Day 412: The birds and the butterflies

We read that we didn’t need to get up at the crack of dawn to go bird-watching. We could go to a guesthouse that had a yard that was full of birds until eleven in the morning. Had we known the only birds that would be at the guesthouse were hummingbirds, we would have definitely gotten up early to walk through the rainforest instead. Word to the wise: get up early. That’s when the birds are out! We watched the hummingbirds, and then made our way towards the butterfly sanctuary, hoping we would get a little bit more action. Fortunately, the butterflies were a plenty and worth the visit!

If you look really closely at the feeder to the right of the picture, you can see three hummingbirds- or rather, the blur of their wings. While we were looking forward to seeing some bigger, more colorful birds, watching around thirty hummingbirds buzz around was mesmerizing. And a bit fascinating. There were actually three different feeders, but one feeder was under control of a “boss” hummingbird who was not keen on sharing. When any other hummingbirds tried to approach his feeder, he would chase them away!

After about a half hour, we walked through town and then hopped into a cab to go out to the butterfly reserve. We’ve been to gardens before, but this was by far the most populated one that we’ve been to yet, even if there were a lot of the same butterflies.

We got a brief introduction, mostly so we could understand that the butterflies were in part harvested out in the rainforest, but also bred within the sanctuary itself. And then we were told we could feed the butterflies with any of the banana left out for the butterflies to feed off of. All we had to do was get a finger full of mushy banana and put it as close as possible to the butterfly’s mouth. Andrew was better at this than I was. Most butterflies seemed more interested in my orange sweater than any banana I had on my finger.

We tried – I tried to get a beautiful bright blue butterfly to land on one of us, or at least let us feed it, but failed for the majority of our visit. Right as we were about to leave, one of the blue butterflies landed on Andrew. He stayed long enough for me to get some banana for him to eat. Unfortunately snapping a picture of him with his wings spread, revealing the bright blue wasn’t easy.

You can see a little sliver of bright blue inside the wings as they are closed. These guys flitted all over Mindo. They were just beautiful. It was fascinating to see how different they looked when their wings were closed!

Day 411: Zip-lining with Mindo Canopy Adventures

When I turned 20, I made a list of 25 things I wanted to do before I turned 25. While I was able to cross off roughly half of the list, I underestimated how long it would take to complete the entire list and it morphed into another list: 50 things to do before 50. The list is written inside a beautiful leather bound book with pictures of each activity (riding a motorcycle, sky-diving, surfing, etc. etc.) I was able to cross of the list. The book is in a box, in my parents’ house in Kentucky (much like the rest of my life at the moment). I’m almost positive “zip-lining” is on the list. We’ve been really great about mixing up our activities- paragliding in one country, whale watching in another, riding camels in a desert in India, sand-boarding in a desert in Peru… It’s been great fun to mix it up, and obviously, helps me knock off a few things on my “to do” list. Today zip-lining with Mindo Canopy Adventure turned out to be a blast! Our guides were sweet, the zip-lines were fun (some a LOT faster than others) and I was so glad we did it! Minor note to future self: “the butterfly” is upside down, “the superman” is what you really want to do (equally fun, minus the head rush)!

Day 410: Ecuadorian chocolate? Yes, please!

We weren’t sure we were going to be able to make it to Mindo between all of our Spanish lessons, but we decided getting out of Quito for the weekend was a good idea. I’ve realized throughout this trip (time and again) that I prefer living in bigger cities, and visiting smaller ones. Mindo is certainly much smaller than Quito, and just the idea of getting out into a smaller town made me so happy. We rolled into town late in the afternoon on Friday, and inadvertently explored the majority of the (teensy) town while looking for our guesthouse. Our priority was dinner, and then sleep before taking advantage of all of the activities Mindo has to offer the next day. Like El Quetzal, where we went on a tour of the chocolate factory. Who can refuse Ecuadorian chocolate? Not. me.

So yes, technically I’m cheating (again). We actually went to El Quetzal on Day 411, but I keep trying to spare you the long bus-rides whenever I can. Our bus ride wasn’t so bad from Quito to Ecuador, but a post about chocolate is so much sweeter! When we showed up at El Quetzal, we thought we were going to be indoors the entire time, in what we assumed was a more traditional factory like setting. We were wrong. The “factory tour” was mostly held in the garden where we saw cacao trees (above), banana trees (below) and so much more. It was great, but had I known we were going to be in the garden the majority of the time… I definitely would not have shown up in shorts. The sandflies were out. of. control. and by the time we got back to our hotel, my legs were covered in bites (more like welts) and I was suffering.

After the garden tour, we peeked into a few different rooms of the “factory” and learned more about the process of making cacao beans into chocolate- chocolate as we know it today (oftentimes with milk and sugar). We watched the paste being mixed and then readied to pour into molds. We tasted straight up chocolate without any additives. It was bitter. Then we added sugar, then we added chillies, and we even added vinegar to the bitter chocolate giving it different flavors and textures. It was interesting, a little redundant after our visit to the Choco Museum in Cusco, but nice. We even made it through the entire tour in Español as well! A group of American students were in the middle of a semester abroad in Quito and wanted to practice. We didn’t have much choiceindulged them. Despite loving the chocolate (with chillies was my favorite) and wanting to get some to bring home, traveling so close to the equator with a few bars didn’t seem wise. American chocolate might pale in comparison, but I have a weakness for those mini squares of Dove Dark. I guess I can wait until we get home (in the middle of winter) to purchase a bag of chocolate!