds as i hoped, but there was a cute 2 week old puppy!). Here are some photo highlights!
The Adventures of ALi! 
Estoy tan emocionado para usted!
I’m pretty sure we swam in that same exact waterfall! So much fun!