Sin Ropa

Erin and I took a delightful repast this past weekend to the ecotourism hotspot of Mindo, about two hours northwest and downmountain of Quito. A beautiful little village in a valley, surrounded by lush forests on all sides, and perpetually enshrouded in clouds, giving it a "lost world" appearance, not unlike Rivendale.

Through the magic of time travel, it is now Saturday morning the 22nd of March and we are slogging up a very muddy road towards Las Cascadas, a series of waterfalls...

The view is terrific, the weather is cool and misty and therefore perfect for hiking, but goddam there are way too many cars on this road. It is Semana Santa (Easter) weekend, and that means every single Quiteno with a car has left the city for the weekend and apparently headed for Mindo. Ecotourism merely means the setting is beautiful. It says nothing about how the setting is to be enjoyed. 4-wheelers roar bye, families spend the entire day inside their car looking out, and everyone stays in summer camp-style lodges, one of which even has a huge water slide. Definetely not my idea of ecotourism, but then neither are the National Parks.

We reach a cable car that crosses the gorge in front of us, watch all the walking-averse hop aboard, and we promptly descend a solitary jungle trail to the river below. Solitude disappears as we cross the appropriately sketchy bridge at the bottom and rejoin the masses. But then we reach a cascada (waterfall), and the noise of crashing water drowns out everything else.

I love water. It brings out the kid in everyone. I strip down and dive into the pool, swimming as fast as possible straight into the pounding torrent, only to be spat out immediately with a full mouthful of water. Just below the main plunge pool is a natural water slide. There is a rope that descends along with the chute. I attempt to cautiously lower myself down the slide with the rope, but I'm sucked down immediately, get spun around underwater, and frantically surface. I'm fine, but my hands are rope-burned and I've lost my indomitable bandana which gives me special powers. Nuts. I recall my father's advice (he once lost something important in the surf of Hawaii, but rather than despair, he spent 10 minutes searching for it, and somehow found it), and start to search all the nooks and crannies of the pool. Perseverance is rewarded with luck. The bandana has caught on a snag, and I happily retrieve it.

There is a kid, a teenager, tentatively eyeing the chute as we dry and dress. Like myself, he begins to cautiously descend with the rope. I lean over and holler at him not to use the rope. "Es seguro, no necesitas la ropa, es mejor sin ropa" I say, pointing at my hands and attempting to demonstrate that it hurts to hold onto the rope. The kid gives me a very weird look and backs off. A couple minutes later, he tries again, and again I insist its perfectly safe (Es seguro) and he should not use the rope (sin ropa!). He gives me a really weird look, takes of his T-shirt and goes down the chute. I get momentarily nervous, but then he pops up all right.

Erin and I resume our conversation in Spanish, describing to each other how we are putting our clothes back on. "Vamos ponernos nuestra ropa." Ropa? That means clothes. Woah. I just told the kid to go down the slide naked. No wonder he thought I was a crazy gringo. Like crazy gringos, we laugh uncontrollably as we imagine just what was going through this kid's mind as I insisted he take off his clothes before going down the chute. As we leave, we hear him instruct his little brother, "Sin Camiseta", to take off his shirt before going down.

More pictures to come. Freaky spiders, cool plants and snake!

http://picasaweb.google.com/haroldwershow Hit this up for tons of pics from Ruco Pichincha and Mindo!