Blogs from Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 8

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South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños December 7th 2015

Hello Dear Readers of My Blog! I know it's been over two months since my last blog entry -- there are various reasons for the delay -- more on that later. Our fund-raising Garage Sale to benefit the volunteer children's library was a HUGE success. Throughout the week leading up to the Saturday morning sale I coordinated the efforts of a team of volunteers; it's time-consuming work to sort, organize & price all of the donated goods. On the day of our biggest sale yet, friends and former volunteers turned out to help with crowd control and customer service. About three hours of brisk sales brought in $1500 which will really help out with monthly expenses to keep the library open. Over the past seven years hundreds of volunteers from over 35 different countries have worked ... read more
Mama Tungurahua
Ashfall on my Front Stoop
Cotopaxi Erupting

South America » Ecuador » Centre October 18th 2015

Santa Lucia Despite the carnage that is the Quito rush hour, most Ecuadorians get around by bus. The taxi to the northern bus station cost $8, and then the bus to Nanogal, $2.50, following the principle that bus fares equate to $1 per hour. The bus was fairly modern, and full. We left the densely packed suburbs of Quito and passed a series of modern housing developments that would have not looked out of place in Stonefields or Albany. Ecuador clearly has a middle class. Next came 'Middel du Monde' a tacky looking tourism destination where we crossed the equator. After this we started to descend into the cloud forest, and two and a half hours after leaving Quito I was dropped in the small town of Nanagol, from where a car took me to the ... read more
Humming bird
Humming bird
New housing development near Quito

South America » Ecuador » Centre October 18th 2015

Ecuador's Volcanoes On my return to Quito from three fascinating days at Santa Lucia I had a couple of days booked to visit volcanoes. My first choice had been Cotopaxi, but the whole region had been closed as the mountain was erupting, as I saw from the bus to the Antisana Volcano, which stands 5755m high. Antisana is glaciated and even at 4000m it was freezing cold, despite being virtually on the equator, just after the equinox. A short walk to a view point and a mountain bike back down the road warmed me up a bit. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and were able to watch a condor on it's nest through a telescope. The next day I went to Quilotoa lagoon, a crater lake, on the way visiting the market at Saquisili ... read more
Antisana volcano
Antisana volcano
Biking down from Antisana

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños October 13th 2015

Nach den spannenden Tagen im Dschungel ging es nach dem Frühstück auf nach Banos. Wir fuhren ca. sechs Stunden mit dem öffentlichen Bus bis zu unserem Hotel. Unser Guide zeigte uns die Innenstadt und machte uns mit der neuen Umgebung vertraut. Einige der Gruppe sowie Christoph und ich, buchten für den nächsten Tag eine Wildwasserraftingtour. Eigentlichen bin ich für so was ja nicht der Typ, aber das Motto der Gruppe ist -YOLO- "you olny live once" und so habe ich das ganze mitgemacht. Außerdem dachte ich, dass ich ja mit meinen Kolleginnen vor ein paar Wochen erst auf der Isar gepaddelt bin und so viel aufregender wird es schon nicht werden. Mit Helm, Schwimmweste und Neoprenanzug ausgerüstet stiegen wir in die Schlauchboote. Wir bekamen noch eine Einweisung, die aber so schnell ging, dass ich kaum etwas ... read more
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South America » Ecuador » Centre October 10th 2015

Quito, Ecuador After a late flight and a fast taxi ride to my hotel I slept well. My first morning in Quito I appreciated the cool that came with an altitude of 2800m, despite being less than 30 km from the equator. The Old Town is a mass of narrow streets, grand squares, Churches and Colonial era buildings, from the grand to the quaint. I wandered round the museum and then headed to the new town, where I had discovered there was an Irish bar that would be showing the England v Australia rugby game. There was a small enclave of expat and tourist bars and restaurants, the pub was full of drunken English fans who became increasingly morose as the game went on. One particularly depressed expat had tickets to what he had hoped would ... read more
Quito Old Town
Ecuador flag
Quito Old Town

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños October 6th 2015

Nachdem wir ein paar schöne Tage in Quito hatten, trafen wir am 02.10. auf unsere Reisegruppe. Wir sind mit Abstand die Ältesten von allen, d.h. die anderen sind zwischen 21 und 27 Jahre alt. Viele kommen aus Australien, es sind aber auch Kanandier, Engländer und eine Holländerin dabei, also ein bunter Mix. Unser Guide, Henry, stimmte uns auf die kommenden Tage ein und erklärte uns die wichtigsten Dinge. Am nächsten Tag starteten wir nach Tena in den Amazonas Dschungel, zu unserer Gastfamilie. Wir fuhren mit einem öffentlichen Bus ca. 7 Stunden, was die Sache ziemlich anstregend machte. Dauernd stiegen Leute in den Bus ein und aus und wir mussten immer schauen, ob unsere Sachen noch vollständig sind. Das letzte Stück wurden wir von den Söhnen mit Trucks abgeholt und zu unserer Unterkunft gebracht. Diese bestand aus ... read more
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South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños October 3rd 2015

Once again I left Quito with a truckload of donations for the fund-raising garage sale. This time I also had special cargo in my truck -- my new doggie, CiCi. When Annie found her in the park in Tumbaco (valley below Quito) she named her Sweetie and had her vaccinated and spayed. When she realized that the shared courtyard of the house where she was living was not adequate for this active pup, Annie looked looked for a new home for her. I had decided that if I continued to wait for the perfect moment to adopt a dog, I'd never do it...so I took the leap and said Yes! Fortunately CiCi did really well on the 3 hr drive back to Banos -- she likes riding in the truck and after that first journey with ... read more
Blue Skies
Juive Chico
The Best Walk Ever!

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños September 25th 2015

I arrived in the tourist town of Baños from Quito which could not have been more of a change! How to get there: Caught the Trole bus 25c at Banco central - C4 bus - & rode to the end of the line to get to Quitumbe Bus Terminal. The trole can get very crowded but come often so if the 1st is very busy just get the next one. If heading to somewhere other than Quitumbe on it make sure you stay near the door if you have luggage! Walk into main Quitumbe terminal (this is very smart! Especially after Carcelen in the north) & go upstairs to buy tickets. Quito - Baños $4.50 including 25c platform entrance fee with San Francisco tours buses. Took just under 3.5hrs. Where I stayed: D'Mathias Hostel $6/night for ... read more
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South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños September 2nd 2015

August brought more visitors to my home -- this time friends who live in Ecuador with their niece who was visiting from Boston. Andy & Michelle first came to Ecuador over 20 years ago, fell in love with the area around Quilotoa crater, bought land and built a most awesome Eco-lodge in Chugchilan, high in the Andes. The Black Sheep Inn has been an enormous success and really opened tourism in the region. For the past four years they've stepped back from the day-to-day running of the hotel, turning over the reins to a guy from the village who does a great job. Andy & Michelle are now free to go exploring throughout South America in their well-outfitted VW van. They arrived in Banos with their big sweet drooly dog, Rumi and 13 yr old Grace. ... read more
Tarabita Cable Car
Burmese Bridge
Rock Climbing

South America » Ecuador » Centre August 7th 2015

First off, apologies to those of you who checked in after receiving multiple blog publication notifications, only to find repeats from last spring & summer! There was a problem with saving my previous blog entries so I had to republish them all, which I realized later automatically sent emails to all my subscribers. Oops! During the past month I've had visits from four (4!) old friends from Atlanta and several new friends as well! Caroline & Brigitte arrived at Quito airport the same day as the Pope. I was worried this might be a problem...and it was! Roads were closed and the street corners were teeming with rent-a-cops who told me where to go, but didn't really know. I had to backtrack and criss-cross the city. It took me 5 1/2 hours for what usually takes ... read more
les trois mousquetaires
papallacta
sunny shower




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