First off, it is confirmed! It is not that I am a old, balding, fat, out-of-shape geezer (well..... maybe old and bald but not the others!) it is that the altitude can take the wind out of anyone!
Yesterday (Friday, Dec. 25th) I took a 7 hour hike thru the cloud forests around Mindo up and over a ridge and down into another river canyon to a bunch of cool water falls (pictures to follow!). I probably covered about 12+ miles and traversed up at least a 1000meters elevation gain, about the same as the killer "hike" along the flanks of Volcan Ruminahui
Unlike then, this time around I was barely tired. The only difference was that Friday´s hike was at less than 1500 meter altitude (unlike the 3800 meter base on the Ruminahui hike!)
Arrived in Mindo day before yesterday (Thursday, Dec. 23rd) by bus. Super convenient! $2.50 for the 2.5 hour bus ride from Quito to Mindo.
Stayed the last couple of nights at the Mindo Garden Lodge about 4 kms outside of Mindo, along the Rio Mindo. Nice place, but I am not likely to stay there again. For $50+ per night I would expect at least running hot water 24 x 7 in the sink and shower not spotty hot water in the shower and none in the sink. The $20 hostal in Quito was "nicer"! Nice and very very helpful manager called Rodrigues and a nice restaurant
Spent the afternoon wandering around the one street that constitutes Mindo and took a zipline tour, a.k.a "Canopy Tour" of the cloud forest. 10 traverses including one that was 700 meters long. Fun!
And oh, it rains all the time in the cloud forest. The last 1/3rd of the hike was in pouring rain and I returned to the lodge sopping wet! The good news was that it was nice, warm, tropical rain!
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Ecuador is such a diverse and peaceful country. The weather, the colonial cities and the people are just fantastic. Nothing compares to the landscapes of the Highlands, the lush of the Amazon Rainforest, the exotic Beaches of the Coast and the mystery of the Galapagos Islands.
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