This past weekend I went with a group of friends to Mindo Cloud Forest and explored more of Quito.
We left for Mindo on Thursday late afternoon, it was a beautiful 2 hour drive from Quito to Mindo. The drive consisted of stunning views of lush, untouched greenery, windy roads and listening to music – it was BLISS!
We stayed in a lovely hostel (Casa Armonia y Jardin Orchadias ) which had an amazing orchid garden (there were over 200 species of orchids in the garden and are over 4000 species throughout Ecuador) and breakfast included (fruit, juice, tea/coffee, bread and eggs).
1. Tour of the orchid gardens – throughout the tour I kept saying, “Wow”, “Wow, this is beautiful”, “OMG!’
(over 4000 species of orchids in Ecuador)
(over 200 types in the gardens)
2. Butterfly Garden (Mariposario) – This is one of Mindo’s main attractions, at first I was not comfortable because I’m still working through my relationship towards animals and insects (lool) but I soon loosed up and I held a butterfly which was great, because it was able to push myself to do it! We got to see all the various stages in a butterfly’s life, the cocoon stage fascinated me alot, especially the metallic gold and silver – they looked very cool and almost unrealistic.
3. Air tram (Tarabita) & Hike – First, we hopped onto the tarabita which is like a cable car that goes through the forest, from one end to another, allowing us to hike and see waterfalls on the other side.
4. Panecillo – It is a hill which has a statue of Virgin Mary (who is trampling a snake on top of the world) at the top and it was built in 1955. The podium at the bottom of the statue houses a museum inside which is full of information and art about the many churches in Quito. The views from the statues are stunning and you can see the Old Historic Center and the many mountain peaks that surround Quito.
T’was a great weekend and there’s so much still to do and see in Quito and Ecuador.
Until next week,
Ciao,
Omamerhi <3
