Bellavista Cloud Forest and Mindo

From Quito it was a winding road north over the equator and into a cloud forest. We were greeted with rain and a lot of cloud (I guess that’s part of the deal). There was rain most of the time we were there but the sun came out on our last day. Days in Bellavista were spent doing school (Zane has a link on his blog to a quiz on Ecuador he created, if you want to learn some interesting facts), watching the hummingbirds (there were hummingbird feeders all around the garden that huge numbers of birds frequented), guided forest walks, eating three course meals (Ecuadorians are big on their soups: they often come with slices of avocado on top - surprisingly tasty), and reading while hiding from the rain.

Tana looking very festive on our forest walk.

This is the Cock of the Rock, we went out early one morning to a lek (an area where the men pracne around trying to show a female how manly there are. She mates with the flashiest one.

There was a lot of noise and movement but one didn't sit sit in the right place for me to get a photo so I took a photo of the poster instead.

Next stop was about 45 minutes down another winding road to Mindo. We stayed at a very nice lodge 3o minutes walk from town. Mindo is famous for its birds and its tubing down the river. I decided against the tubing as it was just too cold. My highlight in Mindo was the brownie and chocolate milkshake I had at a café that makes its own chocolate. Yum!
Our last night at the lodge was Easter Friday and our host served us up a traditional Ecuadorian Easter meal. The main part of the meal was the soup (this soup is only made for Easter). It was made from seven different grains, dried fish, and I’m sure there was some potato in there too. It was a meal on its own. Then we had mashed potatoes and veges and for desert a sweet rice drink, kind of like running rice pudding.

The main street