On Thursday of last week we set off for our first weekend trip to Mindo, a beautiful town of 2000 people tucked away in a cloud forest in Northern Ecuador. The town lies about four hours from our home in Panecillo and when we arrived in the evening for dinner we felt as if we had entered the clouds. A light rain was falling, but we didn´t get wet because our cabins were covered by lush jungle which protected us. Surrounded by orchids, jungle sounds, and a thick forest of green leaves, we were able to rest in the evening and have some down time to hang out as a group.
The next day we set off for a canopy zip line tour, where we hung, suspended in the air, essentially flying over the jungle in all sorts of interesting poses (the butterfly, superman, superwoman, etc…). Everyone absolutely loved it!
After the canopy tour we took a hike down to a lower part of Mindo where we got into our bathing suits and prepared for our tubing adventure. The cool water was a relief from the morning heat and as we moved down the river, avoiding boulders and rapids, we got quite a rush of energy.
In the evening we surprised the group with a trip to a family run chocolate factory where we got to see how one actually makes chocolate from start to finish. We ate a delicious dinner filled with boisterous laughter and group bonding.
The next day we hiked through the jungle with a local tour guide/ecologist who helped us to spot exotic birds, explain about the properties of local fauna, and led us to a river where a few brave students jumped off the cliffs surrounding a waterfall and the less brave (including myself!) settled for zipping down a slide into the refreshing water.
The trip back to Panecillo was extremely quiet. Most students feel asleep after having run around the jungle all weekend. We surprised the group with dinner in Otavalo before we heading back into the community to rest up for our most difficult day of work yet . . . the minga. Minga is a tradition that is carried out in indigenous villages throughout Ecuador which involves the entire community coming out to lend a hand, usually for a full day or weekend. It was amazing to see how willing people were to help us accomplish our objective, how open they were to striking up conversations and forging friendships with our students, and also how thankful they were that we had come to collaborate with them on this project. We worked straight from 7 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon. The water project is moving forward on schedule and each day our group is digging up more dirt to expose the old pipe and preparing to lay the new piping that will help to improve water pressure and flow for the entire community.
After the minga, and in spite of our exhaustion, we felt very satisfied with the progress we had made. We ate a delicious lunch of local delights and gathered our strength to take an afternoon trip to a beautiful local waterfall, la cascada de peguche, where we cooled off in the river, dove under the falling water and explored a truly enchanted forest.
This coming week we will be continuing our work on the water project and teaching English. We´ll also be getting ready for our Cotopaxi adventure which begins next Monday.
Hasta la proxima!
-Sarah and Shereef
