Our big trip this summer (December - February here) was to Ecuador. It was the most geographically diverse place we've ever visited and we were amazed one country could have so much: tropical islands, big cities, the Andes and the Amazon. Over the course of about 15 days last February, we hit each major region, going from sweltering heat to snowy mountains in just half a day. Because of the uniqueness of this trip and all the travel firsts for us, we didn't feel road weary or ready to come home, though it will probably be the farthest distance we travel during our time left in Brazil.
Food: Ecuadorian food is very good. We ate lots of different traditional chicken and fish dishes cooked or topped with uniquely flavored sauces. Ecuador, not unlike a couple other South American countries (Columbia, Brazil), boasts the best coffee, and it was good, and so was the chocolate.
Language: Our Portuguese was not well-received throughout Ecuador, and mostly just confused the Spanish speakers -- maybe because there is no shared border? I remember a little Spanish from college, but it's been overtaken by Portuguese pronunciation, so it was only barely useful, and Geoff's language background is in Japanese, only proving useful in translating other tourists' shoulder and ankle tattoos. So, we spoke in English.
People: Ecuadorians seemed very accustomed to tourists, mostly in the Galapagos Islands, as were the ex-pats who run tourism-related businesses there. The mutual goal was definitely to make a buck (literally, as Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar). Elsewhere, and more off the beaten path, we found this to be the case less so, though there were tons of ex-pats (mostly from Europe) there, too, either running hotels or volunteering at wildlife refugees in the jungle.
First stop: The Coast (Guyaquil city).
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A city park right in the heart of bustling
Guayaquil is crawling with dozens and dozens of iguanas.
It was cool, but also smelled. |
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Wildlife refuge in Guayaquil. Not sure what type of animals these are,
more important was they didn't eat Eri's fingers. |
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By the time this three-toed sloth turned its head to see who was
petting it, we were already off man-handling other animals. Super. Slow. |
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| Speaking Spanish and not even trying to understand our Portuguese. |
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| At Guayaquil's city overlook. (Baby Leo is in utero.) |
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On a city tour of Guayaquil, which is lovely and didn't feel
Americanized at all. Lots of historic
architecture, very clean, and nice shopping and restaurants. |
Second stop: The Islands (Galapagos).
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| We're here and wanna see some Blue-footed Boobies! |
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On the boat from the airport to our jumping-off island, Santa Cruz,
which is in the center of the archipelago. From here, we took
day-trips to other islands, each of which had their own
habitat specialty. It was really cool. |
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The land turtles, which are everywhere on
Santa Cruz Island, are about the size of Geoff. ... |
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... But much older and slower. And probably couldn't support
the weight of its wife and daughter. |
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| Spelunking in the volcanic caves. |
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| On a trekking tour of the one of the smaller islands. |
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We did a couple snorkeling/scuba day trips to
check out of the aquatic life. (Eri is not actually pulling the boat; it had a motor.)
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| We saw sea lions, sea turtles, sting rays, (harmless) sharks and tons of fish. |
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| Sea turtle |
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| Sharks |
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We also took a couple land tours and saw
dozens of different types of birds, sea lions, land iguanas, etc. |
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| Running into the Pacific with the sea iguanas! |
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Sea turtles swimming by our boat and without fear
(any closer and tourists will be laying inside those shells). |
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Sea lions scale the rock walls of the ocean-front restaurants
and hang out until the waiters shoo them away. |
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| She's sea worthy (and super cute). |
Third Stop: The Jungle (Amazon):
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| These little monkeys were everywhere. |
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| We stayed in a little hut right in the jungle. |
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Amazon jungle tour.
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Trekking through the Amazon with our guide,
who helpfully pointed out poisonous insects and plants for us to avoid. |
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| Swimming! |
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Riding!
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Fourth Stop: The Mountains (Andes, Quito city).
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| Roadtripping through the Andes. |
Hot Springs:
Quito:
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| Just checkin' out Quito. |
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| Cheese. |
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| On the gondola. |
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| Frequent flyer. |
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| Still haven't mastered packing light. |
