Mindo Cloudforest Weekend!

Mike and I are in Mindo right now, just about to head back to Quito on the 3:00 bus. We´ve had an awesome weekend away from the city! We stayed at a hostel called La Casa de Cecilia, which is right on the Mindo River, and it´s all wooden like a tree house. Right next door is El Queztal chocolate makers and restaurant, where we did the chocolate tour as soon as we arrived. They have the BEST brownies ever, made with their own chocolate. They don´t grow the cacao in Mindo, but they make their chocolate from scratch, and they even have a little garden where they grow organic oregano, ginger, peppers, stevia, and coffee, which they use in their products. The cacao is actually from warmer areas like the coast, and it is so yummy! On Saturday we met a couple from Quito, and went tubing on the river. It was quite the adventure! We kept hitting rocks, but because the tubes were tied together, we made it out without a scratch! Yesterday we did the waterfall hike in the cloudforest, and went swimming in the tallest of the waterfalls. What a cool experience! Today we hit up our favorite pìzza place in town, and got our wood-fired veggie pizza for the fourth time. We didn´t realize how much we were missing pizza! Mmmmm!