ECUADOR: MINDO, PART 2 - DOWNTOWN, CHOCOLATE TOUR, A STORM, FINE DINING

 March 17, 2022

After our time at the butterfly refuge, we got a cab to take us downtown, where we enjoyed the small markets and noted a few unusual items, such as a whole pig strung up by its snout in a grocery store right behind the eggs and bunches of beautiful roses grown in Ecuador being sold on the street.

"Arroz Viejo" translates as "old rice."  Doesn't sound too appealing to me.

Plantains--a huge staple of the Ecuadoran diet--are for sale everywhere. 

I'll always stop to admire a mural, and Mindo has one about a block long.

Like so many Latin communities, the center of town is a park. I wish I knew more about the barefooted hiker spray-painted gold who guards one of the entrances.

Ecuador has 132 species of hummingbirds, so it is appropriate to have a statue in the park of a mama hummingbird feeding her baby.

The Church of San Vicente Ferrer, Patron Saint of Mindo, is on the main street. It is a simple but delightful parish church--nothing too fancy.

Our next stop was a "Tour de Chocolate" at El Quetzel.

We had an excellent guide who walked us through the chocolate production process, very literally "from bean to bar." We saw the whole cacao fruit and the interior with the beans encased in a tart, moist substance.

Then we saw cacao pods growing on the trees. 

We learned about genetic manipulations that have created a lower quality fruit but on a tree that can produce the fruit in half the time. (Note to self: Always choose the golden cacao over the red cacao.)

We admired the beautiful plants growing among the cacao trees.

Cacao beans are  fermented under banana leaves and then spread out to dry. At this point they can be scooped into sacks and sent to chocolate makers.

We were encouraged to taste the cacao at each step along the way. 

The end tasting was the best. I also ate a brownie made onsite that was the stuff dreams are made of. I meant to go back for another one later, but I never got around to it. I'll just have to keep dreaming about it.

Cacao beans aren't grown in Mindo, other than the trees used for the tour. Most of the beans are grown at low elevations, then shipped to places like Mindo to be made into chocolate. (I wonder if the fermentation process is easier at higher, damper elevations?) Mindo chocolate is supposedly some of the best in Ecuador.

A storm was moving in (we later learned that it rains most days around 4:00), so we caught a cab back to our hotel. The cost for the 10-12 minute ride was $2. The hotel is a couple of miles down a dirt road. There is a crazy bridge that crosses the Mindo River about half-way in. The road goes up quite steeply, then levels out on top, and then angles sharply down again. (The pictures don't do it justice.) I can see why buses are not allowed on it!

I was still pretty tired from the travel the previous day, so I laid down for a nap.

It didn't take long for the tropical deluge to begin. It was wonderful to lie on the bed and listen to the pelting rain and watch the storm through the open sliding glass door to the balcony. 

Bob and Terry were still out with the birding guide, and I wondered if they were getting soaked.

The rain stopped after an hour or so, and the grounds of the hotel seemed more vibrant than ever.

Bob and Terry made it back in one piece around 3:30. They had a glorious day, according to Bob, with sightings of about 70 or 80 new-to-him birds. 

At about 5:15 we took a cab to a restaurant a block or two from the main street that runs through Mindo. We sat outside on a covered terrace and enjoyed the cooler air ushered in by the storm.

We had a variety of dishes, some just average and others very good. We began with plantains topped with cheese and an order of fries . . .

. . . followed by a good salad and a squash soup I thought would be fantastic but was only average.

Bob had some good trout--a dish we saw on practically every menu, and someone had some pork with a fruity glaze.

I think I had the best dish of all, a bread bowl stuffed with tender chunks of beef and smothered with cheese. It was a WOW dish.