On Ecuador

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On Ecuador:
Spent twenty four days in Ecuador, in several different areas. Overall I was impressed by the country. Great scenery and wildlife, mostly very friendly people, good weather. Some bad parts, but overall a very good trip.

Quick breakdown of a few things. Where I went:

Quito, the equator line, Banos, Ambato, Tena, the Galapagos Islands, Otavalo, Mindo, Guayaquil, and Cuenca.

How I travelled: bus, car, plane, and boat (the Guantanamera yacht in the Galapagos).

Highlights: the Galapagos in general, snorkeling in the Galapagos the hummingbirds and frogs of Mindo, the bat cave outside Tena, the chocolate, the fresh fruit, the scenery, the people, and the architecture, and getting a new hat and lovely alpaca sweater.

Lowlights: the food, the bus accident, the cancellation of the rainforest tour, getting a bad sunburn, the attempted pickpocketing, the 'cousin incident'.

Biggest surprises: the abundance of blackberries, the quality and scale of the graffiti works, the good food on our Galapagos cruise, the difficulty of the bargaining, the behavior of a certain relative, and the deliciousness of plantain sushi.

Weather: Generally pretty good, but ranging wildly in the different areas. That's the thing about Ecuador... It's on the equator, so the weather is very stable throughout the year, with little seasonal temperature changes. It's all down to elevation, which is why you can have the sweater-pants-shoes temperature of Quito to the dying-of-heat-stroke levels of parts of the Galapagos, all at pretty much the same latitude. The rain, when it came, was generally in the afternoon, sudden but shortlived. Mindo had the best temperatures, in my books... Just cool enough, perfectly between hot and cold.

Food: don't come to Ecuador for the cuisine. Salty, fatty, without a lot of options for a vegetarian (luckily I do eat seafood), and they seem largely terrified of anything spicy. The food in the Galapagos on our cruise was consistently far better than almost anything I ate on the mainland.
Having said that, the fish was fresh, the pastries were okay, and fresh fruit was abundant and delicious (passionfruit, prickly pear, guava, rambutans, etc. yum) and the chocolate was VERY good. And fried plaintains are pretty good.
So, not a total loss on the food front.

Scenery: lots of mountains and volcanoes, nice valleys and forests, farmland, etc. The Galapagos was very beautiful, and unexpectedly lush. The colonial architecture in Cuenca and Quito was little short of breathtaking, and what I saw of the rainforests was very lovely. The Incan ruins in Cuenca were also very neat.

Wildlife: Seriously. Gaah. Awesome. The Galapagos. The frigate birds, nocturnal gulls, three species of boobies, finches, lava lizards, land and marine iguanas, giant tortoises, sea lions, penguins, hammerhead sharks, pelicans and hawks, and more sharks and fish and... . You get the idea. Marvellous. The rest of Ecuador had great bats, and butterflies, amazing frogs and hummingbirds, fireflies, spiders, Andean condors (largest birds in the world), etc. Also saw a LOT of cool animals at the zoo in Banos, including ocelots, jaguars, capybaras, tapirs, bears, parrots, and monkeys that grabbed my hands and hung on tight, and a wild one that tried to steal my camera.
Would have seen more in the rainforest, but I'll just have to do that on another trip.

In Conclusion: Overall, despite its frustrations and low points, a great journey. And I've still got Honduras!

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Comments

[Audrey T]

Interesting stuff
Hi Rosemary, Wow! You fit a lot into your blog and all very interesting. I'll go read some more now. Your mom sent me the link.