Blog Post – Marsha Hanson – 7/12/09

After 3 weeks of excavations and crazy survey days we were all rewarded with a much-needed free weekend. Some people decided to stay and hang around for the local festival activities, while others opted for a weekend away.

We boarded our bus Friday evening around 6pm and after a 3 ½ hour bus ride we arrived in Mindo. Upon stepping off of the bus I immediately regretted wearing my fleece as the warm, muggy air hit my face. We divided into two groups on a hostel search and quickly decided on the Gallo de la Pena, whose only real downfalls turned out to be the real padlock locks and our very “noisy” neighbors. However, we did have a pool surrounded by bushes with brightly colored flowers. We spent Saturday zip lining through the cloud forest canopy, eating trout, and racking up a great dinner tab, followed by a night out at the discotecas.

Sunday morning continued with a quick breakfast, and jumping into the back of the pick-up truck taxi to go to the waterfall park, which turned out to be an extremely treacherous ride. We followed the trail down through the slippery switchbacks to a cement slide that shot you out above the water where you then dropped into a deep pool of cold refreshing water. With a quick pop of the head above the water and a short swim brought us to a shallow area where we got out the water and into the warm sun. After a few more trips down the slide we continued our walk through a group of butterflies and on to the first waterfall. The guys all took turns jumping off the cliff next to the fall while us girls decided to take the sketchy, rickety uneven ladder down to the swimming hole. We encountered a young man shortly after who asked us for our ticket, which was kept by the woman at the ticket counter. He hassled us for $5 each, whom we refused to pay so he began to follow us up the trail, but quickly lost interest in our group, and we continued on our quest for fun. A few waterfalls and natural slides later we began to make our way to the cable car that took us up to the top. We grabbed a taxi while waiting for the rest of our group and then made our way back into town.

An hour later after getting brownies to go, we boarded our bus again to return to the Hacienda Guachala. All in all it turned out to be an amazing weekend, a much-needed breath of fresh air from the windy slopes of the Pambamarca region.