Today our morning started off at around 5 am. We had to wake up early so we could catch our flight to Quito. This was probably the shortest flights I’ve been on. We flew for maybe 45 minutes and then we were in Quito. When we got to Quito, we got on our bus that we had been on the whole trip and then headed on our way to Mindo. On our way I had noticed that there were tubes going through the sides of the mountains. This was for flooding reasons, so that landslides are less likely to occur.
After a short drive we were at our first stop, which was the Equator. We had actually based the false equator 40 meters before we got there. The French had measured where the though the equator was, but they were actually off. Even after knowing they were off, they still built a monument, where they though the equator was. The reason why there is a museum a in Quito compared to any other placed that the equator passes through is because Quito is the highest point on the equator. We walked through the museum and had our tour guide explaining to us everything that was there. She discussed a lot about the indigenous tribes. On indigenous community called the Shuar people would actually shrink the heads of their enemies. They would kill their enemies, take out their skull, boil the head, and put hot stones in the head. They believed that the spirit of a person was inside of their head. Another indigenous tribe was the Waran Community. This community would be completely naked in the amazon basin. Everything that this community uses would come from nature. We continued to walk through and saw many different totems which are actually thought to be earth protectors. We then walked by the solar clock which when we looked at it was off from what all of our watches said. We had then realized that we go by our days as 24 hours and then one leap year every four years, but this solar clock is based off of the day being 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds. The solar clock has two different sides to it, because the sun is six months in the north and six months in the south. She then discussed the Coriolis affect and how in the south water, tornadoes, etc. will spin clockwise, whereas in the north they will spin counterclockwise. Because we are at the equator, there is no Coriolis affect, which is why there are no tornadoes or hurricanes here.
After the equator museum we continued on to our ride to Mindo. Mindo is a cloud forest that is 1,400 meters above sea level. After about another two hours we were at our hotel. We weren’t able to check in, so we had to leave our stuff there and just headed to lunch. For lunch we all went to an Italian restaurant and got pizza. After lunch we headed to ziplining. On our way to ziplining, there was a bridge that we had to go over, but it said buses could not go over. But of course, we tried to get over twice and both times we failed. We had to end up taking taxis up there. Once we got there, we got all of our gear on and headed on our ziplining fun. Taylor was actually very nervous to go, but I knew she would enjoy it once she did the first one so I help to persuade her to go. It was so amazing to see all the forests, mountains, and clouds surrounding us as we went down the zipline. We were actually to do something called superman or butterfly down the zipline. Superman was basically what sounded like you were flying like superman with the help of the zipline helpers. Butterfly, which is the one I did, where you were actually hanging upside down from the zipline while the zipline helpers held your legs up. This one was a little scary the first time, but so much fun that I actually did it twice.
After ziplining we took the taxis back to the bus. Before getting on the bus, our bus driver spotted a bird that is very good and blending into its surroundings and will actually sit on a tree in one spot for a few days. Then we headed over to look at the river and Tait had said that years in the past his students would already be in the river by now. So, Taylor and I decided to go in the river. The water was so nice, but the current was a lot stronger than I had expected. We then headed back to the hotel and got all checked in to the hotel and headed to our rooms. We had about an hour to relax before dinner. We had dinner at 7 o’clock in the hotel. It was very interesting because going into our rooms and into the lobby we had to take our shoes off.
After dinner we had a presentation by Cassandra Shank and Nick Toth who discussed cloud forests in Mindo. All the cloud forests tend to be just around the equator. Cloud forests are nearly always covered by clouds and mist and have a tropical climate. The average rainfall per year is about 99 inches per year. Mindo is actually the capitol of bird watching. The vegetation has single story trees as well as many ferns and flowering plants. Mindo cloud forest is 48,000 acres large with many unique flora and fauna species. This area is very ecologically important as well as very important for ecotourism. They also discussed other cloud forests like the Monteverde Cloud forest is in Costa Rica, central Mexico’s Cloud Forest, Yakushima Island Cloud Forest, and La Gomera Spain. Central Mexico’s Cloud Forest is known for its migratory birds as well as the agricultural development of coffee. La Gomera Spain is actually a part of the Canary Islands. This cloud forest is well known for waterfalls and streams, as well as its biggest threats being wildfires. There are also no snakes or spiders in this cloud forest. Volcanos can also affect these different cloud forests. Eruptions release gases into the atmosphere as well as can cause the temperature to drop by 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Cloud forests can be affected by deforestation, habitat loss, fires, and climate change. Some of these affects can result in mudslides, as well as can cause loses of water which are very necessary for this ecosystem.