Blogs from Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 4

Advertisement

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños December 30th 2019

Heute mieteten mein Vater und Ich uns ein Quad, Mathis blieb im Hostel und Margit ging in die Stadt. Das Quad fuhr sich anders, als ich es erwartet hatte - es war ziemlich rustikal. So gab es z.B. keine Geschwindigkeitsanzeige, geschweige denn eine Drehzahlanzeige oder eine Anzeige, in welchem Gang man gerade ist. Um Gas zu geben musste man nicht wie beim Motorrad den Griff drehen, sondern einen kleinen Hebel der einem Gangschaltungshebel beim Fahrrad ähnelte drücken. Ich bekam eine kurze Anleitung, was was ist, dann fuhren wir los. Als erstes fuhren wir die Hauptstraße entlang, die durch das Tal führte und an vielen Wasserfällen vorbeiging. Wir merkten, dass Quads wegen des hohen Schwerpunkts und der geringen Radstandes sehr instabil sind - man musste in den Kurven relativ langsam fahren. Doch es machte Spaß. Wir blieben ... read more
P1020050
P1020051
P1020053

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños December 29th 2019

Wir waren jetzt in Banos, einer kleinen Stadt / großem Dorf etwas weiter Südlich, in einem Tal zwischen den Bergen. Banos lag am Fuße eines über 5000m hohen Vulkan, dem Tungurahua, der erst 1999 ausgebrochen war und die evakuierte Stadt mit einer Ascheschicht bedeckt hatte. Außerdem floss ein Fluss an Banos vorbei, an dessen Verlauf es viele Wasserfälle. Es war heute etwas kühl, und so freute ich mich, endlich meinen Kuschelponcho, den ich vor ein paar Tagen gekauft hatte, anzuziehen. Mir war bewusst, dass er absolut schrecklich aussah, und so überlegte ich kurz, ob ich wirklich damit in die Stadt laufen wollte. Kuscheligkeit war mir jedoch schließlich wichtiger als meine Ehre, und so zog ich meinen blauen Kuschelponcho an, als wir losgingen. Wir gingen in die Stadt, bei einer Brücke die über den echt schönen Fluss ... read more
P1020039
P1020040
P1020041

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños December 28th 2019

Heute machte ich vormittags mit meiner zu zweit einen Ausflug zu einem Indigenen Bewohner, während Mathis und Jan im Hotel blieben. Dieser zeigte uns ein paar Pflanzen und sein Haus, erklärte uns ein paar Dinge und führte schließlich eine Art Reinigungsritual an uns beiden durch. Dann zeigte er uns noch, woher Juka, etwas zu Essen das am ehesten einer Kartoffel ähnelt, herkommt, es ist die Wurzel eines Baumes, bei dessen Anblick ich irgendwie nicht erwartet hätte dass er essbare Wurzeln hat. Anschließend kehrten wir zum Hotel zurück, aßen zu mittag und machten uns dann auf den Weg zu unserem nächsten Ziel, einer Stadt namens Banos. Der Aufbruch verzögerte sich ziemlich, da wir erst lange auf einen Bus warteten. Dieser meinte, er sei voll, aber der nächste Bus würde in 5 Minuten kommen. Also warteten wir noch ... read more
P1080488
P1080490
P1080491

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños December 4th 2019

¡ Un Milagro de Diós ! Amy arrived in Baños on a Wednesday evening. I had met her just once briefly during my work with Engineers Without Borders, but since she was coming down to Ecuador she agreed to bring my the renewed credit card. It’s not secure to send something so important through the mail, so Bob sent it to Amy in Colorado and she hand-carried it to me, making Baños her first stop after arriving. I met her at the bus terminal and we decided to go for a bite to eat, but even before we entered the restaurant I saw her face turn to panic as she searched her daypack for her wallet and came up empty. She had the stub of her bus ticket in her pocket and we went immediately to ... read more
CiCi Feliz!!
Unfurling Trumpet Flower
Pastel Button Frame

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños September 14th 2019

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.....(cue David Bowie!) If you recall from my last blog (I know, it was over 2 months ago!) we held a grand re-opening of the Fundación Arte del Mundo which houses the volunteer children's library where I've been volunteering for over a decade. Well, the biggest change is that the foundation has closed down. There are a number of reasons that the BIB's 11 year run has come to an end. The building we had been renting was crumbling around us...right after $500 worth of plumbing repairs, the walls literally started seeping moisture. There's a termite issue and some of the floorboards are getting "mushy". The popularity of "voluntourism" has skyrocketed in the past 5 years, as has the number of volunteer opportunities. We chose not to sign on with one of the volunteer placement agencies ... read more
craziest donation yet!
June & July Birthdays!
GOD Rays

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba August 16th 2019

Dear All Greetings from the Ecuadorian Andes! A small city called Riobamba, to be exact, where I am currently spending two nights before heading to the Ecuadorian capital of Quito tomorrow. I believe I last wrote having just reached the end of my amazing Galapagos adventure, I still feel so touched by these beautiful islands and their natural inhabitants, the spectacular wildlife. Indeed, I think my experience there will stay with me for a while. Since then, I spent one night in Guayaquil again, enjoying the luxuries of a four-star hotel, and in fact what was more welcome, the super-fast Internet connection. I was able to upload all of my photos from the Galapagos Islands (and there were many!) onto my OneDrive cloud, freeing up much-needed storage space again on my laptop for more photos. I ... read more
Ceremony
Vicuna
Me, Laguna Llaviucu

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños June 16th 2019

A hectic few weeks gearing up for the Grand Re-Inauguration of the BIB, the volunteer children’s library where I’ve been helping out for over 10 years. In an effort to better utilize the facilities, we re-opened as the Centro Cultural Arte del Mundo (Art of the World Cultural Center) hosting more movies and theatre and offering more classes and workshops, in addition to the children’s library program (Biblioteca Interactiva de Baños) and the Secondhand Shop (BIB Bazar) that I run as a fundraiser. I spent quite a few days walking all over town asking restaurants to donate trays of food for our opening day celebration and hitting up business owners for prizes for our big raffle. I hadn’t realized how many people I’ve come to know fairly well over the years. Every single person I approached ... read more
Grand ReOpening!
Raffle Fun!!
Spanish Conversation Class

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Cotopaxi March 17th 2019

Today we are going on the Tren de los Volcanes. This tourist train follows a 50 mile route to El Boliche which, it claims, gives you the opportunity to see 15 volcanoes in good weather. There aren’t any passenger trains in Ecuador; the taxi driver doesn’t even know where the station is, and tries to drop us at the offices of Tren Ecuador. Luckily, a motor cyclist explains his error, we get back in the taxi and follow the motorcyclist to Chimbacalle station. We board our train and set off flanked by a team of motor cycle outriders to keep the tracks clear. We have only been able to book aisle seats, Ecuadorean families have booked all the window seats. But once underway, the families move to sit together (a group of 7 have booked 6 ... read more
Tren Ecuador
F2BCF9E5-FC0B-4994-B113-EB4AFBA26D65.
414BDBCB-D2AC-4233-B569-5BC1DB53CD90.

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños February 15th 2019

Fair warning...this will be a blog entry of many photos and not so many words. I'm trying to get it written and published before the next big event in my life...the arrival of my niece Tovah and her boyfriend Max in Ecuador. I'm so excited to show them around, but I need to sew up this chapter before starting on the next. It's been over two months since I got back home, and more than a little challenging to rediscover my peaceful rhythm of life. As my plane circled over the green green Andes, my heart soared to be returning home. If you read my last two blogs about my loooonnngg visit in the US (over two months!) you'll understand a bit how exhilarated I felt to touch down again in my beloved Ecuador. In the ... read more
Garage Sale Buddies
December Birthdays
A visit from an old friend

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños September 12th 2018

As always, my low-key semi-retired life ends up getting more busy than I expect! In the past two months I've received several visitors (back-to-back visits from two of my closest Ecuadorian friends!). I've driven back and forth to Quito half a dozen times (helping my friend Shana renew her passport and visa, picking up donations, transporting friends' family members to and from the airport and driving the volunteers from Engineers Without Borders). On one of my airport runs we stayed the night in a hostel near the airport and then I drove my friend's brother to the terminal at 4:30 am for his early international flight. I had donations to collect but couldn't arrive before 7:30 am -- just my luck, my good friend Betti who lives 2 hrs north of Quito was staying at Hotel ... read more
Daybreak from Hotel Quito
Spring Rolls
My Ugly Old Sink




Tot: 0.15s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 12; qc: 68; dbt: 0.0672s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb