Mindo a small town to the North of Quito is hotbed of Adventure sports. Canopying and Tubing are the major adventure sports here. And like almost anywhere in the Andean Ecuador one can also trek. There is also a butterfly park and a field where one can see numerous humming birds.
We left early in the morning. The road is pretty good until one reaches close to Mindo. The last few kilometers does not have a good road. Butterfly that talks numbers
On the way we stopped a small eatery on one of the hill tops through which we passed. There was a breed of butterfly here which had 89 and 98 written on its wings.
A flower near the eatery.
Flower near the eatery.
The 89 on one of the wings.
98 on the other wing.
Another view of 98.
Tubing
We booked ourselves for tubing first. The provider arranged for two open Jeeps to carry us and the tubes and life jackets to the starting point. Here they tied seven tubes together with one tube in the center and six around it. Five people were seated in a set of seven tubes and two guides were present to ensure the safety. Through out the journey they ensured that the tubes do not hit the rocks and go haywire.
All set to tube
All set
Testing the waters
Off on their way
They went off on their way down the river along with the flow of water.
They finished off like this.
Finally ashore
Ah! We have done it.
These are tubes on which we rode the waters
The next we split into two groups. One group going for the Canopying and the other going for a cable car ride and a trek to a waterfall. Canopying
Canopying is basically flying over the canopy of forest. Hung on a cable and traversing the cable with a pulley one goes across the valley over the tree tops in the valley. It is fun. We had three guides who came along with us. The first one that went setup the other side to receive us and the other two were there to assist any sissies or to help people do some stunts. People did two stunts; the Superman and; the Butterfly. Superman involved binding one's legs around the hips of the guide and tying them on the back of the guide with one's face facing downwards. Now since one had the guide to control the motions one had one's hand free to fly like a Superman. The butterfly is similar, but now instead of facing downwards one's face is turned towards the sky and one can hang one's head down.
The canopying at Mindo has 13 stretches varying from as small as 10 meters to about 500 meters. The last one is the longest one and one can gather the maximum speed in this stretch.
In some stretches one could become too fast for the guides to stop one and one will have to use one's hand to apply brakes. One has gloves in one's hands to protect one's hand in such eventualities.
On the whole is fun to do.
One of the members in our group starting his Canopying adventure.
Waterfalls
The other half went along a cable car and then trekked down to a waterfalls where they enjoyed the vista.
The waterfalls
The hanging bridge that stretches across the waterfalls
On the birdge
At the waterfalls
On the way back we stopped at a restaurant that served Pizzas and had our fill. It was tasty after a long day's outing.
All in all a very enjoyable day.
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