Monday, January 17

Today is our first full day in Ecuador & all four of us woke up well rested and ready to adventure. I worried we’d have a hard time sleeping last night given the fact that we all took long afternoon naps yesterday, but we must’ve needed the rest. Andi and I slept until 6:30am this morning and Tory and Aden until 7:30am.

Around that time, Meri, the caretaker/housekeeper arrived to cook us breakfast in our house. Breakfast is included in the price of our lodging. Meri asked Andi and I yesterday what we liked to eat and we told her we’ve be delighted with whatever she made us. We dined al fresco underneath the straw roof covered patio surrounded by lush, green gardens and dozens of birds chirping around us. It was peaceful and lovely.

Meri served us fresh-squeezed orange juice, coffee, pineapple, papaya, scrambled eggs, homemade salsa, and fried green plantains stuffed with cheese (called bolon de verde or Ecuadorian green plantain balls). There were so many flavors hitting our tastebuds all at once! First of all, the fruit in Ecuador is so fresh and juicy. The green plantain balls had a thick, crispy outside and oozed melted cheese the second you sliced them open. Aden doesn’t like cheese so he wasn’t a big fan, but luckily there were farm-fresh eggs and plenty of fruit to fill up his tummy.

After breakfast, we hopped in a taxi and drove to MinJoy Park located on the opposite side of town. MinJoy has a children’s playground and a gondola that connects to a series of popular hiking trails and the Tarabita Cable Car. We arrived about 15 minutes before the gondola started running for the day, so Tory and Aden happily entertained themselves on a small zipline course. I think we were all one of those “pinch me, where am I?” moments as we looked around at the gorgeous valley and surrounding Andes Mountains.

Next, we rode the gondola high above the forest canopy. We had the entire gondola ride to ourselves and it proved to a perfect way to kick off our day of adventure.

On the other side of the valley, we hopped off the gondola and made our way down a dirt path leading to Tarabita de Montana. This attraction is a single yellow cable car powered by an old pickup motor that whizzes passengers across the Rio Nambillo to hiking trails on the other side. We received a brief run-down about the various hiking trails from an employee, and then set off on the Cascada Nambillo trail.

The Mindo cloud forest is absolutely breathtaking. We stopped every 10 feet or so to admire the beautiful flowers or watch a slug or caterpillar pass by us on the trail. There were so many vibrant colors and smells of fresh rain and flora. We could also hear birds chirping all around us, though we didn’t see many in the trees.

Halfway around the 1.5 mile loop, we reached Cascada Nambillo, or Nambillo Waterfall. It could hear its loud roar before we saw the rushing water sweeping below the metal bridge.

Somewhere at this point on the trail, a team of stray dogs abandoned another pair of hikers and joined up with us on the path. One of the dogs would not stop following us no matter how many times we tried to lose it. Honestly, it seemed friendly enough and wouldn’t have been such a big deal except Tory is absolutely terrified of dogs and was freaking out as we walked along. Meanwhile, Aden was in heaven because he loves dogs! He kept encouraging the dog — which he nicknamed Loki — to hike beside him on the trail.

We’d quickly walk along the path and Loki would follow. We’d stop and try to ignore the dog so would lose interest in us, but Loki would sit patiently and wait for us to continue. The dog followed us all the way to the end of the hiking trail and by this point Tory was a nervous wreck.

At the end, we checked off our names on the Tarabita de Montana hikers registry and stealthily began walking back to the trail which led us to the gondola. Wouldn’t you know it, Loki found us and began to follow us again. The dog tagged along all the way back to the MinJoy gondola. Andi and I assured Tory that there was no way the dog would be able to hitch a ride on the gondola, but honestly a small part of me wondered if it’d find a way to meet us on the other side of the valley. Ha! This dog was resourceful. He whimpered when we climbed onto the ski lift sad to see us go— I think it’s safe to say, he really liked us.

Back at the base of MinJoy park, we walked down the dirt road to our second activity of the day: the Hosteria Mariposas de Mindo, or House of Butterflies. Visiting the butterfly house was on Tory’s bucket list of things to do in Mindo. This proved to be exactly what you’d expect from a place like this — a beautiful garden of butterflies and a nice informative tour as well.

This isn’t a huge butterfly area, but it had several benches to sit and watch the butterflies flutter around, as well as a wall displaying the life cycle of the butterfly. Tory and Aden were in heaven walking around catching butterflies on their fingertips.

It was nearing 2:00pm and we were all getting hungry. A taxi picked us up at the butterfly garden and drove us to our third activity of the day: El Quetzal Chocolate Tour and Restaurant. Ecuador is known worldwide for having some of the best chocolate in the world and a good portion of it is produced right here in Mindo.

Before the tour, we decided to have a late lunch at the restaurant. Perfect timing to sit underneath the covered patio and enjoy something to eat as the afternoon rains began. El Quetzal has a small menu, so Andi and I decided to order several dishes to share — a pork chop smothered in house-made chocolate BBQ sauce, slow-roasted ribs with ginger honey sauce and cacao-marinated chicken wings. All the special sauces are made in house using parts of the cacao bean. The best part was dessert — Andi ordered a chocolate brownie and a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream to share. It was hands-down the most chocolatey, best-tasting brownie we’d ever tasted!

After lunch, our tour of the chocolate factory began. We learned about the history of the cacao bean and its relationship to Ecuador. The reason Ecuador has some of the best chocolate in the world is because the cacao plant originated from the Amazon Rainforest in and around Ecuador! Our tour guide, Sergio, said the yellow cacao bean is the best quality. There was lots of smelling and taste-testing involved in the tour which was fun.

We learned about the bean itself and about the fermentation process. We toured the greenhouse were cacao beans are dried and saw the production facility where a variety of chocolate products are made. All products at El Quetzal are handmade in small batches.

Next came the best part — tasting all the delicious chocolate! We sampled chocolate with varying degrees of sugar content to compare the test of pure cacao vs. chocolate with added sugar and flavors. We also did a series of “experiments” in our mouth by tasting liquid cacao mixed with raw sugar and coffee powder.

After the tour guide spent an hour telling us why chocolate with a higher percentage of cacao is the best quality of chocolate you can buy, Aden said to the group, “This is good, but nothing beats a Twix!” There were quite a few chuckles from the group about that comment.

The final icing on the cake was another sample of the famous El Quetzal double chocolate brownie served with chocolate tea made from water and cacao husks. All in all, it was a wonderful tour. We left with very full bellies and happy hearts.

From there, we hopped in a taxi and made the short 10-minute drive back to our airbnb. Nobody was hungry for dinner after our late lunch and very filling chocolate tour, so we lounged at the house and watched an episode of Heartland on Netflix together.

Tomorrow, we have another fun morning planned in Mindo and then some work time for Andi / school time for Tory and Aden.