Blogs from Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 3

Leaving Banos after excellent last meal at Gourmet Posada then quick final visit to the local guitar shop (90 years making guitars here, no K8, i did not buy one but was tempted). To Latacunga by bus very comfortable and thanks to fellow who gave me his local pears and plumbs (Banos is big fruit area similar to California/Oregon). In Latacunga visited Santiago Sansur, President of local Rotary Club. Their interests and projects focus on education, especially "guardaninos" (pre-school and day care) and clean water. They have been working with Rotary clubs from Pennsylvania for several years and of course Rotary 5450 Denver area on last water project (irrigation) in Malingua Pamba. They have a great track record with successful projects completed, are ready to continue water efforts in Ecuador, experienced, and well placed to make ... read more

Detailed photos of plants encountered on tour with Jean + Don Marcelo. All are from elevation, aspects, and soils similar to Malingua Pamba (MP), and should be good targets for reforestation. Many are from disturbed ground on road cuts (pioneers) also riparian corridors which also see high turnover. Jean observes the need for more diversity in MP viveros (plant nurseries), especially shrubs and suggests we organize a competition in Malingua Pamba/Tunguiche/Guantugloma to promote diversity, with families recieving 100 planting bags each, have them collect locally, and offer prizes after 6 months for most diversity, best shrubs, best flowers, etc. Orchids might be better in cutout plastic coke bottles, here in Banos people collect orchids and stuff into nooks on old logs. Maybe this could be done at school. I will be interested in different planting mixes ... read more

Hello again I promised more detail about Saturday 2nd to Tuesday 5th Feb in my last blog, so here is some of it. Ive added (or rather Caroline has added for me) a very small selection of the photos I have taken on the trip so far. The ones on this blog actully relate to Monday day which I,ll tell you about. But first, I must catch you up on Sunday. We walked around some of the central parts of the Capital City of Quito; a huge spralling place spreading over, I think it was, 44 km from end to end. I forgot to take my camerawith me so have no pictures of that day, but Croline took some good ones and hs written up a very full blog about Quito so have a look at ... read more

Friday 28/12/12 – We woke early, ate left over pizza for breaky and prepared for the short ride to the city of Banos - nestled in the valley below a volcano that started erupting just a few weeks ago. With fingers crossed, the bikes fired up and we hit the road. A short one hour ride ended up stretching towards two hours when we missed the turn off to Banos and wrongly guessed the next road would also take us there. After countless small towns, sharp right turns and one big town consisting almost entirely of roadside stalls selling denim jeans and jackets, we crossed a bridge spanning a deep canyon and arrived in the city of Banos. We pulled into a hotel and after a pleasant chat with the owner unpacked our gear and locked ... read more