Our Great Adventure: Mindo Day 299 14/07/2015

After a relaxing day walking through the cloud forest looking at waterfalls, we decided to do something a bit more adventurous and adrenalin pumping today. After another fabulous breakfast, this time on our balcony, David drove us back up the same hill as yesterday arriving at our destination, Mindo Canopy Adventure. This has 10 zip-lines that would whoosh us across the cloud forest below. We paid our $20 each, got into our harnesses, put on our helmets and gloves and with our 2 guides walked to the first wire. This was a sedate 200m descent across the forest, so Simon clipped in first and followed one of our guides down. Diane then followed and elated we were ready for the next one. Some were really long (and fast) between 400 and 500m in distance and we whooped and cheered our way across them, feeling very safe and enjoying the views. On a couple of descents, we went together with our guide who videoed the 40 seconds rides. The 1.5 hours went very quickly and still buzzing we said our goodbyes and wandered back down the track to the town. After again been told "manana" when we tried to buy our bus tickets for tomorrow, we walked along to Hostel El Desdino, which David had recommended as the place to go to see hummingbirds. After paying the $3pp entrance fee we walked to the viewing balcony to see dozens of hummingbirds drinking water just a couple of feet in front of us. We spent the next hour mesmerised by this wonderful spectacle, even Simon was impressed and took a 5 minute video of the scene. Apparently there are 35 varieties of hummingbirds in the garden. The owner came out and placed some bananas in the tree branches around which attracted a huge variety of birds, which we watched fascinated. Just as we were leaving 3 toucans arrived to feast on the bananas, one coming very close so we got some great shots. After a few near misses seeing the bird at Iguaza Falls it was brilliant to finally see it in the wild. On our way out of town we had a tasty (and cheaper) lunch at a Swiss owned cafe (Simon had a type of German sausage and Diane tortilla that was more like a rosti). We then strolled back to our bungalow, to enjoy the views, writing more blog and more Colombia planning. Another great dinner was had in the restaurant and we headed back to bed pleased we had found this place (both the town and accommodation) feeling very chilled out.