Blogs from East, Ecuador, South America - page 3

Day 1 After an overnight bus from Banos in which the heating was too hot and we were pressed up against the cold windows to cool down we arrived in Lago Agrio around 5:30ish / 6ish feeling pretty bloody knackered after a typically bad nights sleep on the bus. The pick up time from the hotel was 9:30am so we had to try and stay awake and kill some time. We got chatting to a girl from Berlin who was doing the same tour as us and had coffee and breakfast. I went to buy a poncho which was more entertaining than it should have been. After being told the one hanging up outside the front of the shop was $4, when I gave him a $20 dollar note the cashier proceeded to tell me that ... read more

Poet, novelist and travel writer William Graham lives in Stowe, Vermont. His latest children’s book was inspired by the Amazon: url=https://www.audible.com/pd/Teens/Olivia-Turners-Amazing-Amazon-Adventure-Audiobook/B079THBCW3?ref=a_a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=FDN18PXSFTA3FS7V66SM&Olivia Turner’s Amazing Amazon Adventure. Over my head a brilliant blue morpho butterfly danced in the humid jungle air. It was a splash of blue against a curtain of endless green. In the trees monkeys jumped from branch to branch like Olympic gymnasts. In the sky, more species of birds than I could ever hope to know flew through the vast Amazon sky. These images represent the beauty of the Amazon rainforest. But as I came to discover on a recent trip to the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, the forest is not always benign. Plants, animals and... read more

Hola Dinamarca! Netop hjemvendt fra nogle gode dage i junglen. Vi havde booket en tur i Amazonas i området Cuyabeno helt oppe i det nordøstlige hjørne af Ecuador, tæt ved den Columbianske grænse. 4 dage i en bambushytte, med masser tid til at se på junglen og dens beboere. Vi tog natbussen fra Banos til Lago Agrio, vi udskød egentlig turen én dag da jeg havde det, mildest talt, skidt den dag vi i ville afsted. Dagen efter, på afrejsedagen, var det så Lasses tur til at have det skidt. Ikke skide sjovt at sidde i en natbus med feber, dårlig mave og køresyge - han var ret presset! Nå men frem Lago Agrio kom vi, og vi fik pakket vores dagstaske og kørte med lokalbus ud til en bro, hvor vi blev samlet op af ... read more

Our journey to the Amazon started with getting back from the Galapagos. After almost missing check in for the flight it turned out it was delayed by 4 hours instead! Anyway once back in Quito we headed towards the bus station where we decided not to catch a night bus to Lago Agrio (the place where our jungle tour started) and stayed at a hostel near the station. The next morning after getting a good amount of sleep we started the 7 hour journey. Now we had read that Lago Agrio was a bit of a hole and a little unsafe (due to the proximity to the most dangerous Colombian border crossing and high number of Westerners passing through on the way to the jungle!) and what we had read was pretty accurate. The hotel we ... read more

Part of me selfishly wants to keep Baeza a secret from you dear readers as I have fallen hopelessly in love with this place. I am sitting here wondering to myself whether “if I share this place will I lose something from it?” nevertheless I promised to blog and blog I shall maybe you will see why I so desperately want to keep Baeza for myself. The bus ride there presented us with turn after turn of mindblowing scenery. The mountains rose up to meet the road as far below rivers pounded around seemingly every turn. Eventually around another corner and a small bridge we arrived in Baeza central. First stop for us was the convenience store, water on our thirsty minds. The owner was incredibly helpful offering to assist us with absolutely anything we needed ... read more