Mindo and the Equator Crossing

Now there were two days of travel ahead. Unfortunately, or in retrospect - thank God - we did not reach our destination for the day and made an unplanned stop in Mindo - a small village in the Ecuadorian cloud forest. A real stroke of luck. The parking space was beautiful, but the real highlight was the homemade pizza. Truly a dream. This was also the main reason for the spontaneous extension. In Mindo, we visited a butterfly farm - nice, but nothing groundbreaking. In contrast to the hummingbirds. These tiny birds are incredible. They fly so fast that you can't even realize it - amazing. To complete the classic tourist program, we also visited a cocoa chocolate factory. The tour was quite exhausting due to our guide's poor English. Nevertheless, it was interesting to experience the production process and the small chocolate tasting compensated for the exhausting listening.

Next short stop was the mountain town of Otavalo. Allegedly, the largest handicraft market in Ecuador takes place here on Saturdays. In addition to kitsch and junk, there were also some nice things to look at. Especially the "classic" fruit and vegetable market was cool. For a few dollars, you could get tons of papayas, pineapples, coconuts, and countless varieties of melons. Many fruits and especially potato varieties were unknown to us. That's why Silke bought the things that the locals bought before us. Afterwards, we googled our achievements to know how to consume them. Some things were good, others less so 😊. After such an exhausting market day, we treated ourselves to a few days of relaxation at Finca Sommerwind. This campsite is run by German immigrants and is located right by a lake - really nice for relaxing.