Monday, August 22, 2016

Mindo, Ecuador

The great thing about Ecuador is that for such a small country, it seems to have every climate and landscape all in one.  It has your mountains, beaches, and the Amazon.  Mindo was a small up and coming tourist town that was one of my favorite places within Ecuador because the surrounding was so lush and green.
For some reason, it was difficult for my friend Cynthia and I to get a bus to Mindo.  We wandered around the bus station for about an hour before we found one that took us near Mindo.  The bus stopped about 4 miles from the town.  I was ready to walk the rest of the way but my travel buddy said I was insane especially with out huge backpacks.  So my budgeting self reluctantly split a cab down to the town.  When we finally arrived in the town, the cab dropped us off at a backpackers hostel we had read about online.  We had no reservations (as I never once had reservations for anything) but the hostel was completely full.  We walked around the town for a while until we finally found the coolest little cabins that we stayed in for about $10 per person per night.

My new friend Cynthia and I found our bonding... Pizza.  We ate so much pizza and drank so much beer.  One of the greatest things I loved about traveling was how easily you meet people that are total strangers and become lifelong friends overnight.  Everyone is looking for friends because most travelers are traveling alone.  We all have something in common and love to find ourselves travel buddies.

Mindo has a ton of activities to choose from but we chose to do "tubing."  It was similar to rafting only we had no control and sat on big black tubes with our guides helping them along and keeping us safe.  Amazingly fun and thrilling activity, no doubt, but damn was it cold!  It was the beginning of December but in general Mindo is a pretty cool place.

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