Mindo, Ecuador - Day 3
Wednesday, January 19
Wednesdays are our designated work/school day during this trip, so we didn’t have a big adventure planned for today in Mindo.
Meri, the airbnb’s housekeeper, arrived around 7:00am to make us breakfast. This morning, she prepared llapingachos which are fried potato pancakes stuffed with cheese. Llapingachos are a typical Ecuadorian breakfast often served with peanut sauce & they were very good. It’s been a treat to try all of her homemade cooking this week! Knowing Aden doesn’t like cheese, Meri also served scrambled eggs, toast and fresh fruit.
After breakfast, Andi hopped on his conference calls inside the house while Tory, Aden and I sat outside on the outdoor patio and did school. What a beautiful place to study! The birds chirped noisily around us in the trees as the kids did their schoolwork. Aden built himself a fort to lay under using a hammock and chairs. Once in a while, he’d get up and run around the outside of the house to shake out some wiggles.
We also saw a few agoutis running around the yard. We first learned about agoutis when we traveled in Costa Rica a few years ago. They are large rodents about the size of rabbits that are fairly shy and skittish. Agoutis aren’t harmful to people at all, except for eating plants and vegetables in the garden. We’re sure to keep the doors to the house closed though so we don’t have any agouti visitors inside.
During the rainy season December - April, it rains in Mindo off & on everyday starting around 1:30pm. Nothing heavy or severe; just a calm soaking rain. The sun shines brightly in the morning and then the rain comes like clockwork. One of our favorite things to do here is watch the clouds roll in every afternoon against the backdrop of the Andes Mountains.
The four of us decided to go for a walk on the road near the house. The cobblestone roadway is thick with rainforest jungle on both sides, so much so that you can’t see through the trees whatsoever. We are in awe of all the different plants and flowers here. Some of the leaves are as big as the kids!
Andi and I decided to go into Mindo for dinner Wednesday night since we’d stayed at the airbnb all day. Tory threw a little fit because she didn’t want to walk on the streets in Mindo — there are so many stray dogs running all over the place, it really scares her. Andi and I reassured her that we are always going to protect her, and that we’d even make a “Tory triangle” around her so the dogs can’t get close to her. In her defense, there are a lot of them!
We called a cab around 5:30pm and rode into Mindo. The town looked completely different under the glow of evening lights. There were a lot more locals bustling the streets and kids running around, as well as food carts on various street corners selling empanadas, meats and juices.
Andi found a falafel place he wanted to try. It was a small restaurant with only a few two-person tables. It looked like perhaps the owners live above the restaurant in an apartment. Tory said she wasn’t hungry — she just wanted to go home & get away from the dogs — so Andi ordered two falafel plates and a chicken plate to-go. While we waited for our food to be prepared, we popped into one of the tiendas (small convenience store) and bought some Ritz crackers, two bottles of water and a loaf of bread for Tory in case she changed her mind about eating when we got back to the house. All of those items were $3 total. We can’t get over how cheap it is here!
Back home, the four of us watched an episode of Heartland on Netflix while And and I enjoyed our delicious falafel meals. Tomorrow, we say good-bye to the Mindo garden house and move onto another airbnb property technically located in Mindo but about 45-minutes away from town in the jungle.
