Quito & Mindo

We went on a quick 5 day trip to Quito & Mindo, which is a 2 hour bus ride west of Quito. We opted to fly to Quito rather than do the 8-10 hour bus ride.

Riki had visited Quito in 2007, but the kids and I hadn’t been yet. We figured it was worth checking out, and we timed our visit to coincide with my friend Adriana’s visit to Quito. Adriana ives in Olympia, WA, but was visiting her parents in Quito. Unfortunately her grandfather passed away, and then Adriana got quite sick, so we weren’t able to meet up.

However, we had a great time in the big city. We rode the cable car up above Quito to get some great views. (Jade called it “the zoomer” and said it was her favorite part of our trip to Quito). It was freezing up there, and windy. The kids enjoyed the swing in the clouds.

We climbed the towers of the Basilica church, which was a fun adventure. The church was stunning.

We met up with Benito, Cliff & Jonathan for a final hangout at Parque El Ejido & had some delicious Venezuelan arepas for $1.00 each for lunch. The next day we checked out another big park, Parque Carolina.

My favorite part of Quito was discovering the Parque Cumandá, which is an urban park built inside an old bus station. It was like a mix of an art museum and a YMCA, but more art museum. We played some fuse ball.

on migration

While traveling with the kids, it seemed like everyday highs and lows of life with 3 kids were amplified into wonderful times and horrible times. One low for me was in Mindo, waiting for 45 minutes or so in a restaurant for our dinner while trying to keep the kids quiet. Meanwhile, I was hungry, I had a splitting headache, and I was exhausted.

Luz had a blowout poop in the ice cream store, and Tomu accidentally peed his pants so we bought new ones.

A high of the trip was one day in Mindo, when we were hiking on a brilliantly sunny day through the cloud forest to a waterfall. We got to the waterfall and played in the pools. Riki went down a big scary slide into the river. The kids swang on a giant swing, and coerced several butterflies to land on them. Luz upped her walking game there at Nambillo waterfall, and I thought she would just start walking everywhere (but, nope). After the waterfall hike, we had yummy coffee in town. I prefer an afternoon coffee, an iced latte if possible, to a morning coffee. And when traveling, an afternoon coffee is almost a necessity! Then we played at the local park, had a delicious dinner at the Arepería (the best arepas I’ve had—filled with beef, chicken, beans, cheese, avocado, and pico de Gallo—for $2 each), and were home with kids in bed by 7:00 pm. Sometimes it seems like everything goes perfectly, or easily anyways, one thing after another.