Sunday, June 19, 2005

Keeping the pickpockets in Business

After 2 weeks of Spanish school we decided it was time to hit the road once again. So after a sad farewell with our family, they gave us presents on leaving( the new testament in English and Spanish of course) we hopped on a bus for a 6 hour bus ride to Mindo in the North of Ecuador. A couple of hours into the ride however I discovered my wallet had been lifted. A mighty effort considering I was sitting on it and the seat behind looked as though it was impenetrable. Grudgingly I have to hand it to the pickpocket and they are now 60 dollars richer.
Moving on though, we are now in the beautiful little town of Mindo which is located in an Andean cloud Forest and home to most of Ecuadors birds it seems. For other bird nerds out there, Ecuador has more species of bird than the United States and Mindo is one of the best places where bird nerds like myself can gather and compare notes. So armed with my bird checklist,I have been ticking off different species of Hummingbird that buzz around our breakfast table every morning. The scene is really quite spectacular and I challenge anyone not to become a bird nerd upon seeing this. Tomorrow we are hoping to see more bird pornography in particular Toucans which really are the top of the list for me. It really is a relaxing place here in the forest and we plan on staying here until Wednesday.

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