One hears much about Vilcabamba when one is in Ecuador. It has a reputation of being a special place with extreme longevity of its inhabitants. I won’t get into this, but rather refer you to wikipedia for a full discussion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilcabamba,_Ecuador. This reputation has brought a slew of gringos here to visit and live, particularly of […]
We left the enjoyable town of Tena headed for Baños. The weather wasn’t great, it was cloudy and rainy. When you say cloudy here, it very well may mean that you are actually in the clouds – cloud forests, etc. Things didn’t work out like we’d expected, as we missed our stop. One of the […]
I have never been a Hallmark holiday kind of gal, but today was a fantastic day for us! We are at the edge of the Amazon rain forest entrance. It is a town called Tena. I am not yet allowed to river raft or exert to much but we went on a small flat […]
We have now been gone about 4 months. It is about the middle of our trip so we headed to Middle Earth! Quito has a whole park and museum about the equator. We went with our Swedish friend Regina, who we first met in Spanish school in Cuenca, then had Christmas with, then again at […]
We went to the Mindo Mariposario, or butterfly farm. It is a butterfly research center that studies and breeds butterflies. At least half are released into the wild, but some stay back to help support the organization. It is extremely well run, and a beautiful facility. On the way in, we were able to see […]
There were moments in Mindo if I wondered if the “Cloud Forest” moniker was a PR gambit to try to put a good face on “Rain Forest.” In hindsight, it’s probably closer to the truth, even though we had more rain in our several days in Mindo, than in the rest of our two+ months […]
Saturday is Market Day in Otavalo. This is the largest market in Ecuador. It is actually there everyday, but on Saturday people come from afar to buy and sell their wares. This is when the tourist hype machine also comes into action, and people from all over the world show up to see what’s going […]
We hopped on the Quito bus tour two blocks from our hotel. It is a double-decker bus that hits the main points. We went through the old town, new town, and up to the winged madonna up on the hill. We hopped off at La Ronda, a restored colonial street. This is where we ate lunch, […]
Quito has a beautiful new airport that is quite a ways out north of the city. We took the $25 taxi ride, as it was only a few dollars more than the shuttle. One comes into the city along a great highway that has new businesses on the sides. Eventually, the taxi goes around a […]
The afternoon we hung out with Regina we talked about meeting up in the town where she was staying (before she moved over to Olon). We heard Ayangue. She said Ayampe. The former is between our place and the clinic in Salinas. We stopped on the way back to see her. She was not there. […]
Great posting,
I can’t believe the energy you both are still maintaining (...)
Actually we are. We've let our current hotel host book (...)
We'd be happy to coac h you through it if you want a MUCH (...)
Fun to read your posts. Thanks. Love the