Our Great Adventure: Mindo Day 298 13/07/2015

After waking up to bright sunshine streaming through our patio windows, we had a very healthy and tasty breakfast and then headed to go to the waterfalls reached up the hill from our hotel. David kindly gave us a lift up the 5km rough track. To get to the waterfalls we needed to take the "Tarabita", an open air cable car, hand operated, which takes you across the gorge and river, 152m deep and 534m wide. We could have walked down and back again to save the $5pp fare but it was definitely worth the cost. We then proceeded to follow the path which snaked its way below the cable car and down to the river below. There we walked along it's banks climbing slightly as we saw each of the 5 waterfalls, crossing some very worn and rickety wooden and cable bridges. At the last waterfall (Cascade Azul), we retraced our steps and begun to appreciate getting here early as on the way in we had the place to ourselves but on the return route lots of people appeared. Just near the end of the track we dropped down 150m to see another waterfall, which was the largest and most picturesque of them all. We spotted a path going up alongside it and proceeded to climb up only to be met by an old chap halfway up. We were able to understand he was asking for $3 each to go further up, so we politely declined and went back to the cable car. After the lofty ride back, we decided to walk the 6km back to Mindo as the weather was very pleasant and it was all down hill. Once in the town, after unsuccessfully trying to buy our return bus tickets for trip back to Quito on Wednesday ("Manana" was the answer when we asked which was the same as we were told yesterday when we asked!), we headed to El Quetzal for lunch. This place is recommended in Lonely Planet and is also a chocolate museum. After a tasty (and pricey) sandwich lunch we walked the 20 minutes back to our hotel. It was mid afternoon by the time we were back so we wiled away the afternoon on our balcony, watching the rain mist descend atmospherically, enjoying the sight of the hummingbirds and whilst Diane wrote some more blog, Simon started to plan our route through Colombia and book some hotels there for next week. We enjoyed another excellent meal at the hotel's restaurant, washed down by the rest of the bottle of Spanish Rioja we opened last night.