Today we visited the equator again so that Michelle could experience being on both the southern and northern hemisphere at the same time. It was very fun doing the experiments again. Then we headed an hour further to the town of Mindo. They call it the "Cloud Forest" because it typically is engulfed in the clouds. Not today!! It was sunny and HOT!!! First stop was a butterfly farm. They had over 30 species of butterflies and because it was sunny they were all flying around. Danni was a little freaked out at first but eventually enjoyed it. Emma was awesome at getting the butterflies to land on her. It was beautiful!
We had lunch at a little local restaurant which was delicious. There are dogs running in and out so of course Emma and Danni made some new friends! Danni is going to love Zoey and Kramer!!
After lunch we headed up the mountain to a zip line type thing but it was a basket that could hold all of us. I don't recall the actual name!! It was a rusty old basket that moved across wires to the other side of the canyon and then back! It was a little freaky!! Emma screamed most of the way. Then they stopped it in the middle so we could take pictures and Emma she screamed even louder!! It was beautiful and awesome but I was a little scared myself. Then came real zip lining! Emma said NO WAY so I had to stay behind with her and Danni (thank goodness because I didn't want to do it either!!). Hayden, Michelle and our tour guide Faulto did it. They had a blast!! Hayden said he "was working the zip line"!! They went to 10 different lines which took about 45 minutes. We sat and relaxed in some hammocks. Danni thought that was pretty cool when he saw Hayden come to the end he was yelling "Papi, Papi, Papi" and waving at him. He was so excited! Then he asked to go on the zip line!!! It was a really fun day. We almost did not do this trip. So glad we did!!!
On the way home we stopped for "soda" and this guy was making home made taffy!! See pic above! It was so cool to watch him and it tasted good too!!
One other picture is of Cayambe Volcano. It is the mountain with all the snow on it. It is the 3rd highest peak in Ecuador and typically it is cloud covered so we were very lucky to see it. It is still periodically active. Very cool!
Pray all goes well tomorrow while we run around and get all Danni's paperwork complete. We all are looking forward to coming home and pray that we all get to leave together!! Night night! Mari
