About four in the morning we were awoken by rain pinging on GANNET2’s roof. It’s a noise that used to freak out Rusty but he snored on through it.
June is considered dry season here but massive rains have caused mudslides in central Ecuador destroying homes by the dozen, killing ten people at last count and of course closing roads. Once again we bring chaos wherever we go. We are just off the northern edge of this map:
We have heard some overlanders have been cut off by the road closures which is annoying for them. That which irritates us, the privileged travelers is actually quite serious elsewhere. Death, destruction and not much hope of a quick recovery down south and in our serene crater things just looked rather gloomy under rainy skies.
We went for a walk, showered and got on the road planning to breakfast later. We faced the same six mile dirt road climb out to 10,000 feet that we come down but we have learned to trust our heavy duty all terrain tires from B F Goodrich.
And we had a lot of steep turns on wet dirt up the hill. We were pretty sure we’d have no problems and we didn’t. The tires never slipped and we purred straight up the mountainside, so when we met a truck we decided to back up to let them pass and we suffered no slipping. The tires were perfect.
And the clouds pulled back a bit to brighten the day for a little while. As you can see the roads in the crater are strictly single lane.
15 kilometers -9 miles - to the paved highway. Weekends this place is a getaway from the capital just 13 miles away.
Mountains and mist as usual.
And then we got on the highway to Mindo. Traffic was very heavy coming toward us, slow trucks with lines of cars taking horrible risks to pass on these winding roads.
Layne had French Toast on her mind and finally we found a turn out where we reasonably level and Rusty could stretch his legs.
The scenery is more of the same.
I stand and watch the clouds drift over the forest and Rusty couldn’t care less.
Mindo is a big tourist destination and funnily enough as we drive down some Belgians in the European version of our van we’re coming out. Layne exchanged messages and we did learn they didn’t much like Mindo. We were warned.
It’s supposed to be a rainforest destination with outdoor activities, the usual need to keep the visitors amused. Check out this six foot fern I spotted:
Layne said there was a chocolate shop that got five star reviews. It was pretty good actually with some that were not too bitter for my feeble taste buds.
And check out what that dirt road did to my lovely home on wheels:
“Stop!” Layne said when she spotted a carpentry shop. We’ve been batting around the idea of getting a wooden holder for our Berkey filter. In Mexico we found a basket that did the job but the basket is not holding up after three long years.
Most vans have inline water filters to purify the water that comes out of the faucet. The concern for us as always was finding spare parts driving around these countries. The Berkey filters thousands of gallons through its charcoal filters and we’ve used them for years. Berkey is going through some legal controversy with California which doesn’t like their labeling and the Chinese have also been selling cheap knock offs of their filters, but we find the Berkey to be ideal for us. Except how to keep it upright.
We have a thirty gallon tank that we fill with purified water which we then run through the Berkey for assurance that our drinking water is clean. To keep it upright on the counter we asked Segundo the carpenter to make a base similar to the basket.
He took his measurements and said it should be ready Friday at noon for $15. He actually smiled as we promised to be back.
It must seem odd but we felt a huge weight off our shoulders. For the drive up the dirt road we tried the Berkey and rolled it in a towel on the bed to prevent it making a wet leap for freedom over the worst holes in the road. The new wooden base should end our wet disasters.
Mindo is a tourist town and you end up feeling like a target on the street for the sales teams. Not our cup of tea and we’ll be out of here after we get our Berkey holder. I think Layne has Some things to see to occupy our time till then.
And just to give you an idea about this rain forest climate here, the sidewalks are all covered by these plastic rain roofs. Never seen them before and they make me think we are somewhere where it must rain a lot.
Even Rusty stuck close to GANNET2 here, he doesn’t seem to be too fond of this town.
Too many hungry street dogs probably. Haven’t seen this many since Central America. Yuck.
