http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Ecuador en-us Sun, 08 Nov 09 16:09:09 +0000 Sun, 08 Nov 09 16:09:09 +0000 Landing on the Galapagos Islands for the first time is something that will stick in my memory forever. Maybe it was the tikihut airport or maybe it was the sea lions lounging on a nearby beach but something made this place very special. I was greeted by Nelly and her 4 energetic children Roberto 16 Analia 14 Ivan 11 and Andre 8. It was evident that this town was very small and it wa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos/San-Cristobal-Island/blog-451436.html Back in Quito and having been away for 2 weeks it was time for our first trip to the lavanderia laundry. Having paid as much as 30 in India to have laundry done in hotels we decided to venture out to one of the lavanderias wersquod seen in town. We had a whole bundle of washing done for 5 and were quite satisfied with the result so this is definitely the way to get clean clothes in Sou http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-451187.html Nothing new this morning...same construction and sleep scenario. I headed into town to to check up on the civil strife in the states and low and behold as soon as I sit down the power goes out all through town...so I guess its time for breakfast.I head down the row and find Morritz eating at Tiki Limbo so I join him. I could only get eggs and toast since there was no pump for the water for tea http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Montanita/blog-451077.html Well we have been blown away by Cuenca. We arrived 3 days ago after an arduous 11 hour bus trip from Quito checked into an interesting Hotel where we stayed in the loft and had a very chilly night.After a quick change of hotel in the morning we headed off to a Military Parade. We had timed our trip to Cuenca to coincide with their annual celebration of their Independence from Spain. 189 year http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-451076.html Just as planned the beginning of November brings about change in my travels. I will be moving to the island of San Cristobal which is a few hours off the coast of Ecuador. A local family is dopting me for the next few months while I volunteer at Hospital Oskar Jandl. My experience in Quito has been a very memorable and unique one. I have learned many valuble lessons about Ecuador Latin Ameri http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-450785.html I am sick and tired of the overcast drizzly days in Montaita. I hear great things about Mancora Peru and may be heading down there sometime early next week if my cashola comes in from unemployment. From what travelers are saying its hot and sunny and BEAUTIFUL...something I was expecting Montaita to be while I was here...but unfortunately it is not a great place to get a tan right now...grea http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Montanita/blog-450762.html HolaNikita Undercoveragent mit privatem Bodyguard meldet sich zureuck... Ja mittlerweile fuehl ich mich echt schon so und hab ueberlegt das Business zu wechseln waere sicha interessant und spannend Naja zumindest haben wir den Humor noch nicht ganz verloren bzw. kommt es schon langsam wieder zurueckHaben die letzten Tage wirklich alles nur menschenmoegliche gemacht um an Infos und dergleich http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-450760.html Since everything was closed the past 4 days I first woke up to the large danish crowd making some noise around 8 in the kitchendining area which lasted about twenty minutes...then woke up again around 1030am from loud construction projects going on in and around the hostel. I hung out in my hammock outside for about 10 minutes to wake up. I saw David and asked him what cabaa I was moving to tod http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Montanita/blog-450733.html Wow. I really needed a good nights sleep. I slept until about 1130am then headed out to breakfast. My neighbor was up so I invited him to join me. Rob is from England and is in Montaita for a month studying spanish and working on his surfing skills...the same original idea I had when I booked my trip I just need to get back on board the bandwagon.Breakfast consisted of a couple eggs juice c http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Montanita/blog-450483.html Hmmm where has the time gone I can remember when we first conceived of this idea many many months ago and wondering whether it would be possible. How we started squirreling away some money little by little then started holding some fundraising events and people scratching their heads wondering why we were trying to raise funds for a trip so far in the distance creating summer camps http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-450361.html JEcuador is so named because it's on the equator. So to see if water really does flush down toilets in alternate directions in each hemisphere we headed up to Mitad del Mundo 'Half the World'. We've already burned through about a third of our budget for the entire trip in Quito and the Galapagos Islands so to keep costs down we went on a couple of buses to travel the 22km to the Mitad del Mu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Banos/blog-450246.html One of my biggest responsibilities right now is being in charge of this business for the oldest high school girls of sales. Wersquore working with the girls work program in the escuela helping them make quality products helping them sell going out and doing publicity in Quito outside the Center. Girls program is truly one of my favorite things in the Center. Wersquore teaching the girls http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-450047.html Update from the land of giant tortoises We went on a search this weekend for a cheap tour for the week after our last work week at the reserve which is our last week in Galpagos. We didnt have much luck in the port of San Cristobal so we decided to take a ferry over to the bigger town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz. We got here this morning and within one hour of being here we found a tour fo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos/Santa-Cruz-Island/blog-450013.html Ich versuche hier Fotos raufzuladen.Sie sehen fots von Baos und Simons Quadausflug. Dann folgt die Selva von Guyabeno und schliesslich Coca. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-449813.html I woke up this morning around 830am. Since I was up I might as well try to get on the surf trip up the coast at 10am. I stumbled into town to check if there was still room and nobody was around. I joined Bill and Tom at Tiki Limbo for breakfast I ended up just having Tea just to get me moving. I popped in to school a few times and finally around 950 Isidro was packing up surfboards for the trip http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Montanita/blog-449799.html 31.10.20091530Vive la vidaGefuehlte 60C im Schatten Schwuele nun faengt sie an die Schwitzerei.Nach dem relativ kuehlen Cuenca auf 2550m ueber NN und dem fruehlingshaften Baos auf 1500m bin ich nun nach vierstuendiger Busfahrt im Tiefland auf der oestlichen Seite der Anden gelandet dem Oriente Ecuadors einem Teil des AmazonasRegenwaldgebietes.Platt wie eine Flunder liege ich in einer H http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/East/Tena/blog-449796.html OK so Saquisili Market was great outstanding excellent ... Otovalo Market was just as good even maybe a tiny bit better. We were sceptical about Otovalo it's on the main package tourist trail and we thought the whole market might now be focused on the tourist trade. Since we weren't in the market for nik naks we weren't sure this market was for us. But first let me tell you the town of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Otavalo/blog-449795.html JIn the last two days I've learned two lessons the hard way 1 Yesterday lunchtime we went for lunch at Mercado Central which is where all of the locals eat. Mercado Central is basically a large hall split into scores of identically sized domesticlooking kitchens each offering slightly different local fayre from the next. Our smattering of Spanish was not comprehensive enough to translate mo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-449731.html Hola noch mal...fuer alle die sich ueber den letzten Blog amuesiert haben... hier kommt mal was anderes wirklich schlechte NachrichtenALLES WEG Sind vogestern abend AUSGERAUBT worden dh. der Carina die Tasche runtergerissen... und wir waren nicht total unvorsichtig aber wir waren nur 30 sek von der Touristenstrasse entfernt und es ging so schnell und der Henkel der Tasche ist gerissen u http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Guayaquil/blog-449724.html We just finished our second week of work at the reserve...the time is flying by This week included a lot of machete work clearing some land for the organic garden. Other than that we did some seed planting watering and a trip to the Interpretation Center where we read all about the history of the Galpagos.During the week we had the chance to go on a authentic Galapaganian pig hunt We ventur http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos/San-Cristobal-Island/blog-449696.html