Journey to the center of the earth

Today we left Otavalo and headed to Quito to find the center of the earth. Funny story on that, they actually think that the memorial site for the equator is wrong. They believe that the actual equator is about 300 meters away from the site. Which is a big deal considering all the money that they put into building the area around the supposed equator line, there are shops and restaurants everywhere!

After stopping there to see the equator we headed to Mindo our final destination. We arived at our hotel, and it was beautiful we stayed in a wooded cabin with blue tiled floors, there was a queen bed and a bunk bed inside a room with a bamboo door. There is a large bathroon, and a kitchenet close by. There is a small table and a couch near that as well. There is a really tiny balcony that has a hammock and just enough room for one more person to be in out there. 

Outside of the hotel is a breakfast area, more rooms, a game room with a pool table and other various games. There was also swinging beds (that's what we call them) basicly they are beds that are connected to the ceiling by strings and rock back in forth right in front of the river. Oh! I forgot. Yes, we are right in front of a big beautiful river, you can hear it from our room. 

After settling in we headed to town to make reservation for zip lining through the cloud forest and seeing a huge waterfall. Then we headed to yet another chocolate factory, we got a tour then ate some samples. It was very good, but strange how they did it. They gave you plan 100% chocolate (melted) then you would take some and add chili powder and some kind of vinegar. It was strange but very good. By the time we finished that we were all extreamly full. So we had to find something to keep us busy for at least an hour. 

We then headed to the bird watching house I guess you would call it. We payed 17$ to get in, but it was well worth it! There were so many birds there you just sat and watched them as they flew by. You may think this is extremely boring but it was beautiful. The main bird we watched was the humming bird; fast, majestic, and with sharp but graceful movements. 

After at least an hour there it was the to eat, so we headed to a pizza pasta place down the road. It was wooded and had a stone fireplace where they cooked the pizza. We ordered one pizza and aa bowl of pasta, since we still weren't all that hungry from the chocolate. It was very good and after dinner it was time to go to bed, for it was to be a long day tomorrow.

~Miss you all, see you in 4 days~

T