One of the things that has made the biggest impression on us this adventure to Ecuador has been the children — Ecuador's sweet, beautiful children. If children reflect the soul of a country, then Ecuador's soul is both gentle and kind. Again and again, we have witnessed happy children playing, brothers and sisters showing genuine care and affection for their smaller siblings, and a sweetness of spirit that permeates all. The Ecuadorian children we've observed live in cities, towns, and villages. Many times, they are working along side their parents, or playing patiently while their [View Full Entry]

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(Best accompanied by singing "A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh"). The new "must have" item for your Bucket List is... le Jungle Trek. No visit to Ecuador can be complete without it. In fact, President Correa just signed a law decreeing that if you don't go on a Jungle Trek while you're in the country, theyll stamp your passport "WUSS" on the way out. No wusses we. On to the jungle. No problem finding a guide to lead the way. The streets of Baños have more adventure companies than the Amazon has piranha. Selecting the outfit to go with is somewhat confusin [View Full Entry]

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Baños is Ecuador's “adventure central,” and part of that adventure is due to its location, location, location. The famed town is cuddled on the lap of a 16,480-foot volcano called Tungurahua. This Ecuadorian bad boy has been spilling his fiery guts off and on for hundreds of years but — like an exhausted giant, Tungurahua is napping peacefully — for now anyway. "Dormiando," one of the friendly locals explained. If that takes some of the thrill out of our visit, it also takes out some of the uncertainty. Baños, 6,000 feet, is routinely closed off to visitors when Tung [View Full Entry]

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(Warning: This may be a yawner for those not curious about how much it might cost to live in Cuenca. Do not read while driving). On the other hand... We have this compulsion to look at almost every interesting place we go with the question: "Could we live here?" Sometimes that question is answered at first glance, as in yuk, argh, no way. Other times — like with Vilcabamba or Cotacachi or Cuenca — it takes more thought and delving into. One of the considerations, of course, is always the cost of living, as in "can we afford to live here?" [View Full Entry]

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Yes, Cuenca has some great nightlife. Unfortunately, most of it has passed us by... We missed a jazz concert and haven't heard or read about any symphonic performances. We were also prevented from enjoying a six-play theater festival due to our language handicap. That kind of cultural involvement, requiring a fluent understanding of the language, is light years away. Right now, we'd be happy just to be able to communicate better with the cab drivers, business people, and the terrific locals we run into every day. There were also a few pop music concerts with Latin American performers w [View Full Entry]

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When your city mouse self needs a country mouse fix, that's no problem in Cuenca. Just hop on a bus and in just a few minutes you're out of town. South is a great direction to go in because in less than an hour you'll be in the Yunguilla Valley, an east-west stretch of Andean majesty that reaches all the way to the coast. The Yunguilla Valley is a great alternative to Vilcabamba for those who want to live closer to a major city with all the implied benefits—cultural, medical care, and shopping. We jumped aboard the bus thinking Yunguilla was [View Full Entry]

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Cuenca's a great town to get lost in. That's just what we did the other day when we played "let's hop on a bus and see where it goes," aka "bus roulette." Buses cost 25-cents and go almost everywhere, so it's a great way to see places you'd never see otherwise. On this junket, we passed through the industrial section, around town, and up into the mountains. Since we had no idea where we were or how to get back on our own, we rode the bus to the end of the line, up, up, up the hills on the north [View Full Entry]

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One of the great things about Cuenca is that you can drink the water! Right from the tap. It tastes terrific... with no worries about a "crummy tummy" they say. Hallelujah! The water "we locals" drink comes from some 200 glacial lakes in the nearby Cajas National Park. It doesn't get any better than that. After wandering around Mexico and Central and South America and buying bottled water everywhere, good drinking water is enough reason to move here. Never mind that Cuenca is beautiful and safe with endless fascinating cloud formations and a cultured population, many of whom under 30 [View Full Entry]

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Hey, people walk a lot faster in Cuenca than they do in Vilcabamba! And they wear suits and ties and 4-inch heels. Funny the things you notice fresh "off the bus." With our village stroll and our gringo jeans and running shoes, we felt like the alien creatures we are in this sophisticated city of half a million. But it hasn't taken long for us to appreciate this Andean treasure, named a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO. Downtown is charming, with lovely colonial style buildings that have a definite European feel to them. Four rivers meander through the valley floor [View Full Entry]

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A great day or overnight trip from Vilcabamba is Zamora. It has such a fun name that it's worth going just to be able to say "I went to Zamora today and now I want Sum-mora," but there's much more to it than that. Although it's less than three hours by bus, Zamora—the nearest "gateway to the Amazon"— is a totally different world from Vilcabamba. The winding bus ride alone up and over an 8,000-foot pass is an awe-inspiring adventure through lush jungle-like forests and more waterfalls than we ever saw in Kauai. Jack and I had expected Zamora to be [View Full Entry]

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