Day 6, February 19, 2026: Mindo Cloud Forest Today was my last day, and I took another day trip outside of Quito. I went to the Mindo Cloud Forest, which is basically a mountain rainforest about 50 miles outside Quito. It so fascinating just how diverse the terrain is near Quito. The Middle of Earth Valley is a rugged valley with very few trees. Otovalo is to the east, and it’s even more rugged out there. Cotopaxi is a volcanic plain that is relatively flat (by Quito terms) and is a classic agricultural region. Mindo is a rainforest that is in the mountains, and so much like Hawaii that I swear I was driving through Kuai. It was a winding road that crossed up and down through a jungle. The day started with a bit of anxiety. It’s my last day, I was low on cash. We stopped at gas station, and my card didn’t work, partly because the machine had no English directions. We decided to try another ATM further down the road, but in the meantime I was scared that my card was locked because of irregular activity. Fortunately, the next ATM worked, and I could finally relax. The first stop was a hike to a waterfall. I had three choices: Hard (45 minutes, and steep). Medium (20 minutes), and easy (15 minutes). I choose the easy hike, which was short, but the footing was slippery. However, I made it to the end, and saw a gorgeous waterfall. It wasn’t massive, but it was pretty high, and had a good amount of force. Qute frankly, after visiting Niagra Falls, every waterfall I see is quaint. The next stop was on of the highlights, a cable car over the canopy. I actually had 3 choices. A zipline, or a zipline that you pedal a bike over the canopy. I choose the cable car, thinking it would be a standard gondola up from the base to the top of a hill. It was a metal basket that was attached to a cable and moved across the gorge. I was told it was fairly safe, but it didn’t look very strong. My guide had then stop the basket in the middle of the gorge for a minute, to take pictures. I took all the pictures I wanted in 15 seconds, and spent the rest of the time praying that basket would start moving again. For some reason, it wasn’t as scary while moving, but it was scary when we were stopped. The cool part was the drive up to the cable, which was a narrow winding dirt road. To get to it, you have to cross a one lane bridge that looked like a pedestrian bridge. It was barely wide enough for the car. After the cable car, we went to the Butterfly Preserve. There was an indoor garden that had netting protecting the butterflies, and then an outdoor garden. This is a must if you like butterflies. After a nice lunch, we went on a chocolate tour. It was a factory, and I got to make chocolate from dried cocoa bean to nibs. I picked the beans, toasted in a pot until it popped, grinded it, and tried the nibs with different addatives. I didn’t realize that the cocoa bean had a white fleshy fruit that tastes a little like mangostein. They have to be related, because the pods are so similar. It’s also why cocoa wine tastes so fruity. The last step was a stop at a humming bird preserve. It required a short hike through the jungle to get to overview, kind of like a duck blind, with a humming bird feeders. It was a beautiful hike, and watching the humming birds was fascinating. It’s hard to get pictures of them because they move off before you take the picture. It started raining just after we left the Chocolate factory, and it was raining pretty hard while we were at the humming bird preserve. While we walked back to our car, it was a deluge. Fortunately I had a rain cover, and a wide brimmed hat that kept the rain out. Unfortunately, my hat is still soaked, and likely won’t dry until I get home.