ECUADOR, MINDO PART 4: MORE BIRDS AND STREET FOOD

March 19, 2022

Having had our day of recovery, it was time for Geneil and me to join our husbands on a birding expedition. I got up at 4:30 AM to be ready to meet our birding guide at 5:20. All of us were on time and waiting, but no guide. At about 6:15 AM, Terry and Geneil and I went back to our rooms, and I went back to sleep for an hour. Meanwhile, Bob called, texted, and emailed the guide but got no response.

Eventually, the hotel owner started looking for another guide for us, and one showed up around 8:00 AM in a very small taxi. We were dubious. Who would stay behind? Apparently, there are contingency plans for that. The four of us squeezed into the taxi and the guide sat in the open trunk, his legs dangling over the rear bumper. The hotel people said that is common in Mindo. I wish I had gotten a picture, but it felt too awkward.

We drove about 30 minutes up a winding road to a large parking lot surrounded by jungle.  You can see why this area is called a cloud forest.

According to a sign, there are some waterfalls about a mile down the trail.

Green growing things are everywhere and on everything.

The guide, who spoke very little English, set up a monocular on a tripod. We saw a few birds, most notably toucans, but it was probably too late in the morning to see much, even for Bob with his long lens.

We decided to go back to the last place Bob and Terry had been the day before, but our guide had sent the taxi away and had to call another one, so we walked up a road to a place that would be more convenient for pick up. I was intrigued by this sign, so I looked up what it means when I got home. "Playback" refers to using birdsong recordings to attract birds. It is considered an unethical practice.

There was a little outdoor restaurant where we could wait, and because we used their bathroom, we felt compelled to buy something. We ordered horchata, expecting the sweet rice-based white Mexican drink, but we got a sour red drink. According to the internet, it is made of a variety of herbs and flowers including bloodleaf, lemon verbena, lemon grass, mint, chamomile, lemon balm, and rose geranium. They also gave us a taste of a hot drink called colada morada, which can be seen in the top picture on  menu below. It is made of spiced berries and purple corn. We also had a tamal, much like a Mexican tamale, but wrapped in banana leaves rather than corn husks.

When the taxi arrived, it was a double-cab truck, so our guide stood up in the back. We drove about 30 minutes to the Milpi Bird Sanctuary,  We saw two species of toucans Bob and Terry had seen the day before,

 . . . as well as lots of smaller birds that came out to eat banana or plantain slices placed on a horizontal branch. 

Every community has its scavengers.

There were also three hummingbird feeders with plenty of hummingbird traffic. 

Terry demonstrated his "hummingbird whisperer" skills. 

We stayed there about an hour and a half, then asked to be taken to the Mariposas de Mindo so that Geneil and I could share some of our experience with our husbands. Our guide must have thought he was hired for the day (and we did pay $130 and a $20 tip, so maybe he was), but we were done birdwatching and had to coax him to leave us when we got to the butterfly place.

We stayed about a half hour at the butterfly place, then took a cab into town for dinner.  It turns out it was Terry's birthday, so we wanted to find an especially good restaurant. We walked up and down the main street looking for the best place and finally settled on one that was not the best place, but not awful either. The best thing I ate was trout ceviche. It was warm and flavorful--and very different from seafood ceviche.

My main dish, beef in some kind of sweet sauce, was meh.

Geneil and I had seen a bakery on our city walk the day before, and we went out looking for it, hoping to procure a birthday cake. During our quest, we walked all over town, sampling street food at three different places. The first had fried pork with beans and lettuce.

The next place was a cart where a woman assembled a cone of pork rind, beans, and salsa.

The third place had roasted corn on the cob with kernels the size of hominy.

The vendor rolled the cob in butter and sprinkled it with cheese, much like elotes (Mexican street corn). Bob like it so much that he went back for seconds. 

Glory be! Is that in ice cream shop? The sign says "The legitimate ice creams of Paila Pomaque, now in Mindo, passion fruit with basil and coffee chili with cocoa honey."

The owner/shopkeeper described how the sorbet is made in a copper bowl nestled in a large bowl of ice and salt. Nothing mechanized here--truly handmade.

We still hadn't found the bakery, and we were feeling a bit like this dog we saw sleeping on the sidewalk.

When we found the bakery, we discovered it was next door to the restaurant where we had eaten, but we had gone out the other way. After all that, it wasn't very good. We should have gone back to the chocolate museum for one of their incredible brownies.

That wraps up our two days in this charming Andean cloud forest village.

We got back to the hotel at about 4:00, plenty of time to get ready for our 6:30 pick up that would take us back to Quito. We had asked the owner about vacating our rooms in the morning, but she said it was fine to leave everything there in the room. Well, it wasn't fine because they had cleaned out our rooms while we were gone for the next guests. We had not completely packed, so it was a bit annoying. 

Our driver was early (6:15), so we got a good start on the long drive back to Quito, arriving at the Quito Wyndham Hotel at about 8:45 PM.

As we were checking in, the person at the desk noted that it was Terry's birthday. They upgraded his room to the "club level" on the 4th floor and sent up a customized passion fruit cake with "Happy Birthday Theron!" scrawled in icing on the top. That's amazing customer service.