A year ago in Mindo

Was I really in Ecuador a year ago? Afoot in the cloud forests of Mindo, a town enclosed by hills topped with thick fog.

Mindo perches just above the equator, warm and humid, the sunlight shrouded by the clouds that caress the landscape. I was enchanted with this mystical town only a short hop from the capital city, Quito.

In town we befriended a dog we named ‘stumpy’, drank chocolate milkshakes made with cocoa from nearby bean farms and attempted to photograph the hummingbirds lingering outside our window.

We loved Mindo so much, we extended our stay and extended again until we ran out of money and we needed to catch a bus to the Southern Hemisphere to find an ATM.

We thought nothing of walking 7kms to a butterfly farm along a dusty deserted road or hiking to nearby waterfalls. With all the time in the world we did things the long way, enjoying the journey and the freedom of an empty itinerary stretching before us.

The balcony of our $20 a night bungalow at La Casa de Cicilia

Now as I stare out the window at a wet spring evening in New Zealand I find it difficult to believe I was somewhere like Ecuador just a year ago.

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