We planned a day trip with Freddy to Mindo, a bit of a nature/bio diversity amalgam, to see a different side of Ecuador. Luckily, traffic was light getting out and we were too early at our first stop so went to a nearby trailhead for a view of the crater valley of Cerro Sincholagua del Pululahua. We met a couple from North Carolina - she was born in Ecuador and had her hair all done up for a photoshoot and didn't realize that her uncle and two cousins were serious hikers. Freddy told him we had done the Cuicocha hike in just over 3 hours ("fast... you crazy!") But the uncle said that he'd run it in 90 mins and his daughter was faster..... weird flex but ok. Lol (that was for the girls to see if they're reading this). If you're a hiker, come to the mountains of Andean Ecuador!
We dropped down in the valley a bit to visit the Intiñan Site Museum. Arturo, who must have played on the National Basketball team (he was well over 5'8") was our museum guide. He was soft spoken and very knowledgeable. The tour starts with a review of the four distinct regions of Ecuador - the mountain region, amazon region, coastal region and the Galapagos region. For each region, they had some cool indigenous displays and artifacts (shrunken heads anyone?) including a preserved
Candirú, which is supposedly the feared barbed parasitic catfish that swims into your....openings . Removed only by surgery. Myth.. lol.
There were a bunch of demonstrations on what it means to be at (or at least really close to) the Equator. Interesting but I'm not sure how many of them were real ad what were parlour tricks.
By the way... very few regrets on this trip - but one major one is that I didn't get Alex in a picture with this mask. WHY!!!!!
We had a quick coffee and some Ecuadorian sweet bread treat to go, then it was off to Mindo. We climbed up for 10 minutes to maybe 3500 meters then basically descended for the next hour or so into a quickly changing environment. Suddenly we were in a steep valley that looked like a rain forest... the valley dropped out of site and the foliage was amazing. What looked like the occasional white flowered tree upon closer inspection was a weird palm with thick flat leaves that reflected white in the sub. The change compared to the dry mountain tops and valleys around Quito was amazing. Here's the elevation from Quito on the left to Mindo on the right (also... a 35km climb coming back going up almost 2000 meters... hmmm 5.7% average gradient.... future cycling trip?)....
Down, down ,down - we eventually arrived in the little hamlet of
Mindo... it reminded us of so many "mult activity backpacker " towns we'd been to... particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. It just had that vibe or a place where foreign nationals would come here and stay for a while (or forever) and run various tourist oriented businesses.
First we made a brief stop at a hummingbird sanctuary. They are kind of mesmerizing to watch, and were surly addicted to the sweet water we fed them.
We stopped in the heart of the tiny town for a great charcoal roasted chicken lunch that put Swiss chalet to shame (I know... not hard to do). We chatted with Freddy about life in Ecuador and his family. He had a great outlook on life - work to live, not live to work. As tourists in poor countries, we sometimes get this "I have the power to save you" moment - we've all been there - when we might offer to host locals we meet if they ever come to our country, right up to offering them jobs or helping them with their visas. It's kind of natural to think that a) that's what they want and b) that they'd be much happier.
Freddy told us an interesting story about a rich client of his that was from Las Vegas. Freddy had been expertly driving him around for days, and the client said "Freddy, come work for me in Vegas! You' make $4000 a month!!!". Freddy thought "great!", then asked.... "how much does it cost to live here?".... by the time the client had started listing out the costs (rent, food, utilities, health insurance, co-pay fees, taxed blah blah blah), Freddy (at least to us), wagged his finger "no, thank you, I'm happy here!". Good decision Freddy...
We next visited a butterfly farm that had loads of species that was pretty cool. Probably not worthy of the 10,000 pictures we took, but nice all the same.
In our continuing effort to explore all the little tourist businesses in Mindo, we too a chairlift (Beth was hardly concerned when they had to hand start a generator to make the thing work, nor when we stopped for a minute while dangling for a 200 foot drop into the forest for what turns out was a chance to offload someone else back at the bottom.... I'm lying.... she was not thrilled). On the way down, Freddy, riding behind us spotted not one but three toucans (apparently a rare find here!).
Our last stop before heading back to Quito was the El Quetzal de Mindo Chocolate Tour. We were met by Sergio from Portugal. I gave him a greeting in Porgugese "Boa tarde!" and some swear words I've picked up from work. He was great.
The small farm they had that surrounded their production facilities had just about every kind of fruit, spice and vegetable gowning that you could imagine. At that temperature, humidity and elevation (1400) meters, you can grow just about anything - however, not necessarily everything to its full potential. The cocoa plants they had there were more for demonstration. The ones they used to produce chocolate was from the coastal region of Ecuador.
I will talk about the process we saw below (then the sampling!) But bottom line conclusions... it's amazing the products we eat in North America and how far they've come from their source material. Wherein original Chocolate would be 67% to to 85% pure cacao made from the highest grade of cocoa trees (yellow fruit) and blended with just sugar cane , our chocolate is made from, usually, 5% cacao (made from higher yield, quicker growing trees that yield lower quality fruit) and a whole host of mostly unnatural products blended to make what we think of as chocolate.
The process was cool, and Sergio laid it all out to us at a table before we walked the grounds. Inside the thick husk of the cocoa fruit, are white, lychee like skins that cover the cocoa bean. We plucked a white skinned bean out and sucked on it and it was quite sweet.
These beans are put in tight containers, separated with banana leaves and left to ferment for a couple of days. Once complete, you're left with brown, almond like beans.
These beans are dried... again naturally here in a green house (or not in other production facilities)
Once dried, the beans are roasted for 45 minutes, cooled then dehusked (the skin literally flakes off... this is used for a nice herbal tea) and the remaining nut can be crushed and you'd have cacao nibs.
The beans are then ground between two grinding plates and a thick chocolaty substance is produced. This can be solidified and uses as baking chocolate or used in one of two processes...
First... it can be forced through a filter, producing cocoa butter at the other end and leaving you with cocoa powder (ie for hot chocolate) on the other end.
Or... it can Ben slowly spun a d very gently heated so it eventually becomes a viscous pour able chocolate.
It's at this point where the chocolate can be produced into its final form... mixed with sugar cane and perhaps some flavorings then put into molds or dropped into little button shapes- whatever.
When we were done with the tour, we did a tasting... different percentages or sugar cane mixed chocolate, the flavored buttons with cardamon, coffee, chilies, and my favorite: salt and pepper.
Satisfied with our chocolate excursion, we headed back up the long forest climb, back over the volcanic mountain pass and in to a very traffic congested Quito. Traffic was crazy. It took an hour to go the last 10km and we were going the opposite direction from the commuters heading out of the city.
We connected with Kim and Alex who had been recuperating after a tough morning hike at the top of the teleferica, enjoying a mediocre "American" dinner with great Company.
