After getting back from Quito, a series of events had me moving into a relationship fairly quickly. I had made friends with two of the consular greeters before I headed to Quito, Paulo and Michael. The greeters help our tourist visa and immigrant visa applicants through the interview process at the Consulate. All the applicants show up outside on the morning of their interview. They have appointment times. The greeters make sure they have all the right papers, check them in, get them to the waiting room, pass their passports and papers to the assistants inside the section, then pass the passports back, and get the applicants to the interview, and then out of the building. They work on the other side of the interview windows than us, so there isn’t much interaction, but I’d made friends with these two guys. So, I hung out a couple of times with them, and then with them and a few other greeters. Then I went to Quito. While up there, I had been chatting a fair amount with the greeter supervisor, a delightful young woman named Livia. When I got back from Quito we saw each other at a get-together or two. It was obvious she was flirting, and I thought she was quite cute and had a quick wit, so I asked Paulo and Michael. They confirmed she was interested in me, so we talked more, and have been dating since June.
Pretty soon after we started dating, I proposed a trip to Mindo, a place I had wanted to visit when I was in Quito but didn’t get the chance. So, we bought tickets to Quito, taxied to the bus station, waited way longer than I hoped, had our bus drive off the side of the road (no injuries), got off of that bus, as it was stuck in the mud/ditch, got on another bus, got dropped off at the turn off to Mindo (this bus wouldn’t be going down into town), were lucky to hitch a ride from a passing pickup truck (also tourists headed to Mindo) and finally arrived at our hostel. I think we had planned for 7 or 8 pm arrival, I think it was more like eleven.
But, we got there. We had a great weekend, hitting up a butterfly garden, a guy’s patio to do some bird-watching, an orchid garden, and went on a very fun zipline course (10 or 11 ziplines) through the cloud forest. We hiked to a couple waterfalls as well. I got in one, it was freezing, I stayed in enough for it to be refreshing, no longer. Mindo is primarily a bird-watching spot, but also brings people in for the zip lines, rappelling and some tubing/kayaking. Livia is shy with water sports, and it was a bit cool when we were there (at least coming up from Guayaquil), so we didn’t do any tubing. The town is pretty small, and it’s apparent that the tourism is recent, the restaurant offerings could be much improved, and they seem to be using the recent income to repair the roads and the main square. The main road through town is half paved, half still dirt, and actively under construction. The butterfly garden was super cool, very busy, and full of all sorts of butterflies. It was a very relaxing, pleasant trip. A few pics below!
(from one of the zipline platforms)
(Livia with the guide on the zipline)
