Blogs from Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 11

Quilotoa - 11/27/2014 - Day 4 Happy Thanksgiving! Plan for today is to get to Quilotoa. We skipped breakfast and headed out to get a cab to the bus station. First cab quoted us $15, but we thought that was too much for a fairly short distance. Driver then went to $12, then $10. Bob then asked another cab and got a price of $8 right away. Guess which one we took? The driver did take a very roundabout route to avoid the traffic at 7:30am. (Gas is cheap here, $2 a gallon.) Traffic in Quito is unbelievable, wouldn't want to drive here. Took about half an hour to get to the Terminal Quitumbe. The terminal was very large and modern, looked quite new. First bus took us to Latacunga, south along the Panamericana highway. Very ... read more

Hola Blog Followers! I spent only a couple of weeks alone at home, but I thoroughly enjoyed them! I had a few Scrabble dates with Shana, regular visits to the hot springs, gal pal lunches, and some artistic "bauble" time in my "art studio" located on the sunny upstairs landing of my staircase. Such fun to pull out all of my beads and shells and gems, bits and bobs, to stimulate my creative juices and visualize beautiful projects. In September I enjoyed a visit from my indigenous friends, the Sacatoro family of Malingua Pamba. They stayed overnight with their Mama Julia (me) in my big rental house, and we enjoyed many tourist sites in and around Banos. We visited waterfalls, took the "tarabita" tramway over the river, soaked in the hot springs and walked all over ... read more

Last night's sleep in Baños was much better than the two previous night's. For one thing, the noise level within the hotel was not bad, and though the hotel was on the busy highway going from Baños to the Amazon basin, there was little traffic noise from the street. The hotel was like most Ecuadorian hotels in that it was a family run affair. The desk clerk was the nephew of the owner, had spent a number of years abroad, and spoke English well. He was also frustrated by the keyboard of the guest computer as well. After a nice breakfast of rolls, juice and coffee, I headed into town. So that I wouldn't have to lug my heavy backpack around all day, I thought I might find my next night's accommodation and see if I ... read more

Knapp habe ich aufgrund eines Stundenschlafs im Bus den Ausstieg in Ambato verpasst, privat wurde ich dann zurück ans Terminal gefahren und konnte um 21:30 den letzten Bus nach Baños noch nehmen. 40 Minuten später befand ich mich in meinem Hostel, mit Blick auf den Vulkan Tungurahua, wäre er nicht hinter einer dicken Wolkenschicht. Am nächsten Tag unternahm ich sogleich eine Tour, die zu allen Wasserfällen der Region fährt, auch zum bekanntesten den Pailon del Diablo. Eindrücklich stürzt hier eine Wassermenge zu Boden, man kann sogar hinter diesen gewaltigen Wasserfall gehen. Weiter habe ich am Nachmittag Baños, das als Ausgangspunpkt für viele Wanderungen und Extremsportarten gilt, besichtigt. Schöne, kleine Pärke stehen wie auch viele Restaurants und Läden. Da nicht Hauptsaison ist, hatte es nicht besonders viele Touristen. Doch ich genoss die Atmosphäre des ruhigen Baños. Auch ... read more

Hola Personas! This, along with the next few blovels, will be from around South America, but first a tiny backstory on how I'm even here. A year and a half ago I flew to Vail, Colorado to stay with a friend and ski. That friend had two Aussie friends visiting. I became friends with them and we stayed in contact via Facebook. Bec is one of those friends, with whom I'm now traveling! So…. small world in a way, crazy some may say, but either way... now we sit in Peru. We went back and forth on doing a tour, or by ourselves, or this and that, but essentially… we don't speak Spanish. In my opinion, it's extremely close to impossible to get around here without a large and very conversational Spanish vocabulary. Looking back, I ... read more