About Me
- Name: Well
- Location: Washington, DC, United States
I'm not good at journaling. But I do like my Mac. And I often have random bits of ideas float through my head that I wish I could pin down in a portable format. Hence, this blog: a place for outward commentary, and digital logging of things I might want to remember later.
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Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Mindo
I have to get pictures from Liz and Kathleen again, but I'll fill you in on our trip. We left early Saturday morning and arrived in a cute little eco-friendly town (it's one of the few places in their area that refused to let the oil lines pass through).
First we found a hostal, one that was recommended to us by another exchanger named Mac, because when he stayed there he got to milk the owner's cows. The owner was super nice, so we were happy, even though we didn't get up early enough the next day to do any milking. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed off for a hike. About 6 kilometers later, we arrived at the waterfall. Ann had already been to Mindo with one of her classes so she was telling us about her jump into the waterfall on her first visit. I really wanted to do it, but I think I might have been the only one. We inched our way to the edge of a large boulder on the side of the falls, contemplating the long drop and rushing water with notable uneasiness. I was trying to convince Raq that if I jumped, she should too, when an older man who works at the café nearby came over to tell us we couldn't jump today. It had rained a lot the last couple days so the water was just too high and the current too strong. We certainly didn't argue with his logic. That plan scrapped, I headed up to the cafe for an empanada and some really good ají. We thought we'd at least swim if we couldn't jump, so we waded in above the waterfall, but the water was freezing! There was a waterslide upstream, and I figured plunging in all at once would be easier than wading bit by bit, so I got Liz to come with me and a guide took us up. He went first to wait for us with a life jacket on (which was reassuring, though completely useless I later realized cuz there is no way he could have caught us as we rushed by off the slide). I went first, sliding down a couple curves, being airborn for a few seconds, then hitting ice! At least that's what it felt like; the water was so cold I couldn't breath. I went gasping down the river, with a surprisingly strong current, until I could grab the rope that was tied across the river. I half-pulled (half got-dragged) myself along the line until I made it to the bank where Ann and Kathleen were waiting. Soon Liz washed up too, and we just relaxed and recovered for a bit. The girls were not inclined to follow our lead after witnessing the experience, even though we argued that it was worth it not to be cold anymore (not sure if that's really true...). By the time we left I couldn't feel my feet, which made hiking a little complicated for a while.
Our next stop was an accidental venture into some kind of country club. We decided against eating there as soon as we saw the prices on the menu, but I'm glad we wandered in, because they had hummingbird feeders all over the property and we got to see at least 20 birds. They had a list outside of all the different species that Mindo is home to, and they were so pretty! Grandma Martha would have loved it.
After trekking along a dirt road, where at one point we threw in our collective weight to help a group of people push out a van that had gotten stuck in the mud, we made it to our real destination, a butterfly garden. First they showed us the little hutches they have for all the different caterpillars (wow, that is a really weird word. It's spelled right, I checked, but doesn't it look weird?). Every night they take the newly spun chrysalids (yep, even weirder. I looked it up, and that is the plural of chrysalis) and put them in another hutch where they can hatch. The collection of chrysalids was beautiful; it looked like a jewelry store or something. There is one species of very small butterflies that actually spins an iridescent chrysalis; they really did looke like jewels! We wondered aloud about using them as earrings, but the guide said they hatch in about 8 days, and first they turn brown and then transparent, so we decided it would be impractical. Next it was into the actual garden, where there were different kinds of butterflies everywhere you looked. The biggest one we saw was the Owl's Eye (Ojo de Buho) butterfly, who has feather-brown-colored wings with a big black dot in the center that, what a shocker, looks like an owl's eye. It was also cool because that's only the color scheme on the underside of the wings, so that's what you see when it lands and closes its wings, but the other side is bright bright blue, which you can only see when it flies. We all got to hold one of these guys too.
After that we really didn't do a whole lot the rest of the day. We walked around a lot, and enjoyed being physically tired from a full day of outdoor activity, had an incredible dinner for $2.50 (how am I ever going to be able to go out in the States again?), and hung out in the hostal entertaining each other as we do because these are some funny girls! The next morning we had a lovely breakfast, and headed back to Quito to try to be productive. I actually did finish my paper Friday night, so that was a relief. I only have about 38pgs worth of final papers to write in the next 2 weeks as well:P. I should probably get started on that...
Ah, the major downer of the trip was when my bag got stolen in a café before we get on the bus to Mindo, complete with my iPod, cell phone, student ID, credit cards, $0.13, a novel for my lit class, the short stories I had to edit for Monday, my USB memory stick, and, probably what made me most sad, the notebook full of all the notes I'd made about our trip to Galapagos. :( I tried not to be too upset; there are people in my group who have gotten robbed multiple times, and I should have known better than not to be hugging my bag at all times in a bus station, but it sucked. The girls loaned me money all weekend, and my mom had to Western Union money for me. Friday night I also talked to Travis, who, as it turns out, cannot come to Peru. Two people at his work quit recently so his boss would only give him 3 days off:(. I was just getting really excited about the trip, so that was a major let-down. He felt really bad about it, but he's Fed-Exing me a digital camera to use for the last few weeks of my trip though to make me feel better (well, I'm splitting the shipping, but I really wanted to be able to take pictures of our last couple trips/get-togethers). He's also crazy, and decided he still wanted to take the 3 days off to come to Quito. His step-dad works for TWA so he can fly standby, so he's coming Monday evening on the 23rd, and leaving early Wednesday the 25th. Another stamp in the passport at least... I'm going back the 25th too, to spend a few days in Hutch, then I'm going to go visit him and Julie (hopefully, if we can coordinate our schedules), and Abby, a friend I've met here. Since I wasn't supposed to be back from Peru till June 1, I figured I'd do a little visiting until then anyway.
So that's the latest; Sunday Raq and I are going to Cotopaxi, the tallest mountain nearby, so I'll let you all know how that went later. Have a great week!
First we found a hostal, one that was recommended to us by another exchanger named Mac, because when he stayed there he got to milk the owner's cows. The owner was super nice, so we were happy, even though we didn't get up early enough the next day to do any milking. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed off for a hike. About 6 kilometers later, we arrived at the waterfall. Ann had already been to Mindo with one of her classes so she was telling us about her jump into the waterfall on her first visit. I really wanted to do it, but I think I might have been the only one. We inched our way to the edge of a large boulder on the side of the falls, contemplating the long drop and rushing water with notable uneasiness. I was trying to convince Raq that if I jumped, she should too, when an older man who works at the café nearby came over to tell us we couldn't jump today. It had rained a lot the last couple days so the water was just too high and the current too strong. We certainly didn't argue with his logic. That plan scrapped, I headed up to the cafe for an empanada and some really good ají. We thought we'd at least swim if we couldn't jump, so we waded in above the waterfall, but the water was freezing! There was a waterslide upstream, and I figured plunging in all at once would be easier than wading bit by bit, so I got Liz to come with me and a guide took us up. He went first to wait for us with a life jacket on (which was reassuring, though completely useless I later realized cuz there is no way he could have caught us as we rushed by off the slide). I went first, sliding down a couple curves, being airborn for a few seconds, then hitting ice! At least that's what it felt like; the water was so cold I couldn't breath. I went gasping down the river, with a surprisingly strong current, until I could grab the rope that was tied across the river. I half-pulled (half got-dragged) myself along the line until I made it to the bank where Ann and Kathleen were waiting. Soon Liz washed up too, and we just relaxed and recovered for a bit. The girls were not inclined to follow our lead after witnessing the experience, even though we argued that it was worth it not to be cold anymore (not sure if that's really true...). By the time we left I couldn't feel my feet, which made hiking a little complicated for a while.
Our next stop was an accidental venture into some kind of country club. We decided against eating there as soon as we saw the prices on the menu, but I'm glad we wandered in, because they had hummingbird feeders all over the property and we got to see at least 20 birds. They had a list outside of all the different species that Mindo is home to, and they were so pretty! Grandma Martha would have loved it.
After trekking along a dirt road, where at one point we threw in our collective weight to help a group of people push out a van that had gotten stuck in the mud, we made it to our real destination, a butterfly garden. First they showed us the little hutches they have for all the different caterpillars (wow, that is a really weird word. It's spelled right, I checked, but doesn't it look weird?). Every night they take the newly spun chrysalids (yep, even weirder. I looked it up, and that is the plural of chrysalis) and put them in another hutch where they can hatch. The collection of chrysalids was beautiful; it looked like a jewelry store or something. There is one species of very small butterflies that actually spins an iridescent chrysalis; they really did looke like jewels! We wondered aloud about using them as earrings, but the guide said they hatch in about 8 days, and first they turn brown and then transparent, so we decided it would be impractical. Next it was into the actual garden, where there were different kinds of butterflies everywhere you looked. The biggest one we saw was the Owl's Eye (Ojo de Buho) butterfly, who has feather-brown-colored wings with a big black dot in the center that, what a shocker, looks like an owl's eye. It was also cool because that's only the color scheme on the underside of the wings, so that's what you see when it lands and closes its wings, but the other side is bright bright blue, which you can only see when it flies. We all got to hold one of these guys too.
After that we really didn't do a whole lot the rest of the day. We walked around a lot, and enjoyed being physically tired from a full day of outdoor activity, had an incredible dinner for $2.50 (how am I ever going to be able to go out in the States again?), and hung out in the hostal entertaining each other as we do because these are some funny girls! The next morning we had a lovely breakfast, and headed back to Quito to try to be productive. I actually did finish my paper Friday night, so that was a relief. I only have about 38pgs worth of final papers to write in the next 2 weeks as well:P. I should probably get started on that...
Ah, the major downer of the trip was when my bag got stolen in a café before we get on the bus to Mindo, complete with my iPod, cell phone, student ID, credit cards, $0.13, a novel for my lit class, the short stories I had to edit for Monday, my USB memory stick, and, probably what made me most sad, the notebook full of all the notes I'd made about our trip to Galapagos. :( I tried not to be too upset; there are people in my group who have gotten robbed multiple times, and I should have known better than not to be hugging my bag at all times in a bus station, but it sucked. The girls loaned me money all weekend, and my mom had to Western Union money for me. Friday night I also talked to Travis, who, as it turns out, cannot come to Peru. Two people at his work quit recently so his boss would only give him 3 days off:(. I was just getting really excited about the trip, so that was a major let-down. He felt really bad about it, but he's Fed-Exing me a digital camera to use for the last few weeks of my trip though to make me feel better (well, I'm splitting the shipping, but I really wanted to be able to take pictures of our last couple trips/get-togethers). He's also crazy, and decided he still wanted to take the 3 days off to come to Quito. His step-dad works for TWA so he can fly standby, so he's coming Monday evening on the 23rd, and leaving early Wednesday the 25th. Another stamp in the passport at least... I'm going back the 25th too, to spend a few days in Hutch, then I'm going to go visit him and Julie (hopefully, if we can coordinate our schedules), and Abby, a friend I've met here. Since I wasn't supposed to be back from Peru till June 1, I figured I'd do a little visiting until then anyway.
So that's the latest; Sunday Raq and I are going to Cotopaxi, the tallest mountain nearby, so I'll let you all know how that went later. Have a great week!
Posted by: Well / 10:43 AM 
