mindo and musings

Phew, I´ve got to catch up!  It´s been a busy week of writing and preparing for the presentation I gave today.  So now I can finally talk about Mindo!
I went to Mindo last weekend (about a 2.5 hour bus ride from Quito) with all the kids on my program.  Yes, that´s 13 of us--which is a large group to coordinate...

We had a lot of fun!

Eushavia and me in the tram headed to hike to some waterfalls

The group mentality is what drives me crazy about traveling with so many people.  For example, when we got to the other side of the tram, instead of consulting the map on where to go, we all just followed someone blindly down the only path with a sign.  Well, the walk turned out to be about an hour (which was fine with me, but some were complaining) and it only led to one waterfall.  Granted it was a beautiful waterfall (see below), but we could have gone down a different path (unmarked, but on the map), walked for the same amount of time, and seen 5 different waterfalls.  Frustration.

waterfall!

Of course, we went ziplining!  I can now say that I´m not really a fan, but maybe that´s because I had two near-death experiences.
That´s an exagerration...  Let´s just say I got really shaken up out there.  The first incident, my glove  got caught between the pulley and the line, and I lost my glove (not my hand, thank goodness).  So my glove plummeted to the ground below, and the guide had to come rescue me.  The second incident occurred because, on some of the routes, the guides would bounce the line just to hear us scream like crazy people.  On one particular line, they bounced me so hard that the track of my pulley was bounced off track of the line.  So there was a moment (which seemed a lot longer at the time) in which I though I was going to die.  I had to be rescued again by the guide, who had to get me a replacement pulley.  I was probably their worst customer.  Ever.

see you on the other end!

haha, ziplining with Natasia...hello double chins

 

getting stopped is the worst part 

On the last line, I caught a bug in my mouth!  I think it´s good luck for something...

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After all of that excitement and scariness, I went to El Quetzal, the chocolate factory in town and took a tour!  It smelled and tasted amazing!  I´m too embarassed to disclose how much chocolate I purchased at this location, but it´s not all for me!

beans drying after fermenting

pods drying out

ginger! they put it in the chocolate

ají for the chocolate

what comes out when cacao nibs are ground

pressing cocoa butter (the yellow stuff) out of the cacao

what´s left when the cacao butter gets pressed out...YUM

Ali, tucking herself in for bed...she still got a spider bite...

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Some news from Quito:
Mario, my host brother, is in the US for work, and tomorrow he is supposedly going to meet up with my parents in Chicago!  My families are merging!  And, they´ll merge again in December when my family comes to Ecuador to visit!
My host sister, Carmen, is pregnant!  I just wish that I could be here to meet the little one!  Oh well, another reason to come back!

Things are getting a bit monotonous here--I like having a routine, but I need a little bit of variety too!  I find myself writing almost the same paper, over and over, and I´m getting pretty tired of it.  The class leaves for a month-long trip to the Amazon on Monday, and I am sooo excited! It´s going to be a sweaty, wet month, but I´m really looking forward to the change of scenery and the freedom to roam around in the forest.  I´m hoping that I´ll get a few chances to post here and there.

Look what countries are reading my blog!

But I wonder who I know in Russia...

Thanks so much for reading!!