Ecuador, Nov 29-Jan 4

The Ecuador post was ready about 4 weeks ago when some sort of cyberspace demon attacked and it went ¨poof¨.  I was not happy and several not so nice words came out of my mouth.  What is ironic is that I had said in that post that it had become obvious to me that I could not sustain the time I had been putting into the blog and that I was moving to a reader´s digest version.  So, there it was, all our time in Ecuador in just one post.  It has taken me 4 weeks to consider redoing the Ecuador post.  Sorry, but it will be even shorter than the first version...

An interesting thing about Ecuador is that since 2001 they have used the US dollar:
Bus travel:  $1/hour of travel (intercity buses - 25 cents or so)
Meals out:  $3-$10 (unless you are spluging)
Lodging:  ~$9-11/night per person

Otavalo

We crossed from Ipiales, Colombia to Tulcan, Ecuador with no issues.  It was just about 2 hours to our first destination - Otavalo.  This is a very well-to-do town by Ecuadorian standars, apparently tourism has treated it well.  There is quite the mix of modern and idigenous culture!  Travelers come to see the the indigenous garb & textiles and to hike in the surrounding area.

That is a baby wrapped in a white cloth on this lady`s back.  No need for a fancy baby backpack!

This the typical dress of the women in this region.

We were poised to start Spanish language school and do homestays in this pleasant town when we learned that the rabies vaccine was only available in Quito, the capital.  (If you didn´t read one of the last posts on Colombia - Duane had been bit by a dog...)  So, we ended up leaving earlier than we would have liked.

Quito

The cathedral in the main plaza.

Because the shots for rabies was a series, we needed to hang out in Quito for a while.  So we both studied Spanish for 2 weeks and stayed in separate homes to really try to get into the language more.   It is harder when traveling as a couple to speak the language.  And, it is harder for Duane to really have to talk Spanish since I can speak it.  It was certainly interesting to get to know the families we stayed with.  If anyone is going to visit Quito and wants a reference for a family to stay with, let us know!

The city certainly has it`s share of really nice colonial architecture and a myriad of interesting things to observe that come along with a city.  This was christmas time and one thing that caught my attention was that the buses had a horn that played christmas songs - a nice change from the obnoxious noise that horns can be!

Narrow colorful streets...

Puerto Lopez

For a big city, Quito was certainly interesting, but after 2 weeks of big city and quite a bit of rain, we were ready for small and tranquil.  The bus ride from Quito to Puerto Lopez might go down as the worst of our trip - a possible 8 hours turned into 12 hours.  This bus literally stopped anywhere and everywhere to pick up or drop of any and every body.  The roads themselves were great - better than Colombia by far.  There was no scary passing or fast driving.  It was just SO painful to be stopping every little bit...  But we did get there - a smallish beach town.  There was plenty of sun, birds, waves, crabs, cool looking rocks...  A very relaxing spot!  This is where we were for christmas and new year´s.

One of the coolest things for me about Ecuador was meeting up with my friend Gabrielle and her boyfriend.  We worked together on the Oregon Coast more than 10 years ago.  They had planned to spend their xmas vacation there.  We overlapped both in Quito and in Puerto Lopez!

Puerto Lopez is all about fishing - for humans and birds!

The 2nd floor terrace where we ate our meals and relaxed.

We certainly could have spent a LOT more time discovering Ecuador, but rainy season was definitely starting and the summer in the south of the continent was calling.  We left Ecuador vìa Guayaquil which is in the south of the country.  We cleverly did not even stay the night, but sneaked into town, went to the clinic for the last of the rabies shots and took a red eye flight to Chile.