Mindo Madness

We arrived in Mindo, in the middle of dense fog, not knowing where to go or anything about the town other than it was in the cloudforest. Luckily, an owner of local hostel was at the bus station and offered to drive us to her place, El Rocio. It turned out to be nearby and not too bad so we decided to stay. Mindo is famous for its birds, over 400 species, and I saw many just sitting in the hammock deck in the early morning. They would wake us up every morning, very early, with all their calls and chirping.

The next day we set out to the forest reserve to hike to the many waterfalls. We went with a couple of American girls who were staying in the hostel with us. The park is accessed via a cable car that sends you flying several hunderd meters up in the air across the canyon. The cloudforest is a very interesting environment. The vegetation looks very much like the jungle only it doesn´t grow as high. There is also not the same amount of diversity and no monkeys. :(

We first hiked out to the largest waterfall, a good 45 mintues one way. Saw lots of bugs and crazy plants. After that we hiked down to another group of falls that had some pretty good swimming. It was sort of like the potholes but in the jungle. We hiked back up to the cable car only to find a large group of school kids ferrying across, so we sat down to wait our turn. After about 10 or so crossings the pulleys on the cable car began to smoke and we were informed that was it for the day. So we had to hike back down the canyon and up the other side. Not too bad but we were pretty tired and hungary by this point. We caught a ride back into town in the back of a truck and had a an awesome meal at a local resturant.
The next day we decided to go do the canopy ziplines, a dozen or so cables, streching 1.7km above the forest. It was pretty crazy, but I didn´t bring my camera so no pics, sorry. After this we decided to head back to Quito on the afternoon bus rather than the 630 am bus the next day. This would give us more time to prepare for the wedding and hangout with everyone else who had arrived in Ecuador since we left Quito.

I am getting way behind in my postings now as we have had the wedding and now been in the Galapogos for a few days. Its awesome... so many crazy animals.

A Tena Adventure

Wow, time seems to be flying by and I am getting way behind on these posts. We had an awesome time in the jungle but it seems like that was months ago now. We went on a rafting trip with a company called the River People, run by a couple of Irish brothers who moved to Ecuador with their parents when they were 14 and started a rafting company. A great company and I would highly recommend them if you are ever visiting the area.

We met early in the morning and found that there were a bunch of Canadian who were doing volunteer work going rafting as well. We drove out to the end of the road were we had to hike half an hour down a mud hole of a trail to the river. Not an easy feat in flip flops, and I had to resort to bare feet several times. We arrived at the river and our guide Alex told us we were going to go hike up a canyon for a swim while they prepared the boats. It turned out to be one of the coolest swimming holes I have ever seen. It was located in a deep canyon, cutting through the jungle floor. We had to scramble along the sides until we got to a wide pool were the creek poured in from a cave in the side. You could sit under the small waterfall and watch the water pouring down in front of your face. You could also climb up into the cave, up another waterfall and get to a cliff above the pool were you could jump back in. The canyon was pretty dark, so the pictures didn´t turn out to well. You´ll just have to trust me that it was awesome.

After the swim we returned to the river and loaded up into the boats. The trip we did went down one very techincal river, to join up with another which had bigger rapids. (If i remeber the names I´ll post them.) The river quickly dove into a deep canyon, with the jungle rising up on both sides. At fairly regular intervals, waterfalls would pour from vast heights, blown into mist by the time they reach us at the river. Through out the entire trip we were constatly being buzzed by all sorts of birds and butterflies. No large animals though. There was lots of paddling in the first river to avoid all the rocks, but the rapids were not too crazy. Our boat was pretty good at working together by the time we pulled out for lunch. We had an amazing meal at the confluence of the two rivers and then set out to tackle the big rapids. They were crazy

but our boat paddled well and we made it through them all including the Wafflemaker. This rapid consited of several house sized boulders to dodge followed by a river wide hole that just swallowed our boat.We escaped with our flipping and contiuned down the river. There were also several waterfalls that you could swim under. The water was super warm as it was all rain fed. A great day, although I got a pretty bad sunburn.

The next day we headed out early to the Shangrila Jungle lodge for a jungle hike. The lodge was located high on a cliff above the Napo Rio, and had amazing views of the jungle below. After breakfest, we headed out with our guide to explore the jungle. He told us about all the different uses for the plants, climbed trees to pick fruit for us and showed all sort of crazy bugs. This yellow grenade looking fruit had a very slimey, sweet meat. It was really good but it grossed Katie out.One type was the lemon ant, which lives in a certain type of tree and tastes like lemons. They were indeed very sour but hard to eat as they kept crawling everywhere. There were all kinds of bugs and I got lots of pictures. Here is one of a crazy looking spider, they were pretty common. I did get to see one monkey in the wild. A small cappuchin, but he was too quick and I didn´t get a picture. I was happy to actually get to see a monkey, even if it was briefly. After a while we started hiking up a small creek and into a tiny slot canyon. It got very narrow in places, so much so that you could only fit sideways. Several sections involved a fair bit of climbing, but nothing too crazy. In one section the roof covered the top and it became very cave like. There were bats roosting on the roof and would swoop down over our heads as we passed. The whole hike took all morning and we arrived back at the lodge in time for a late lunch. After lunch we went inner tubing down the Napo Rio. I didn´t take my camera, so no pictures. It was nice to cruze down the river but after rafting it seemed a little dull at times. I had hoped that we´d see some more animals, but Tena is not deep enough into the jungle and most of the larger animals have been driven away. After tubing we returned to the lodge, were we hung out on the hammock deck, watched the sunset, and had an exellent dinner.I got some good pictures of some of the strange bugs that were also hanging out with us.

The next day we caught an early bus back to Quito, had lunch and then caught another bus to Mindo, a small town on the west side of the Andes in the Cloudforest. That will have to wait for the next post, as well as the details from the wedding.

A few jungle photos from Cuyabeno...

Jess on the ride into the jungle, looking blissfully happy at the prospect of leaving Quito.


Our cabin, bug free thanks to the lack of thatched roof.


A baby tarantula (it was the size on my hand!). These live in the thatched roofs, another plus of not having one.


Sunset on the Laguna Grande.

Mountains to the Jungle

Hey all, I have been pretty busy since the last post so I have a lot to fill you in on. Since the last post I have climbed several more mountains. Sam and I tried to climb Guagua Pinchicha via the telefriqo but arrived to find it closed for repairs. We decided to try to hike up from the base but were blocked by a guard. Another guard told us that we could get permission at the main office. After a drawn out conversation, mostly limited by our Spanish, another guard was found who spoke a little more English. Apparently, hiking from the bottom pretty much guarantees you´ll be mugged, or as he put it ¨You could be dead!¨ Instead we went for a hike in another park were we scrambled down into a pretty crazy drainage. The soil was very erosive so the creek
quickly became very entrenched and we had to scramble down the canyon spider man style. It was a lot of fun but I didn´t have my camera so no pictures until I get Sam´s. The hike ended in climbing up an old rockwall that was about 20 meters high and started as a slab then you had to transfer on to an arete. I´d say it was about a 5.4 which is plenty hard when its wet and you have no rope.

Having done all the hikes on our own we hired a guide, Caesar, for a 4 day trip to climb three different mountains. The first we climbed was Illinzas Norte, about 5126 meters. We drove out to the base and started the climb in good weather.
The Norte is the one on the right.


A close up of Illizinas Sur, a more technical peak... looks like it had some good lines up it.


We made good time to the refuge and started up the face of the mountain. As we started to climb a thunderstorm rolled in and began to crash around our heads. I have never heard anything like it. We could hear the lightning as well as the thunder. It sounded like giant springs or some electric machinery. It was really crazy. We got to about 50 meters below the summit but from there we need to to follow the ridge up to the summit, where we would be very exposed to lightning strikes.

Sam ¨The Lightning Rod¨ Lambert´s toque was sticking out in all directions so we decided to not risk the last bit and be satisfied with almost the top. Caesar told us that no one had been killed on the climb by lightning in two years and he didn´t want to change that. As we started to descent, the hail started and by the time we were down it looked like it had snowed. Overall, a pretty fun climb even if we didn´t summit.

We spent that night at El Chupi in a small ranch/hostel. It was bloody cold but they had a ping pong table and a pool table so we had lots of entertainment. The next day we set out to Cotopaxi National Park were we climbed Rumihuhui, which is about 4600 meters. It was a nice day although there were some clouds at the top. It was nice hiking through the high altitude grasslands as the views were unblocked in all directions.
The landscape could easily pass for something from Mars due to all the volcanic activity. There was not much wild life due to the altitude but we spotted a few hawks and there are a few wild llamas in the park. That night we slept in some cabanas in the park and were treated to an amazing sunset.

The next day we set out for the climber refuge on the Cotopaxi at about 4800 meters.
It was a fairly tame hike up though a little slow as it was through volcanic sand and we were weighed down with all our climbing gear. We settled into the refuge and then headed up to the glacier so Sam could get some practice in crampons. It was a little cloudy but despite the whiteout Sam decided he felt good to climb. We returned to the refuge to hydrate and try to sleep. It turns out that at 4800 meters it is very hard to sleep as it feels like you are suffocating. Caesar said that it gets better with time but it was not long before we started our summit attempt. We left at 2am under cold, clear conditions the sky only lit by starts. At about 5000 meters there is a large sand patch as the volcano is heating up and melting the snow in places. Climbing a mountain of sand at 5000 meters is brutal. Luckily this only last a couple hundred meters before we were back on the snow. As we reached the last section the sun came over the horizon and illuminated some amazing snow features. Huge icicles and windswept formations surrounded us. We pushed on to the summit. The last few sections seemed to go on forever but soon we were on the top, 5897 meters. The crater lay below us and the view in all directions was unlimited. There was a faint smell of sulphur in the air as well to remind us we were on a volcano. We did the climb in 5 hours and it is supposed to take 6 to 8, so I think we did pretty well. There was only one other group on the mountain that day and they were in worse shape although they did make it to the top.

The climb down was very hot and sunny but soon we were back at the refuge, tired but happy to have made it to the top. Originally, I had planned to climb Chimbarozo as well, but I decided that there was too much else to see and I didn´t want to commit more time to climbing. So after a day of rest in Quito we set out for Papallacta, a hot springs in the cloud forest east of Quito.

Gonzolos and Michelle, Dani´s parents, treated us to an awesome time at the Thermas, a very nice resort. (Thanks so much!!) We rode out in the back of a truck, regular form of transport here, which allowed for amazing views along the way. We went on a short hike when we arrived through the surrounding cloud forest which could best be described as a mini jungle.













It is very lush and there are many flowers, birds and plants. It is still fairly high up so it is cooler and doesn´t grow as high. The trail went on a loop up along a creek where we saw lots of orchids and hummingbirds.

Flora podula (sp?) flower, apparently if you sit under them you´ll fall asleep. They can also be used to make some crazy drugs.


Katie, Carla and Andres on the hike.









We had amazing meals at the restaurant and soaked in the hot pools. It was nice to relax after all the climbing.

The next day Katie and I set out on our own to Tena, a town on the edge of the Amazon Jungle. The bus ride out was a little crazy as the road was pasted on to the side of the mountain and wound its way into the jungle. The fast paced music blasting in the bus only seemed to make the driver go faster. On top of that he was racing another bus to beat him to the towns to get passengers first. We some how managed to arrive in one piece in Tena, which is very hot and muggy.

Today we went for a walk in a nature reserve located just across the river from our hostel. It was pretty cool to see all the plants and they had several animals as well. Some had adequate pens or were free to roam, however, the cats (a jaguar and an ocelot) were in cages way too small. I felt pretty bad to seem them like that. It wasn´t clear if they had been caught for display or It wasn´t the same as seeing them in the wild but still pretty cool to get to see monkeys and other animals. From what Katie has told me from here jungle trip, it may be the only chance I get to see them.

We also have booked a rafting trip down 40 km of class III and IV rapids for tomorrow. It also includes a jungle trek and canyoneering. It should be interesting. We are also going on a guided hike through the jungle on Sunday. Hopefully we will have a good guide and learn lots of interesting things about the jungle plants and their uses. I´ll leave you with a bunch of pictures from our walk in the reserve. I´ll try to make another update after this weekend.



Katie in the Nature reserve. The trails wandered through 27 hectares located on across the river from our hostel. We pretty much had the place to ourselves, apart from a few workers doing some maintenance. There were lots of cool plants although some areas seemed artificially maintained.














A cayman lurking in a pond at the reserve. Katie didn´t believe it was a cayman and thought it was a log.











A squirrel monkey (the little one) and some other monkey (should have taken a photo of the sign. These guys were free to roam around but there were two other monkeys that were caged.










A small toucan that was flying about.














Some of the colourful vegetation. There were so many crazy looking flowers and plants. Hopefully I will know more about them after our guided hike.










The leafs here come in so many shapes and sizes. Some of the stuff growing in the wild here looks exactly like house plants I have seen sold in Canada.