Mindo

*This blog does not have many pictures because I am having a hard time finding a place with the bandwidth to upload them. I hope to have the NBC pictures up on a few days time*

I just got back from another weekend excursion away from Quito. I took classes and worked until about 2 o´clock on Friday afternoon, and then we caught the 3:30 bus (turned out to be the 5:00 bus because our bus broke its axel on the last trip) to a town about two hours north of Quito called Mindo. As we would later find out, Mindo was created by a rich businessman from Quito that had made all of his money writing a ¨history of alcohol¨ and used the proceeds to buy this large piece of old growth cloud forest to harvest the timber. Well, while this guy is out surveying his newly purchased timber has an epiphany, he sees god, and god tells him to protect the forest and not destroy it. From hence was born the Mindo cloud forest and tourist destination.

The journey begins actually before we arrived in Mindo, because as the giant coach bus wound its way around the curvy roads that descend from 9,500 feet to 5,500 feet, the driver must have been in a fight with his wife ON THE CELL PHONE. He barrelled down the road, passing cars at 80. In Latin America it is considered customary to pass when ever given the option, and so our driver was often three wide across blind turns while on his cell phone. Needless to say I never want to sit up front of a coach bus here again.

The Hostel in Mindo was recommended by a friend from the South American Explorers, and at 5 dollars a night, how could we turn it down? The nicest old lady in the world shows us our rooms. As she showed us the first room (Stewarts) and she opened the door, something was immediately different. It was then I realized that Stewart’s room was simply missing a wall! Situated on the second floor, his room consisted of a ledge built underneath an overhanging barn roof, just wide enough to hold the bed, and with safety board built in. My room had walls and windows, but no glass in the windows...

After settled into the Hostel, we heard the crickets for the first time since leaving the states, and faintly, far off, Roadhouse Blues by The Doors being sung in perfect English. Following our ears across town, we found an open air bar with dirt floors, selling nothing but the local beer in bottles, and a bunch of pictures of Bob Marley up on the walls. After asking the barman for his best beer (he only had one kind) we saw a three piece local Ecuadorian band wailing out some Eric Clapton. Keep in mind that this is the FIRST time I had heard American music in about a month... Upon set break I find out that the singer/lead guitar player is a 45 year old English teacher at a high school in Quito, never been to America, and ¨learned all his English from rock n´roll.¨

Awesome

The next day we went down to the center of town and caught a ride up to the waterfalls with a bunch of study abroaders from Oregon (don’t worry; they didn’t know you Bobby I asked). Now a ¨ride¨ in Mindo consists of jumping onto the back of a pick up truck that has been specially outfitted with metal bars to hold you inside as you pay a dollar for the scariest and fastest ride you have ever been on up the side of a mountain. We got to the top only to find that we were going to have to walk down to the waterfalls about 700 meters, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that’s over 2000 feet, and its not horizontal, that’s 2000 vertical feet. So we hike down the skinny, narrow as all get out trail only to arrive upon a huge house with concrete water slide and 40 foot jump over the waterfalls!

This is a side note about SA (South America) in general, in America if you arrive upon a house or other large edifice in the woods, you are used to having some kind of access road that you used to get here. Here you can walk along the most unrecognizable trail in the world only to arrive upon a mansion because all the materials were brought here by hand down the same scary narrow trail you walked down

On the way back we stopped by at a local coffee plantation and for the first time I saw what a coffee bush looks like. This is a beverage that I have consumed on a weekly basis for the past 8-10 years, and to date I had no idea what a coffee plant looks like.

The plant can produce 30-40 pounds every year for up to 20 years I think it was. The bean (surprise) is actually green with a red outer covering when ripe.

The next morning we got up and went ¨tubing.¨ Again to harp on a familiar refrain, the Ecuadorian idea of tubing is a little bit different. They take about 6 or 7 18-wheeler tubes (with scary metal air input still attached); lash them together, and then put 4 to 5 people on them as they ride down a river that rivals the Ocoee. These too are lashed to the top of a big pickup truck for the ride up there (see soon to come picture).

We came back that afternoon (Sunday) and began our search for the Today Show crew. Stewart and I became friends with a local guy, Milton, who ran the tourist information office, and together we called all of the rich haciendas around Mindo to see if any of the NBC crew was staying there. No luck with the first five, but at last this guy Milton calls his friend that works close to one the places called Bella Vista, and he says that he ¨thinks¨ that the NBC crew is up around this town that calls itself Mindo, but is actually separate.

Off of this tip Stewart and I paid another truck driver 10 bucks to hitch a ride up to this bird preserve/fancy resort called Bella Vista. Sure enough after a another 70mph harrowing ride for thirty minutes in the back of a truck, we rolled up on three very large vans full of technical gear, a bunch of cables, and several mean looking security guards armed with sawed off shotguns. We had arrived, here was NBC! We off-loaded and began to walk through the gates to this Swiss-family Robinson style series of houses perched on the top of a cloud forest mountain, over 7000 feet up and on the equator. You could tell Stewart and I were not their usual fare because we were immediately surrounded by people offering to help, asking if we had reservation. It was a little intimidating at first, but then we saw why we came: there sitting quietly on the porch of one of these houses was the man himself, Al Roker. We talked to Al briefly, asked the usual questions: ¨how’s the weather?¨ ¨so where you from?¨ ¨what do you think of Ecuador¨ etc. Then we got a picture and were invited to come back the next morning for the show.

Sure as rain, we came back the next morning for the show, and got to watch it live in person. Stewart and I were the ONLY two Americans there that had any idea of what the show was or the fact it was being broadcast live to 30 million Americans. While we were there watching the show, we got to talking to chef who was doing all of the food for Al to eat (clearly a native Ecuadorian but with perfect English). He asks us the standard questions, but when we responded that we were from Alabama, he was taken aback a bit. Turns out that this guy’s dad was from Alabama, he lived there for 10 years, and went to UAB! He came back here and started Ecuador’s first catering service (needless to say this guy is really successful) and the short of it was that this guy gave us a ride back to Quito for free while we caught up on the goings on in Alabama.

While we didn’t get interviewed on the Today Show, we still got to hang out with the crew and met a new friend. All in all a good weekend! I start work next week teaching Ecuadorian street children math and how to read!

Please check back in a few days to see if I got the pictures up…

Till next time

Merrill