Rappelling and El Templo del Sol

Mindo is in what's called a "cloud forest."  I guess you can see why.

Us Truly and our American friends, Karen and Dave

Some Ecuadorian friends who were on the trip

I just think these flowers are pretty

Bobby in his hiking gear

Bobby took this

Crossing the river on an open air cable car

On the trail

Considering rappelling down that waterfall

The decision has been made!

Half way down

Hamming it up---he wanted to be sure people knew he really did it!

That looks like fun!

On the way back, the bus stopped because this car was in the road, having had some kind of accident.  All the men, except for my man who had a gimp ankle, cheerfully bounded off the bus and pushed the car out of the way and helped the driver get on her way.  She had blood on her face and I wanted to go over and do a little trauma work on her right away so she wouldn't retain the trauma, but a policeman shooed me away.

One of the Ecuadorian men serenaded us on the way back.  He had a good voice and played well, too.  I really enjoyed listening, even though I didn't know any of the music and understood very few words.  As it got later and darker, the other Ecuadorians chimed in with increasing gusto---it was great!  It sounded like a beer party, but no alcohol was consumed.  I think.

The next bunch are views from the bus.  There was so much beautiful scenery that we couldn't stop taking pictures!

Do you see the volcano?  It's old and the crater has caved in.  Click on the picture and you'll see it better.

This is at the entrance of El Templo del Sol, which is a replica of an Incan sun temple.  After I took this picture I was told that I shouldn't have---don't know why---that's happened to me before!

Inside the sun temple---it was circular, as you can see, and there were several stories with balconies.  At the very top is an opening for the sun to enter, I guess.  The Incans were sun worshipers. 

Artifacts---real ones, I think

I rotated this picture, but it didn't want to stay upright  So turn your head to see this large container someone said was for putting dead bodies in---yikes! I tried to look as healthy as I could!  I think another container went over the top, and it didn't look too comfortable!

We missed so much explanation because it was all in Spanish, of course.  But I did hear something about this being a female oriented society, which confused me, because it seems to me that the Incans were all about testosterone.  Maybe this was a sub-sect.  Anyway, the woman here gets the best seat in the house.  The man on the right only gets a place for his bust.

Well, this didn't stay rotated, either, and it's a blurry picture to boot.  But here's the explanation---we were right exactly on the equator, which they call La Mitad del Mundo (the Middle of the World), so an egg will balance on the head of a nail.  And it really did!

The Incan sun god, I think.  Or maybe just a representation of the sun.  See?  He seems pretty full of testosterone to me!

This artist painted this picture with his hands.  It took about 6 minutes.

Partly finished...

And done!

Standing in front of another very large painting of his

At the top of the temple

also from the top

Bobby being theatrical again with this guy who was posing as an Incan chief.  Maybe a particular Incan chief, but we don't know.

Okay, Terri can be theatrical, too!  The guy was quite nice.  He somehow deduced that we were American (go figure!) and asked in English, "Lady, where you are from?"  I told him I was from SC, and he said, "Welcome!"

Here he is doing a vigorous dance for us.

The front of the temple.  Who knows if the original really looked like that---but we enjoyed it, and so did the Ecuadorians.