Flashbacks to Mindo

Seeing those fireflies in Wimberley, Texas the other night sparked memories of Mindo, Ecuador, the only other place I recall ever seeing fireflies. At first I couldn't remember where it had been; I just remembered seeing them on some dark street in some foreign country with Adrian.

New Zealand? No. Those were glow worms. So, where? Where were we?

Piece by piece, the memories started filling in. We'd gone to some night time nature walk in Mindo. We arrived at the place really early, but the gates were closed. We couldn't enter the property or reach anyone to let us in. We'd walked pretty far and there was no sense in leaving to come back later. It was raining. What did we do while we waited? I think we danced. I might be making that up. But that's the fuzzy memory coming to me.

I remember that once we got in to the place, it was just me and Adrian. No other tourists. There was dog. We were served some tea. We saw a lot of frogs and toads, or maybe just toads. Or was it a frog and toad symphony of sorts followed by a nature walk? That's sounding about right. Not sure though. Feels so long ago. But I  am sure now that we saw fireflies on the walk home.

And I remember children playing in the street late at night. I first noticed that in Banos, Ecuador, the children staying out late at night, playing in the streets. February 2011. From Banos we went to Mindo, or was it Otovalo to Mindo? Mindo with its hummingbirds and butterflies. We went to a butterfly garden, put mashed banana on our fingers to attract them.

We saw tons of hummingbirds, mostly right outside of the place we were staying. I remember relaxing in ahammock on the porch watching Adrian take tons of pictures of them. And there was a sweet dog that lived there. And we were the only guests, I think. Or at least it seemed that way. We even got our own rooms. Seemed the place was pretty empty other than when some younger relatives of the owners, or friends would come over to watch tv and smoke from a houka.

I practiced Kuan Yin Sitting Qigong in the mornings. Some yoga too on the dirty floor with both dead and living gigantic moths all around. I think I took some pictures of these moths, but I'm not finding all of the photos now, so just posting a few that did turn up.

I remember the kitchen they let us use. But the grocery selection was so bad, we mostly just used the kitchen to make oatmeal. I remember the chocolate factory and meeting some man with an interesting story I no longer remember. And I remember taking a photo of a re-enactment of me being angry towards the beginning of a walk we took.


I don't remember exactly what the argument was about, but I think it had something to do with communication or making requests or me being hormonal or some combination of those things. It was nice though to go from being so agitated to being able to laugh it off and even take pictures to make light of it and then continue our long walk in the rain up to some waterfalls.

Mindo is also where Adrian wanted to go tubing but never did. And I think Mindo is where we went on a canopy tour. That was fun! There was this superman pose I really liked. It was a little uncomfortable but well worth getting a glimpse into what it might be like to be able to fly.

  © 2012 Rebecca Clio Gould. All rights reserved.