Paradise in the Cloud Forest

My Idea of Paradise is El Monte

Quito’s been wonderful-the restaurants, shopping, everything so convenient. But its loud, dirty and busy. I needed a little bit of paradise, so I traveled to the small town of Mindo and am staying at an ecolodge in the cloud forest (basically the rain forest, but at a higher elevation). The town of Mindo takes some explanation. It’s really an anomaly in Ecuador. This little progressive, green, environmentally conscious town. They separate trash into organic and inorganic. There is NO litter in the streets. Everyone is so friendly (this isn’t an anomaly). The town lives by ecotourism and the tourists come. Yet, it doesn’t feel like a tourist town.

Every time I come here, I treat myself to a night or two at this wonderful ecolodge called El Monte. This is my idea of paradise-and it’s just two hours by bus from Quito. I have an open cabaña. The place is surrounded by a rushing river that you have to cross by cable bridge. The place tries to be as green as possible without sacrificing comfort-composting toilets, hydroelectric power, the blender is run by a bicycle wheel, a garden with fresh veggies for all the meals, shade grown coffee, all nestled in the cloud forest. I’ve been here several times and each time I come, I’m so impressed. You get a bird watching guide (Mindo has won international bird watching competitions for the most birds seen per square kilometer, beating out even the Brazilian Amazon!) You can see quetzals, birds of paradise, cock-of-the-rocks, and other tropical birds plus TONS of hummingbirds. It has to be one of the most relaxing spot in the world. The other neat thing about El Monte is they hire people from the Amazon region (where they have a partnership with another jungle lodge). So you’ve got these indigenous folks earning a good income, perfecting their English and preparing wonderful foods. It’s all vegetarian, organic, clean, tasty, wonderful. YUM!

Mindo also attracts hippies, free spirits and wanderers. I wandered into this wonderful chocolate shop called “Chocolarte” (chocolate art in Spanish). It’s run by an Argentinean woman and her 5 year old son. She reminded me so much of the woman in the movie Chocolat. Dios mio, her chocolate is AMAZING. One truffle with pure cocoa beans, cocoa butter and sugar. Wow. It puts even Godiva to shame. I got to witness the whole process of how she makes her chocolate during a chocolate tour. Then we ended with the richest mug of hot chocolate and a brownie using the cocoa beans. The reason I think her chocolate was divine is because it is minimally processed-really just pure chocolate from the fresh cocoa beans grown right here in Ecuador. I can go on and on about this woman’s chocolate-I think I might invest in her truffles.

You can do zip lines, hiking, rafting, birding…but for me, I spent most of the time reading and relaxing in the hammock, going for walks into town and really just recharging my batteries. It was wonderful.