Mindo Day 1

Monday May 30

Today we moved from Otavalo to Mindo via a drive through Quito. The driving never disappoints as there are usually cultural things to looks at and if not, the terrain in this part of Ecuador is really something to see.

We stopped by the official equator and straddled it just to say so. It is interesting to note that this monument is built on the originally 1736 calculated position of the dividing line, however advances in measurement accuracy now place the line 7km away from here.

On our drive here I could not help but grab a picture of the emblems on this truck. That must be a thing here in Ecuador, put a bunch of seemingly random emblems on the side of your truck. He who has the most wins.

Alpine - Car Audio - I get that
Exxon - Gas producer - makes sense
Alitalia - Airline - hmm
Fox - Suspension technology - this works
ESPN - Sports network - truck racing, OK
NOS - Nitrous Oxide - that works
Cobra - Car alarms - everybody's got 'em and they are always going off
Astro - Chevy Astro - classic minivan
Champion - Clothing - wearing clothes while driving is advised
Behr - House paint - how that relates to trucks I know not
Firestone - Tires - got it
GReddy - Exhaust - check
Boss - Wheels - yup

Most of it makes sense, but some seem way out there.

Size wise, Otavalo is much smaller than Quito, and Mindo is much smaller than Otavalo. Mindo has one main street that is about four blocks long, and that is pushing it. I think Riley gets that credit for picking our accommodations here. It was either in the small town of just outside on a fast flowing creek. Creekside it is and what a nice pick.

After we settled in, we wandered into town to make arrangements for he next days activities and hit one of our destinations, another chocolate factory. The first one in Cusco was a whim, but this one was planned. We were a little concerned that maybe we had been there and done that, but this turned out to be a very good compliment to our previous tour. I ate a ton of chocolate. My 'no sweets eating strategy' is on vacation and I am taking advantage of that fact. Some of the samples were too strong for the girls and Patti so I took over and was the clean up crew. I felt that.

During our recovery phase we stopped at a cool bird sanctuary. It was late in the afternoon so the birds were not as plentiful nor as active as they are early in the morning, but even with those conditions I have never seen so many hummingbirds at once.

This being a tropical zone many of the building are windowless, and in fact wall less, which has great appeal to me given how we construct our buildings due to the climate in Colorado. The bugs here are a little more prevalent but not overwhelming as even say in the US Midwest. Now, I am sure there are some other factors such as the time of year that are playing a part in this. We had a great pizza and some pasta at this cool brick oven place with no windows or walls just down from the chocolate factory.

After dinner we hit the grocery where Tara and Riley picked up some pasta for second dinners and Tara took the budget route on chocolate. The artisanal chocolate at the small factory was $20 for 100g. This is understandable given the small production and the labor intensive process, but far beyond the means of the kiddos. Tara, we think on accident, purchased the entire chocolate box from the store, almost 500 grams for $5.75.

After that, we called it a night. I took an electro-shower for the first time ever. That's right, AC current right into the shower head. Yikes!   Notice how the fine conduit ends and the exposed wire and junction begins. I was chatting with a taller man at our last hostel and he said that he inadvertently bumped up against one once and got a little jolt. Nice!

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