Getting There is Part of the Adventure

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Hola, Amigos... Knowing that several of you are planning a trip to Ecuador in the next year, or hope to plan a trip, this blog about our Ecuadorian adventure will include the nitty gritty, dealing with prices and travel times, etc. Expect Jack to add a more literary touch along the way. There are more photographs than can be seen once you open the entry to full view. Click on the photos for a larger size. Hope this information helps enlighten if not entertain!

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IN THE BEGINNING... So we could have paid double or more and flown from Guadalajara to Quito in three hours and arrived at a decent hour, but figuring that getting here was part of the aventura and being "thrifty," we paid $396RT (U.S. dollars) from Guadalajara to Quito, thanks to www.kayak.com and Cheap Tickets. And it "only" took us 15 hours. But at least two stops allowed us to check out the world class airports in Mexico City and Lima, Peru. Not all bad, but arriving at 3 a.m. was not the optimum time to arrive in Quito. Thankfully, our B&B in Cotacachi sent a taxi. It cost $55 for the 65km ride—and at three in the morning was worth every penny.


Of course, it wasn't part of the plan that we would sleep in the taxi until dawn.


About a half hour from Quito, the taxi's headlights decided to quit, which, if you've ever been on a top-of-the-world Andean mountain road is not a good thing. Luckily, our young Ecuadorian driver, Diego, was able to manifest a gas station less than a mile down the road. No services available, but at least it was lit and safe and we did not end up in a deep Andean valley after careening off a high Andean cliff. We thought the problem with the lights was likely a fuse or a switch, but there was nothing to do but wait out the dawn, which comes at 6 a.m. year round in Ecuador, just like darkness arrives at 6 p.m. year round. It's one of the sure things about living on the equator.


So we snuggled into the back seat for a nice two-hour nap (at least Jack—who can sleep anywhere did) until daylight. And then we went on our way to the village of Cotacachi, population 3,000, in a verdent valley tucked in between three Ecuadorian volcanoes.... More to come about Cotacachi in the next entry, plus lots of pictures.

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Photos

Our First (unplanned) Stop in Ecuador
So what do you do when you're on a treacherous Andean mountain road at 4 a.m. and your headlights go out? If you're lucky, a gas station magically appears and you wait for daylight!