I woke up to roosters´ crowing before sunrise last week. I looked out my log cabin window to see clouds rolling in so thick I could touch their mist. It was time to get up. Juana the Cow needed to be milked.
As a kid, I remember chasing butterflies and trying to capture them in the fleeting moments that one flew by. It was of course an impossible feat. But at a butterfly farm in Mindo, Ecuador, dozens of the winged-beauties landed right on me.
For two days, a local Ecuadorian family hosted our private tour of the cloud forest and surrounding rural cities. We went to the Equator, ziplined through the canopy, visited a butterfly farm, saw an artisinal chocolate-making production, hiked through calf-deep mud to a waterfall, milked a cow and spent the night in a cabin without electricity. But even better than the slew of thrilling activities was getting to know a local couple and their adorable youngest daughter.
