Last night I went out to dinner with the Nishimuras and the Descours. We took two cabs to a restaurant our local guide (Edison) had recommended. It was a seafood place called Mare Nostrum. Dinner for the 5 of us, including wine and desserts was 111 dollars. The good thing in Ecuador is that they use the US dollar as their currency, so it's easy to pay for things. I had grilled salmon and it was really yummy. We again had to take 2 cabs back to the hotel, and Diane and Yoshi and I stayed in the hotel bar and [View Full Entry]

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Zumba es la cabecera cantonal de Chinchipe, la tierra de la chonta y la guayusa. El río Mayo Chinchipe atraviesa el cantón de norte a sur. En este lugar se descubrio la cultura MAYO - CHINCHIPE DE HACE 5000 AÑOS [View Full Entry]

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Mindo is a small town about 1 hour north of Quito, and is famous for its cloud forest location. It was a very small and welcoming town, with a population of about 2500 people. Mindo is an excellent place to do birdwatching, aswell as other adventure activities such as hiking, tubing, and rafting. Here are some pictures from ziplining. The cables we were travelling on varied in length, with the shortest being 20m and the longest 400m [View Full Entry]

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Leider klappt es wirklich nicht mit den Bildlis. Das kommt dann spaeter. Was hab ich noch vergessen zu schreiben: vor meiner Jungle-Tour hab ich noch fuer 3 Stunden einen Quad gemietet. Wow, das war toll. 3 Stunden Offroad, Schlamm, Kies, Wasser. Ich war ganz schoen verschmutzt. Richtiger Cross. Und mit einem Quad der Power hat :) Um die Kurven rumgeschlaeudert und so...hihi. Das war mal eine gut Idee. Heute hab ichs geschaft meine Anmeldung zu schicken, hoffe kommt an....und heut Nacht geht es nach einem Badenachmittag im Thermalbad auf nach Peruuuu!!!! [View Full Entry]

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Im back in the hospital today,..trying to find the right moment to get them to sign me off..without putting the date... doing mtas...but anyway, the weekend was for more interesting.. Friday night I went to a school event with some of the volunteers at the navy school. They thought it was going to be a fashion show, After waiting for an hour and a half from the published start hour, the show finally started. The volunteer had undesrtood it was a school election but actually it was a beauty pageant for electing a king and queen of the sea...but really the [View Full Entry]

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Well, yesterday was a bit of a trial. Our flight from Juliaca to Quito (via Arequipa) was supposed to be at 3:25 pm. We got to the airport really early (so early that the LAN reps weren't even at the counters yet), after stopping at an Indian village and the ruins at Suillistani on our way from Puno. Well, after waiting for a long time to check in, we went through the security gates. And then it started to rain. And then it started to thunder. By around 3:00 we knew we were in trouble. Eventually, we were told that they [View Full Entry]

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I've just had a brilliant (though very tiring) weekend in Cotopaxi National Park. It started with a very early morning on saturday. I left the house at 6am and made my way to the South American Explorers Clubhouse in Quito. After introductions and a run through of the plan for the weekend we set off for Cotapaxi National Park. We arrived at Languna de Limpiopunga (3,800m the highest I'd ever been though not for long!) with the sun shining and blue skies. We set off along the lake towards Ruimiñahui (Central peak, 4,631m). Mark (one of the guides) setted a slow [View Full Entry]

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De Canoa a Puerto Lopez de 7h a 16h, rien que pour les yeux, des ambiances au gre des arrets... [View Full Entry]

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09h00 retour de pêche sur la plage. Nous apercevons au loin le ballet des oiseaux au dessus des barques de pêcheurs. Une grande surprise nous attend ce matin : un marlin (sorte d’espadon en plus gros) gît sur le sable. C’est l’effervescence sur la plage. Un pêcheur se charge de la découpe méthodique de la bête : d’abord la tête, puis l’aileron et les nageoires, ensuite le poisson est incisé sur la longueur et vidé de ses boyaux. La pesée suit, 220 (kilos, livres ???), c’est l’allégresse sur la plage. Une discussion intense s’engage autour du m [View Full Entry]

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Pictures from a gondola ride overlooking Quito. [View Full Entry]

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