Mindo

Kirjutatud nädal tagasi, postitada jõudsin alles nüüd...

Eelmisel nädalavahetusel õnnestus meil lõpuks Mindo’s ära käia! Olime juba mitu nädalavahetust plaaninud Mindo’sse minna, ent muud plaanid tulid vahele. Laupäeva hommikul sisenesime lõpuks kokkulepitud bussi, millest mõned meist muidugi maha jäid, ja asusime Mindo poole teele. Sõit kestis veidi üle 3 tunni ja magada ei saanud, kuna oli ju vaja aknast välja vaadata J Kohale jõudes oli meile vastu tulnud hostel Rubby omanik. Nime oli hostel saanud omanike esimese poja järgi. Hostel oli pisike, ent armas. Võrkkiikedega nagu siin kohane.

Jätsime asjad hostelisse ning jagasime hosteliomanikega renditud autot seitse kilomeetrit eemal asuva koseni. Koski olen ma siin veedetud kuue nädala jooksul näinud vist küll rohkem, kui terves oma elus kokku...  Eriti meeldejääv oli see kosk aga seetõttu, et seal oli üks kalju, millelt sai jõkke hüpata. Kalju oli 9 meetri kõrgune ja vool üsna tugev. Mina ja Tuve olime need vaprad, kes pärast juhendaja käest mitmeid kordi üle küsimast et kaua ta seal on töötanud ja et kas kõik hüppajad on ikka elus, ka ise hüpata otsustasime. Veepinnale tulles ootas meid juhendaja, kes meid turvaköieni aitas, mida mööda me siis end ükshaaval jõest välja tirisime. Kuna me olime muidugi nii targad, et ükski meist ei võtnud rätikut kaasa, siis jalutasime 7 kilomeetrit Mindoni läbimärgadena. Meie õnneks paistis päike ja kilomeetrid möödusid kiirelt.

Tagasi Mindo’sse jõudes olime ülimalt näljased, leidsime ühe tüüpilise Ecuadori restorani ning nautisime päevamenüüd, mis koosnes supist, praest värske kala ja salatiga ning mahlast. Kõik kokku maksis umbes $2.50. Seejärel suundusime šokolaadi  ’tehasesse’. Teatavasti on Ecuador üks maailma suurimaid kakaoubade kasvatajaid ja parimad Euroopa šokolaadid on just Ecuadori kakaoubadest tehtud. Ringkäigu alguses tutvustati kakaopuu vilja, mida me ka maitsta saime, samuti proovisime kuivatatud kakaoube. Ehtne mõru šokolaad ilma grammigi suhkruta! Edasi nädati kuidas kulgeb protsess ubadest šokolaadini. Samuti kasvas aias taim, mida kasutatakse diabeetikute shokolaadides, ehk et looduslik magustaja. Samas majas valmistati ka erinevatest puuviljadest õlut ning šokolaadist veel vaha, mett ning erinevaid küpsetamiseks mõeldud kastmeid. Ringkäik lõppes šokolaadi brownide ning samas majas tehtud šokolaadi jäätisega. Nämm!

Õhtul istusime veidi veel meie nädalavahetuse lemmikuks saanud mahlabaaris, kus ligikaudu 30 vilja seast sai valida mahla ja batido(piimaga) vahel, ise samal ajal kiigel õõtsudes. Proovisin ka avokaado batido’t, mis oli justkui piimakokteil ja seejuures väga maitsev. Õhtusöögiks sõime küpsetatud banaane juustuga ja 12 paiku suundusime tagasi hostelisse.

Pühapäeval oli meil varajane äratus. Hosteli perenaine oli juba kell 5.45 meile hommikusööke ette kandmas ja kell 6 väljusime, et minna hosteli peremehega linde vaatlema. Kolme tunni jooksul nägime nii öökulli, papagoid, rähne kui ka pisemaid linde. Kokkuvõttes kõigile meeldis ja mõnel meist õnnestus läbi teleskoobi mõni neist suisa pildile jäädvustada.

Linnuvaatlemise käigus olime taaskord umbes 5 kilomeetrit kõndinud, ning kuna asusime canopy kohale üsna lähedal, otsustasime ka canopy ära proovida. Canopy tähendab mööda trossi ühest otsast teise lenneldes kulgemist. Rada koosnes 13nest sellisest trossist, mõni niest oli kiirem, mõni aeglasem. Samuti õnnestus meil ära proovida ’batmani’ ja ’mariposa’(liblikas, pea alaspidi) asendites lendamist. Väga vahva oli! Sealt tuli meil taaskord mõned kilomeetrid tagasi Mindoni kõndida, et siis liblikamajja minna, kus meile liblikate eluiga ja arengut tutvustati. Hiljem saime mööda ruumi ringi käia ning liblikaid imetleda. Samas kasvanduses olid ka orhideed ja koolibrid, viimaseid neist oli ülimalt raske pildistada, kuna nad ei püsinud üldse mitte paigal...

Nädalavahetus kujunes seega ülimalt tihedaks ja teguderohkeks, pühapäeva pärastlõunaks olime kõik  väga väsinud ja ei suutnud tagasi Quitosse jõudmist ära oodata. Nüüdseks oleme kõik taas välja puhanud ja uuteks seiklusteks valmis. Üksnes sügelevad sääsepunnid tuletavad meelde, et veel mõned päevad tagasi olime metsade ja jõgede keskel.

Nüüd aga salsa tundi. Pikast pidustusterohkest nädalavahetusest juba üsna pea!

L.

Teel kose juurde/On our way to see the waterfall



Hüppasime sealt, kus inimesed seisavad/We jumped from where the people are standing

 

Kiik :)/A swing :)



Kakaopuu vili ja kakaooad/Cocoa fruit and cocoa beans



Öökull/An owl




Tuukan/Toucan



Meie(4 Saksamaalt, 1 Islandilt, 1 Austriast, 1 Šveitsist, mina ja giid) varajastel hommikutundidel/ Us(4 from Germany, 1 from Iceland, 1 from Austria, 1 from Switzerland, me and the guide) early in the morning

Levinud liiklusvahend/ A common view

'Mariposa'

'Batman'

Liblikas/Butterfly



Leia pildilt koolibri/Find a hummingbird



Mindo

Tüüpiline maja, ootamas teist korrust/ A typical house, waiting for the second floor to be built

This was written about a week ago, but I never had time to post it...

We finally managed to organize a trip to Mindo last weekend. We had been planning it for a while, but there was always something that came up at the same time. We started our trip on Saturday morning, of course some of us missed the bus J It took a bit more than 3 hours to get to Mindo and it was impossible to sleep, because there was so much to see on the way. We were greeted by the owner of the hostel where we stayed at as soon as we got off the bus. The hostel was called Rubby(as was the name of the owners first son) and it was small, yet clean and cosy. With hammocks, as almost all the hostels here.

We left our luggage to the hostel and shared a rented car with the owners of the hostel to a waterfall, which was seven kilometers up the mountain. I think I’ve seen more waterfalls within the six weeks here than in all of my life together... I’ll remember this waterfall though, because it had a cliff, which was 9 meters high, where it was possible to jump into the river. Me and Tuve were the brave ones who decided to jump. Of course we asked our instructor tons of questions before we actually jumped, just to be sure it was safe. He insured us that within the 5 years he had worked there there had been no accidents and he also agreed to jump first. He waited for us in the river to lead us to the rope which we had to use to pull ourselves out of water because the stream was quite strong and there was a waterfall just 20 meters from us. We had all left our towels to the hostel and so we dried ourselves with a 7 kilometer walk back to Mindo. J

We decided to have some lunch as soon as we got back to Mindo since we were all starving. We soon found a typical Ecuadorian restaurant and enjoyed the lunch menue, which consisted of some soup, a main meal with fresh fish, rice and salad and a juice. It all only cost around $2.50. We also went to a chocolate ’factory’. Ecuador is known to be one of the biggest exporters of cocoa beans and the best chocolates in Europe are made of Ecuadorian cocoa beans. We were shown the fruit of a cocoa tree, which we could also try. We also had a chance to taste the roasted cocoa beans, which tasted like pure dark chocolate without any sugar. From there we were given a tour of the small factory and we were shown the various steps of chocolate making. There was also a garden where they grew a plant which they used in chocolates for diabetics, the leaves of which were increadibly sweet! Besides chocolate they also made various kinds of beer (of different fruit), honey and various sauces of chocolate. The tour ended with chocolate brownies which were accompanied by homemade chocolate ice-cream. Yumm!

We decided to spend the evening at our favorite juice bar, where it was possible to order a juice or a batido(with milk) choosing from around 30 different fruit. And there were swings instead of chairs! I tried avocado batido for the first time, it was a lot more tasty than I thought it would be. Just like a milkshake J We had baked bananas with cheese for dinner and returned to the hostel at around 12.

We had an early morning on Sunday. The hostess had our breakfast ready by 5.45 and we left the hostel at 6AM to go bird watching. We walked around for 3 hours and saw an owl, parrots, woodpeckers and some smaller birds. We were all happy we went and some of us even managed to capture some pictures of the birds through the telescope.

The next up was Canopy(zip-lines), since we finished bird watching about 5 kilometers from Mindo and it was really close. There were 13 zip-lines, some of which were slower, others faster. We could also try flying in a ’superman’ and ’mariposa’(butterfly, upside down) poses. It was a lot of fun!

We had to walk a few kilometers back to Mindo from the canopy place and decided to go to a butterfly house when we got back. We were told about the development of butterflies, after which we had some free time to have a look at all the butterflies, orchides and hummingbirds. It was incredibly difficult to take pictures of hummingbirds, since they were just so fast and restless...

We had all together a very intense weekend and we were all very exhausted by Sunday afternoon. But we’re all well rested again and ready for new adventures. Only the itchy bug bites still remind us that we were in the middle of forests and rivers just a few days ago...

I’m off to a salsa class now. Will write about the long Carneval weekend soon J

L.