Bird watching

Happy bank holiday weekend, how did you spend yours?
i went to a small town called Mindo with mike one of the boys i know from spanish class. Mindo is east of Quito between here and the coast and is famous for the many butterflies and birds that are endemic to the area. We left early on saturday morning as its a 2 and half hour bus journey, the bus was totally packed- this means people sitting in every available space as well as standing in the aisle. The weather when we left was looking very gloomy, the weather when we arrived in Mindo wasn't any better so we decided to have lunch before making any plans. After lunch we found a hostel to stay in, this was in a very pretty wooden, chalet style, building with hammocks on the balcony at the front. At checking-in the owner recommended a walk up the opposing mountain that gave pretty views over Mindo and also gave us the possibility to see some birds, so off we set up the mountain. In fact, no we didn't see any birds, along the walk we encountered 2 noisy dogs [which i was slightly scared of], a huge yellow spider that landed on my head [which i was a little more scared of] and some rain [which was just wet]. We were walking through the cloud forest, so rain wasn't entirely unexpected and it didn't spoil the walk, about half way through we reached a clearing in the forest where we had a wonderful view of Mindo nestling at the bottom of the mountain, the peaks shrouded in fluffy white cloud- very pretty. Back at the hostel i just chilled out on the hammocks, watching the rain outside.
After the rain had stopped we ventured out and had fresh fish for tea in one of the tiny restaurants. The weather here was alot warmer than Quito, a little like a summer evening we would have whilst camping in france. so after tea we wandered around, everyone else seemed to be doing the same thing and just hanging around having a laugh. We found a table football game and were soon surrounded by local children who all wanted to play with us, so after a few games and a toffee apple each we headed back to the hostel for an early night, as we had arranged an excursion at 6am the following day!! [i'm not sure what possessed me to do this]
Sunday morning arrives- its very early, very dark and there is no hot water, actually no water at all and no electricity so after a candle lit breakfast we set off with our guide Marcelo. The sky is still grey and i'm not hopeful the weather will be better than yesterday, but i'm soon proved wrong. We watch the skies clear and witness a beautiful sunrise over the mountains [i forget my suncream and by the afternoon am a little pink!!! suprise suprise] along the trail we see loads of cool birds, that are all in the most fantastic colours that they don't seem real- my favourite are the toucans, which have such large beaks i'm amazed that they can fly without being of balance. After walking for a few hours we approach the waterfall, which can only be reached by a many steep and slippery steps down the cliff face. At the bottom it is wonderful, a bit like a timotei advert. there's a large slide down into the pool beneath the waterfall which our guide persuades us to go down, its a lttle higher than i expect but lots of fun. The river, because of the rain, is fairly high and very strong i nearly get washed away and emerge looking a little bedragled. i also forgot my bikini so swam in my underwear to the amusement of the guides, at least it didn't actually come off! The walk back to Mindo was long and fairly tiring so when we arrived back all i was up for was lunch folllowed by frisbee in the park, again with the local children who couldn't throw a frisbee for toffee! The rain started again so we shelterd in a cafe eating cake and drinking tea until it was time to catch the bus home. i arrived in Quito very tired, muddy and still slightly damp but having had a good weekend.
ps to all those non believers, yes i really am going to start knitting!