Lindo - 'beautiful, pretty, attractive' - and Mindo, to the west of Quito, is all those things. The climate here is spot on; away from the heat of the coastal plain and lacking the extremes of the mountains. Humidity, sunshine, warm rain and perfect temperatures were the recipe for the next few days in this little-known paradise. With
Carnaval still in full swing, moving round the town was a messy affair. In addition to the water and foam attacks, the kids here were using mud, with a corner of the park dedicated to girl-dunking in the swamp that had formed there during the rains.
We headed out of town to the canopy zip lines. A series of ten aerial runways suspended across two valleys up to 80 metres above the forest floor. My ideas of a morning well spent. The rest of the time in this Ecuadorean family retreat was spent walking through the cloud forests hunting for some of the 450 species of birds that live there. We didn't see any but that didn't matter as the house we stayed in attracted about fifteen hummingbirds every morning during breakfast. After too short a time we had to leave this gorgeous little town to begin the mad dash south. The Odyssey was drawing to an end and we needed to reach Lima... the circle should always be closed.
Lindo - 'beautiful, pretty, attractive' - and Mindo, to the west of Quito, is all those things. The climate here is spot on; away from the heat of the coastal plain and lacking the extremes of the mountains. Humidity, sunshine, warm rain and perfect temperatures were the recipe for the next few days in this little-known paradise. With Carnaval still in full swing, moving round the town was a messy affair. In addition to the water and foam attacks, the kids here were using mud, with a corner of the park dedicated to girl-dunking in the swamp that had formed there during the rains. 
We headed out of town to the canopy zip lines. A series of ten aerial runways suspended across two valleys up to 80 metres above the forest floor. My ideas of a morning well spent. The rest of the time in this Ecuadorean family retreat was spent walking through the cloud forests hunting for some of the 450 species of birds that live there. We didn't see any but that didn't matter as the house we stayed in attracted about fifteen hummingbirds every morning during breakfast. After too short a time we had to leave this gorgeous little town to begin the mad dash south. The Odyssey was drawing to an end and we needed to reach Lima... the circle should always be closed.
