On this day, the plan was to first visit a Chocolate Factory and later a Rain Forest. We headed out early in the morning towards Mindo, Ecuador, which was a 2 1/2  hour drive from Quito. Once we got to the factory, we were treated to a great tour and presentation regarding the process of making chocolate. The name of the factory is, “El Quetzal”. Here is a picture of the outside of the factory. The website for this factory is located here: http://www.elquetzaldemindo.com/

Here is a picture of some of the pods where Cocoa Beans come from.

Once the pods are open, they look like this. As shown, you can now see each individual Cocoa Bean.

 

The next step is to ferment them. Some people do this by placing banana leaves on them for up to three days. The fermenting process drys up the soft milky white outer skin. Once the fermenting process is done, the beans look like this.

Next step is to crack the shell open to find the tiny Cocoa Beans. Some people roast these to help with this process. The presentation ended and then we were shown professional machinery that the factory uses to automate this process. We ended the tour by buying some chocolate from the factory. We loaded up into our van and then headed to the, “Mindo Cloud Rain Forest”.

When we arrived, we found out that there was two paths to take to get to the waterfall areas. The longer path would allow hikers to see four different waterfalls.  The shorter path would allow hikers to only see one waterfall. A friend and I decided to take the shorter path. It was long hike to get to the waterfall but so worth it.  Here are some pictures of the waterfall.

This is a selfie of me in front of the waterfall.

Finally, here is a third picture of my friend and I.

We left the waterfall area and drove to a lodge where we had dinner and spent the night. We checked into, “Sachatamia Lodge”, also located in Mindo, Ecuador.  The lodge is a famous place for bird watchers. The website for the lodge is located here: http://www.sachatamia.com/