Mindo is a sleepy little town set amongst steep mountainsides, cloud forest and dense jungle. After being dropped in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road, the driver of an unmarked 4WD ute hollered at us from across the road and offered us a lift into town. He drove us down the dramatically steep and curvy hillside into the quiet town below and delivered us to our hostel, a short walk out of town, surrounded by farmland.

Our accommodation was basic but the manager David made up for what the venue lacked. He was kind and helpful, and was trying so hard to get his English perfect so that we could understand him! Our room was a like a little timber cabin, which had a view out to the neighbouring paddock where a gorgeous tan coloured calf was grazing.

On the afternoon of our arrival we made the short walk around the corner to a hummingbird sanctuary. Colourful hummingbirds fluttered around the bird feeders, so quick that capturing a picture of them was impossible.

Our first days adventure was to a zip line, buried amongst the dense jungle above town. Along with ten Spanish teens we conquered the ten zip lines, the longest one being 450 metres. There was a lot of giggling and chanting as the Spanish kids teamed up with the guides and were placed upside down in superman and butterfly positions and zipped off into the forest squealing with joy! Each line ended in an unorthodox fashion. We would be hurling towards the end of the line at a decent spend, wandering if we were actually going to stop at all, and then our pully would suddenly meet with the solid rubber stopper at the end of the line and we would abruptly stop, faces cringing, eyes closed and adrenaline racing. It was a surprisingly fun day!

The next day we walked 7km up hill to reach the Bosque Protector Mindo-Nambillo hiking trails and waterfalls. To begin the trails we were required to take the hand powered cable car, 152m above the ground, over the lush jungle and across the river basin. The trails were beautiful, winding through ancient trees, moss and fern laden rock faces and delivering us to picturesque waterfalls and rock pools. The weather actually wasn't particularly warm but alas Adam was brave and swam in the extremely fresh water and under the waterfalls. I watched from afar! The walk back was all up hill but as per usual we had a little furry friend to lead the way and keep us company. When we arrived to the top and were ready to return, we were instructed that we needed to alert the staff at the other end of the line by using the metal baton provided to firmly beat the cable car cables, creating a vibration down the line, attracting their attention.
So old school!

That afternoon we found a chocolate factory in town and decided to treat ourselves to some take away brownie. After all, 'who are we to deny ourselves!'. We took it home and used the last of our horrendously expensive tea leaves for a little afternoon tea overlooking my new favourite calf mate! Whilst at the chocolate factory, we noticed that they also produced their own chocolate beer so on our way to dinner that night we detoured back and sat and had a few delicious cervazas!

Whilst Adam had been a stellar student and had been exercising and doing his rehab frequently, I had been lazy and chosen sleep ins over exercise for a little too long. One morning I set out for a run, unusually with only one head phone in as I was feeling like I needed to be on guard. Not because of the people, because of the random dogs that seemed to appear from nowhere. One little mutt almost tripped me over as it didn't quite understand the concept of running beside someone. I ended up having to stop because he kept running under my feet! Aside from the dog interruptions, there was the rouge chicken that had lost its mother, that I had to back track to return to the nest and crazy motorbikes that seemed to pop out of nowhere. It was probably the most unproductive run of my life and I was buggered afterwards. I blame the altitude and the dogs, couldn't have been my fitness.