Went to Mindo on Friday with some other BCAers. Caught a cab with Julie, Ashley, and Alex to get to the Estación Ofelia. Our cabbie was quite the talker and we ended up talking a lot about Quito and los Estados Unidos. Then he went on a vocabulary rampage and was asking us what all these Spanish words meant in English. Grande = big. Mercado = market. Chico = boy. Hermosa = beautiful. Then we got to the word chica, which means girl. the Spanish language doesn't have the guttural sounds that you find in "girl." We kept repeating the word, but he refused to say it. He kept on gaping at us and asking us to repeat it. He was like "No puedo. no puedo." (I can't. I can't.) Haha. At one point he told us in Spanish "Let me arrange my throat first." Haha. We never got him to say it, but it was by far the best cab ride. Ever. Got to the bus stop and met up with some other BCAers. Set up camp in the back of the bus and settled down for a 2 hour bus ride to Mindo, NW of Quito. Drove past some pretty sweet cloud forests.
Got there and our hostal host was waiting at the bus stop for us. We walked about 5 minutes to the hostal, which we had all to ourselves. The two boys stayed in a room on the second floor and us girls had the whole upper floor to ourselves. There was an open area with 7 beds and then three private rooms. A balcony with hammocks, and a bathroom. After we dropped off our stuff, our hostal host walked us back into town where we ate at a taco restaurant. Then we went to the park where we proceeded to be "those annoying gringos." We played Never Have I Ever aka 10 Fingers, which brought up some interesting conversations. Played Big Booty, too. Then we played Zip Bong (the game where you can't show your teeth). Man was that entertaining. Haha. Good times. Good times. Met up with Kaitlin and Vince in town (they came on a later bus), and then headed back to the hostal where we proceeded to get ready for bed and have girl talk. Ashley didn't want to sleep by herself with all the bugs. If there were going to be bugs in her bed, she wanted someone else to be there too, so she came and slept with me. Haha.
Woke up when the sun did...and the roosters. Hard to sleep past sunrise here at the equator. Ate breakfast at the hostal. Delicious and nutritious...and filling. Then we headed out to go canopying! Let me tell you. Best. Idea. Ever. Nine of us went out there. $10 for 13 lines, which took us at least an hour and a half. Totally worth it. Just the rush you get when you're soaring over the forest which is meters and meters below you and you are only suspended by some ropes and metal pieces that connect you to a cable. Awesome. The first few lines we did normally, but then our guides gave us the option of Mariposa (butterfly) or Superman. To do this, you went with one of the guides. Keita was the first one to brave the Mariposa. Basically, what it looks like is imagine you're standing. Now turn yourself upside down and spread your arms and legs out so they look like butterfly wings. Yep. That's it. Then there was Superman, which was the one I did. They hook you to the cable by the back or your belt and then you wrap your legs around the guide who is behind you and hold your arms out in front of you. It's an ab workout, but it's a thrill. After that we went tubing down a freezing cold river. They had 7 inner tubes tied together and they had you sit on the spaces where they were connected, not in the tubes because then you might get some nasty bruises from the rocks. Luckily there were two guides that went along to steer the tubes around most of the rocks. Had they not been there we would most definitely have lost some lives. Don't worry, Mom. I'm here safe and sound. $6 for 20 minutes and a whole lot of group bonding as we bounced around on top of each other and proceeded to freeze our toes off. Cleaned up at the hostal and then went back into town for lunch. Afterwards, Ashley, Joy, and I headed back to the hostal while the others went around town. The three of us decided we had done all that we had really wanted to do in Mindo and we didn't want to pay for another night in the hostal, so we took the 5:00 bus back to Quito.
Went to church on Sunday. Gringo David gave the sermon about what it means to be a Mennonite. Mucho más fácil entender y muy interestante. (A lot easier to understand and very interesting.) Went home and then my mom, brother, grandmother, and grandmother's friend went to a restaurant way south. It was a very nice restaurant. I ordered fritada, which consisted of carne, llapingachos, avacado, fried bananas, mote, and some other sides. De-licious. Everyone else ordered the locro (soup) and it came with, I don't know how to say it....congealed cow's blood? I think. Strange. Then we headed to Quicentro, the mall in South Quito. We just wandered around the place, checking it out. I thought I hated shopping in the States. It's crowded like Christmas here 24/7. Ugh. Got some ice cream at one of the 2,749 ice cream shops in the mall. Headed to Tumbaco to drop off Grandma and her friend. Got to Grandma's house and saw that there was an accident on the corner. So of course we had to go see what happened. No deaths, but one of the cars looked pretty bad. Broken glass everywhere. Turns out this has now been the third accident I've seen in Quito. I guess they do happen. Went home, did some homework, and got ready for another week of classes.
More later,
Lizzie
I stayed at the same hostal. It was a nice one. and canopying was definitely the best choice you could have made there ever, although as a biologist you should have gone to the mariposa gardens too... haha, glad you're getting out and about well and having fun!
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