I have felt weird since I woke up this morning. There is excitement to return home, to be around familiar surroundings and see friends and return to a more normal life with it's benefits. I have to admit I am ready to speak English and hear English regularly again, the last three weeks of being so challenged due to my lack of Spanish has worn me out, it gets quite tiring. I was told at an early part of my trip, by a veteran traveler, that there are three necessities to travel: having patience, having a sense of humor and having [View Full Entry]

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Well I need to keep this entry short, I have to catch a bus to Papallacta to soak in some hotsprings just outside of Quito, I know this trip is sounds aweful but such is the way of the traveller. Puerto Lopez was absolutely perfect, I made a concerted plan to do as little as possible when I arrived and with much effort I pulled it off. I had few goals, the first was I wanted fresh coconut juice, I wandered the little town for a for a bit and felt a little challenged because unlike JipiJapa (say that right and [View Full Entry]

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I cannot describe adequately the beauty that exists in Cajas National Park, it was truly a soul stirring and mind bogglingly amazing natural wonder. I have seen so much natural beauty in my life which is so difficult to compare. I would easily line up Cajas with Zion and Glacier and the others that are tied for top places to be stunned into awe. As usual, none of the pictures come close to capturing the eye popping beauty. I traveled with a tour group out of Cuenca for a multi-hour hike through Cajas. The group was fun, lots of Americans, there [View Full Entry]

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I am pleased to report a couple of great days have passed here in Cuenca, Ecuador. On Thanksgiving day morning I woke up about 5am, which still gave me the needed 8 hours of solid, wonderful sleep I had been dreaming about (so many puns!). Got checkouted and to the Riobamba Train station at quarter 'til 6am. I just walked along the line of buses getting ready to leave, the first guy yelling "Quito!" to which I responded "Cuenca?" he point down the line, then again to the next guy "Cuenca?", again pointed to the next bus, finally at the end [View Full Entry]

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I am exhausted, thoroughly worn out which is too bad because I have to say I really dig Riobamba, it´s a really interesting, energized Metropolis with lots to see, do and most definitely to buy. Let me start with yesterday which turned out to be a suprisingly beautiful and long bike ride. Having ridden thousands of miles in the past couple years of my life I can now truly appreciate my biking shorts, no matter how silly and revealing they may be, nearing the end of about 35 miles and almost 3 hours on a mountain bike I sorely missed that [View Full Entry]

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Well, Baños was a small, quaint little mountain town absolutely saturated in touristy gimicks, shwag, hostels, go carts, tour companies, taffy and most of all gringos. I am really going to miss it. It suprised me how quickly I just enjoyed myself there, though it shouldn´t. The hostel, Platos Y Blanco, was really nice. $5.50 for a bunk bed in a room full of solo travelers. They had a sweet terrace with a self serve coffee/beer bar, a great breakfast and just a great atmosphere. I had been thinking about either doing a short whitewater rafting trip, having never done that, [View Full Entry]

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Hello, I made it out of the jungle safe and sound completely absent of Anaconda, Piraña or Caiman attacks. The jungle tour was a really good time, weather treated us well and I got to hang out with a gaggle of Germans. Before I left I was supposed to be picked up at 830 at my hotel. I had been using the clock on the bottom of a local channel to tell time, I woke up at 7am, about 815 I started looking out the window for the van, no van by 845, no van by 9am, then it hit me [View Full Entry]

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This morning worked out well, I woke up and did short but tough up hill hike that looked over Baeza and the highway passing through, nice way to begin a day. So now I´m in Lago waiting for tomorrow´s pick up by the jungle tour company. Another interesting day of bus riding, which was for the most part easy considering I just strolling down to the road to Lago Agrios saw a bus, yelled ¨Lago?¨ got picked up and spent the next 6 hours enjoying some truly impressive travel views while sitting with my pack on my lap while usually two [View Full Entry]

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So I´ve made it to Baeza with a bit of luck, okay with lots of luck. I ran into a guy at my hostel last night in Quito that I saw getting on my plane in Denver, what are the flippin chances. Then this morning as I was getting up for the 3rd time (I love sleeping in) I ran into him at breakfast. Long story short he and another guy from Boulder are doing volunteer work in the south and their interperator was kind enough to book my room tonight and was just generally helpful. The bus ride was interesting [View Full Entry]

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Okay, so I am about to leave. I'm pretty nervous and excited but mostly I just want to stop worrying about the trip and be on it. I've got a pack full of stuff, some tour books, camping gear which may (or may not) get used and a growing intense regret that I didn't take the time to learn Spanish. Nothing to do but jump! [View Full Entry]

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