Rio Cinto, Ecuador - Day 1

Thursday, January 20

Today, we said good-bye to the Mindo garden house and traveled about an hour away to our new airbnb in the rainforest jungle. Before we left, the owner of the airbnb offered to show us around his gardens.

Jamie, the owner, described his property as “beautiful gardens with a cabin” and I’d say that just about describes it! Our accommodations this week are nice with everything we need — a kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a gorgeous outdoor patio … but the gardens. Wow! They are spectacular. Jamie explained that agriculture and botany are a part of his family. He and his wife, Cynthia, were farmers in Columbia about 30 years ago. After moving to Mindo, they started a dragon fruit plantation and a landscaping business. And together, they’ve transformed this property from a cattle field to the extensive native gardens they enjoy today.

Jamie walked us around the property pointing out various plants. Many of the plants on their property are edible including hibiscus, spinach, ginger, herbs, pineapple, bananas, oranges, limes and sugar cane. They also grow a small crop of yucca which is similar to a potato. Jamie cut a stalk of sugar cane for us to try. It is white and stringy, kind of like celery. You break a piece and chew/suck on it to drink its sweet juice.

The Mindo cloud forest is a bird haven with over 500 different birds living in this area. It’s no surprise that many of those bird species enjoy Jamie’s beautiful gardens. During our stay here, we saw toucans, hummingbirds and blue-gray tanagers.

There are so many interesting plants and birds to learn about on the property. We enjoyed our tour with Jamie and hearing about his thoughtful intentions in growing this garden.

We spent some time packing our bags and then said good-bye to the Mindo garden house. We had just enough time to go into the town of Mindo to grab lunch before another driver picked us up to take us to our new airbnb.

For the next two nights, Andi booked us an airbnb deep in the Mindo jungle. This house is completely off-grid with no cell phone or internet connection, so we purposefully planned to stay here over the weekend when we didn’t have to do work or school. As the crow flies, the new airbnb house is only 10 miles from the town of Mindo, but by car it is a 45-minute drive through the rainforest on a bumpy dirt road. There is no physical address here, so I’m calling the next series of blog posts “Rio Cinto” after the river that flows near the airbnb.

After being jostled around inside a pickup truck for an hour, we arrived to a big wooden privacy gate quite literally at the end of the dirt road. Inside the gate, we came to a beautiful oasis in the jungle. Wow! This house is incredible.

The airbnb itself is a bit small for 4 people, which is OK since we’re only here for two nights. The view is absolutely breathtaking with floor-to-ceiling-windows across the entire backside of the house. All we see for miles and miles is rainforest and the roaring Cinto River below.

There’s one king-size bed in this house and an outdoor bathroom that has a shower and a huge soaking tub overlooking the jungle. There also a separate room outside with a twin-size bed and a bug net around it. I’m guessing this airbnb is intended for couples, but our kids are small enough (and let’s be honest, we’re used to living in close quarters in our RV) that Andi and I thought we could make this place work for two nights. It’s worth it for the unique living experience and this view!

Cheryl, the owner of the airbnb, arrived a few minutes after we’d settled in to show us around the house. She also brought a second twin mattress for the kids to use during our stay. Right away, Tory said didn’t want to sleep on the outside bed under the bug net. Aden said it wouldn’t bother him. Worse case, Andi and I decided there’s plenty of room to put both twin mattresses on the floor inside by the windows.

Cheryl reminded us that this property is completely off the electricity grid, so she encouraged us to charge our electronics during the daytime and limit the use of electricity in the evenings. Something unique about this airbnb is that Cheryl offers a meal package where lunches and dinners are provided. All the airbnb reviews we’d read said you’re nuts if you didn’t opt in to the food package — that Cheryl is an amazing cook! We do have a kitchen at this house, but Andi and I decided it’d be a fun treat to have our meals provided. Cheryl said she’d be back around 7:00pm with dinner.

It didn’t take Aden long to find himself in the soaking tub! I could tell right away that this is where he planned to spend most of the next two days. He’s been dying to go swimming this week and the soaking tub was big enough, he could do just that.

As promised, Cheryl arrived at 7:00pm with a home-cooked dinner. She prepared a squash carrot soup and an Indian chicken dish served over a bed of fettuccini noodles. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness in specially preparing food for Tory and Aden. She made them chicken without sauce and a side of homemade macaroni & cheese. That’s something only a mom would know to do! For dessert, Cheryl brought us pecan butter balls she’d made. All the food was fantastic! We ate our meal by candlelight inside the cabin & it all felt so special.

Over dinner, Aden confessed that he was nervous to sleep outside on the twin-bed by himself so Andi and I agreed we’d place both twin mattresses on the floor in front of our bed inside the cabin. We’d have a family slumber party by candlelight! Tory and Aden were so excited.

Tomorrow, we have the whole day to explore the Rio Cinto property.