Today I went on a boat trip to Isla de la Plata. The 'silver island' got its name from Sir Francis Drake and his suppossedly buried silver treasure there. About 1.5 hours on speed boat from Puerto Lopez, it is known as the 'Galapagos of the poor man', since it is home to some of the wildlife seen on the Galapagos islands, such as the blue footed booby, the waved albatros, frigate birds, sea lions etc. The place is also famous for the whales that visit it between mid-June and August to mate. The island was for a long time in [View Full Entry]

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Not sure why I spent more than half a year in Ecuador´s sierra (mountains). Sure, I love mountains and hiking happens mostly in mountains. However, when arriving in Puerto Lopez just for sunset by the beach I must admit I jumped in the air for joy, and wondered why it had never occurred to me to travel to the beach earlier. It is heaven here. Blue skies and sun, sun, sun. It is hot, but not too hot. And the place is a real laid-back fishing town and as it is off season now, there are maybe a maximum of 50 [View Full Entry]

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Guayaquil, with 2.4 million inhabitants Ecuador´s largest city, was always on my backburner of things to see in Ecuador. I imagined it largely as an industrial city with little interest to me. Overall, my visit to this Perla del Pacifico confirmed this impression. However, I found a number of interesting places that are well worth visiting: 1) The Malecon The restoration of this 2,5 km long boardwalk along the river Guayas has been completed only a few years ago and offers to the visitors a number of restaurants, museums, tropical gardens and historical monuments and is a really nice place to [View Full Entry]

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I had some problems getting a hike organised in the Manglares Churute park. The place doesn´t seem to be set up to receive toursits and the staff were not really helpful. After 4 hours of waiting the finally allowed me to climb Cerro de Mate, a small hill next to the visitors center. However the hike turned out to be a battle with the tiger spiders. These spiders are harmless and I already knew them from Cerro Blanco. Howwever, they have a tendency to spin their nets (of 1.5 - 2 meters diameter) across the path and the thing is that [View Full Entry]

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Cerro Blanco is located only some 20 km outside of Guayaquil, Ecuador. It is a tropical dry forest with a rich flora and fauna. During the rainy season (January to May) it is all very green, but the rest of the year the forst is dry and a number of the trees loose their leaves in order to survive the intense sun. The forest is home to many animals, including the blue morfo butterfly. Also there are 54 species of mammals, including ozelot, howler monkey, guanta and saino. Cerro Blanco is known for its diversity in birds, with 213 species, including [View Full Entry]

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El Angel has a reputation of being one of the coldest places in Ecuador. However, I found it to be sunny, warm and relaxed. For days I was the only tourist in town and enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of this little place inmidst rolling green hills. Internet was hardly ever working and there is no bank or ATM where one could get money from a VISA card. I stayed in the Hosteria El Angel which is now one of my favorite hostals in Ecuador. It is German managed, and thus clean and organised and, guess what, the hot water tub [View Full Entry]

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The Guandera Biological Station was established in 1994 and is situated in the northern inter-Andean valley of Ecuador, near the town San Gabriel. The station is managed by the Jatun Sacha Foundation and its dedicated manager, Don José. Guandera is a unique place on the globe and has been classified as a primary hotspot for conservation. Nowhere else in Ecuador live the mysterious huge Guandera trees (up to 30m) which grow roots from top to bottom. Also, Guandera is just one of two places in Ecuador where the incredible frailejones grow. And there are millions and millions and millions of them, [View Full Entry]

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At the third attempt I finally managed to climb the four summits of Pasochoa. The trick is to deviate to the left about 100m before the wall at which I failed the last time. There are some faint traces of a path leading into a witch forest (i.e. Polylepsis trees) just below the rocks. Its pretty steep and the path partially difficult to see through the forest, but it's the only way to bypass the wall. After that there are a few meters through rock, but its not more than a grade I climbing. As I ascended towards the third summit, [View Full Entry]

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With the local outdoors group Rutacero I went on a mountain bike trip high above Ibarra. We left at 4am from Quito, which was the bad thing about the trip. Everything else was great. It was fantastic landscape, with views on Imbabura and Cotacachi. The first 10 km we went up from about 3000m to 3700m which was pretty tough. Then it was a long downhill ride, followed by yet another, but shorter uphill part. And then a seemingly never ending downhill part on a cobbled road. It was really tough to hold the bike and we were completely shaken through [View Full Entry]

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The Pululahua crater reserve is only an hour away from Quito, but a world by itself. Pululahua means "smoke of water" in the indigenous language Quichua. The Pululahua is an inactive volcano with its last eruption was believed it happened around the year 500 b.C. Inside the Pululahua crater there are three other elevations which are Pandoña, El Chivo and El Pan de Azucar. Inside the crater there is fertile land which is tilled by a few remaining indigenous families. Unfortunately many of the families sold their land and emigrated to Spain or other places - as so many Ecuadorians. The [View Full Entry]

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