Message Stick

After our recent crop of tedious bus journeys we were pleased to finally be on a short three hour ride from Baños to Quito. The bus gods had a further test for me however, when merely 30 minutes into the journey a rather weak-stomached passenger puked all over my shoulder whilst they got off the bus. This greatly amused the conductor till he realised the extent of the carnage he’d have to clean up off the seats and floor. I meanwhile was forced to have an impromptu baby-wipe dry bath, lucky to have a replacement top to change into. When we rolled into Quito we were so pre-occupied with trying to find a same day laundry service we put aside our concerns about its extremely dodgy reputation for crime and our guide book’s stern warnings. Despite all the hype we had no problems there even on the packed, allegedly pickpocket riddled metro buses and had a great time enjoying the amazing architecture of the old quarter and more delicious Ecuadorian food.

With the mystical cloud forest a few hours away we didn’t want to spend too much time lingering in the city, so after stowing our luggage at the hotel for a couple of days we snuck off for a quick visit to Mindo before our flight to Colombia. The tropical forest was almost as dense as the Peruvian jungle but much cooler due to the higher altitude. Amazingly it actually had more biting insects than the jungle and they took full advantage of my lower legs after wading up to a waterfall washed off the DEET I’d smothered on.

The forest walks and waterfalls were accessed via a 500m crossing of forest valley in a vary ropey looking ‘tarabita’ cable car. Hanging precariously above the forest must be addictive because straight after we spent an amazing hour whizzing around the canopy along zip lines. Some of the valley crossings were huge and especially exhilarating when crossed hanging upside down, ‘mariposa’ style.