Mindo Ecuador Waterfall Tour Adventure

Water rushes over our hiking path in Mindo, Ecuador. I try to cross without using my hands!

All the Quiteños know Mindo. They venture to this cloud forest town for adventures in nature. 

The editors of Lonely Planet don’t mention Mindo in their guidebooks, yet.

Iona and I stay at La Casa de Cecilia. This is our ground floor room.

Once they do - once the town has a few ATMs, once there are a few places where it is possible to pay with a credit card - foreign tourists will storm it.

In order to visit, one must budget and bring cash.

Rather than made a reservation with one of the two or three sterile resorts that take them, it is best to set aside money for each day and stick to your limit. Follow your fellow tourists and join with them to collect discounts on common lodgings and activities. 

View of downtown Mindo from the back of our waterfall tour "taxi."

Iona and I take a three hour bus ride from Quito’s Ofelia bus station to Mindo.

As our driver ascends the switchbacks and the air begins to get  thinner, mists roll in over the craggy, bromeliad and vine covered mountains.

 Nature along the trail (clockwise from upper left): Morphos butterfly. A photogenic relative of the violet. A bromeliad sprouts up from a few slivers of rotten wood. 

We arrive and find an English speaking tour operator across the street from the bus station. Other tourists arrange for a waterfall tour with us. Negotiating a group rate saves us $4 each.

With Nambillo Falls as our final destination, we hike past seven smaller, equally spectacular waterfalls.

One of our Australian friends takes a solo dip in this lovely cascade.

Our entire party gets wet here. Iona and her friend are the last ones out from under the falls.

While everyone enjoys splashing in a waterfall, far tumbling water feels deeper in significance for me.

These dramatic drops evidence the relative youth of the planet. Where water has time to do its work, mountains are brought down to the size of hills. Meandering brooks through a meadow are sometimes the only evidence that water was responsible.

Don't forget to use water tablets if you fill your canteen from these springs!

Iona backs me up as I hug a mossy tree.

Waterfalls demonstrate for how water connects all life. Once most of the planet was like the cloud forest: humid, dense with vines, difficult to navigate. Then the clouds came to earth in the form of water. 

One of a number wood slat and cable bridges on the trail. 

It was water that brought humankind to land and, with its kinetic force, water made a rough landscape habitable for humankind.

We leave Mindo grateful for - and in awe of - water.

Costa Rican Gay Resort Adventure - Abercam, La Fortuna

(image courtesy Abercam, La Fortuna)

Abercam La Fortuna doesn't have an address. "Grande Tapio Blanca, Circa de Cataracas" or "The Big White Wall on the Road to the Waterfall" is how the locals know it.

As you might expect from a gay resort, it is a discrete location. What goes on in the pool or on the grounds is visible only to other guests: the property is bordered by vacant lots on all three sides.

But Abercam is not so remote as to be unreachable.

A 15 minute taxi ride from the La Fortuna bus station costs $5. Local restaurants deliver.

Though proprietors Tim Abernathy ( the Aber syllable) and Wayne Campbell (the Cam syllable) keep a post office box in town, a mailman occassionally travels the steep twisting grade to deliver a care package with hard-to-find items from the states.

Presently, a Halloween party, for which there are already 20 guests, including a posse of deaf gay men from Alajuela, is demonstrating this challenge of living in Costa Rica. Halloween is a favorite gay holiday around the world, but the Ticos have no tradition of masquerade. There are no costume shops or spooky decorations.

"If you want something special it would be best to have it shipped 3 to 4 weeks in advance," Campbell says.

Whether there is a bowl of bite-sized Snickers or not, partygoers and long-distance bookings are unlikely to complain. Abernathy and Campbell have pulled together a suptuous environment dedicated to pagan pleasures.

Every inch of the property, which rolls over two acres from the Tapio Blanca to a dry ravine, is landscaped and maintained with native cultivars by a full-time gardener. Brown, yellow, orange and blue, butterflies are lured by the hibicsus and plumeria. Hummingbirds sip from the purple buds of Jamacian snake grass.

Along the clean brick paths, orchids are hung over driftwood braces. The scents of cinnamon trees and frangipani close around the visitor. Noni, guava, grapefruit, orange, and a half dozen other fruits are available for visitors to pick and eat in season.

The guest villas, each with a private balcony, are positioned to face active volcano Arenal. The property is legally as close as any resort can get to the lava-loaded giant.

"The nature that surrounds Costa Rica is alluring and can stimulate the senses on many levels," Abernathy observes, "The mist we have here and the exotic flowers lead to a heightened sense of yourself and others."

Another perk of it's location: the Abercam property is the lowest property on the hill that recieves it's tap water from the resovoir that feeds La Fortuna's famous 70 m waterfall.

"Crystal clear, pure and sweet. It's like drinking nature itself," Campbell asserts.

Originally from Florida, the pair began looking for a place to start a bed and breakfast in their mid-thirties. They explored the north of Georgia, parts of Dominica, and Guadalajara, Mexico before settling on Costa Rica.

Once they had made their choice they rented a car and drove every road in the country searching for locations. After a stint in Capos, they spied their current property and set out to develop it, opening just one year ago.

"We have met some very special people and made some wonderful new friends," Abernathy noted, "that's the best part of the resort for us."

As a means of saying thanks to the gay community for their support, the pair often offers discounts and special incentives. Be sure to ask about their current and future specials when making your reservation.