Day 41-43 – Mindo
Some of the hills around Mindo
Mindo, my last stop before heading home, did not disappoint.
Between zip-lining, a ‘Tarzan’ swing, and some great hiking we drank good coffee, played cards with some fellow travellers, and preached the gospel of the Kindle to some other interested travellers.
Mindo has some of the best bird watching in Ecuador, though we didn’t see too much (of course, we didn’t know where or how to look). On the last day we went on a long hike to a waterfall, hoping to catch some good bird sights, without much luck.
That's intense
We did manage to avoid a cow ‘stampede’. Those guys looked fierce.
On our hike back to town we finally spotted a genuine Toucan hanging out in the trees. I managed to snap a single photo before it flew off, though the bird doesn’t fill more than a few pixels of silhouetted black, so it’s not worth showing. :P
We caught the last bus of the day from Mindo to Quito.
Day 44 – Climbing in Quito
The Rocodromo
Day 44 was my last day as a free man in Ecuador. Of course, we made the most of it by spending the morning climbing at the Rocodromo.
They only had smaller shoes, but I managed to squeeze my feet into a size 8 climbing shoe (my regular shoes are 10.5). As my feet shrank a full shoe size due to the compression, and among my cries of agony, I messed around on the various bouldering walls—eventually giving up on the shoes and going ‘pure’ bare-foot.
It being the last evening in Ecuador, we thought to go out and get a drink. But realizing that neither of us were in the mood to drink, we instead killed the night (pun intended) blowing up monsters in two-player MiniGore. Epic.
Day 45 – UIO > IAH > YYZ
Toronto at night
Up at 4:30am. Taxi to UIO in Quito, Ecuador. Flight left at 7am. Stopover at IAH in Houston, Texas. Slight delay for second flight. Finally made it to YYZ in Toronto, Canada.
And now I’m home for the holidays. :)
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