Blogs from Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 5

In the six weeks since I published my last blog entry I've been a travelling fool! I've had several paid driving gigs a couple of trips taking friends around. Although Ecuador is a small country, when it comes to crossing the Andes a 300 mile journey can take a full day! I´ve been over to the coast twice, down to the edge of the Amazon Basin twice, and up to Quito and back a few times. First CiCi and I took a trip down to the coast with my rentor, Mark and his two dogs, Sally and Paco. We had arranged for this excursion even before he moved in. Mark has some friends from when he lived in Cuenca who rent a place in Montañita for a month each year and friends and relatives come to ... read more

Day 1 Today (22/05/2018) we are setting off on a three day hike known as The Quilotoa Loop in the Andean mountains of Ecuador. It’s a self guided hike so we haven’t needed to pay for a guide and have just booked to stay in hostels along the way that provided breakfast, dinner and the option of a packed lunch. We found out about the hike from Mark, a Kiwi guy who we met all the way back in October last year in India and ever since then we’ve been really keen to do it. The information we've read suggests that the walk is anywhere between 30-40 km starting off at 2,600m above sea level in Sigchos and finishing at just under 4,000m at the 3 km wide crater of a volcano in Quilotoa that is ... read more

Nachdem ich den Quilotoa loop beendet hatte, bin ich von Quilotoa nach Latacunga gefahren und von dort aus nach Baños. Die Busfahrt von Quilotoa nach Latacunga dauert ungefähr 2 Stunden (2$) und von dort aus sind es nochmal 3 Stunden (4$) nach Baños (mit einem Buswechsel in Ambato). Im ersten Bus habe ich Shane aus Australien kennengelernt. Ich hatte ihn bereits vorher in meinem Hostel in Isinlivi und ein paar Mal unterwegs gesehen, aber wir haben nie wirklich mit einander gesprochen. Er ist ein sehr netter Mann (um die 40 oder 50 denke ich) und er war schon in fast jedem Land der Welt außer in Südamerika. Er fuhr auch nach Baños, hatte sogar dasselbe Hostel gebucht wie ich, und so entschieden wir zusammen zu reisen. In Latacunga haben wir jeder unser Gepäck abgeholt und haben ... read more

On Thursday, June 14th, I got up at 5:30 to take a bus to the Quitumbe bus terminal. The bus system in Quito is great, not too difficult and buses are pretty cheap (0,25$). From Mariscal, it was a bit more than an hour to this bus terminal but so early it wasn't too crowded yet. :-) From there, I took a bus to Latacunga. It only cost 2,5$ and took about 90 minutes. The bus was very comfortable and the landscape pretty nice. In Latacunga, I took a taxi to the Hostel Tiana. They have very cheap luggage storage : only 1$ per day if you stay at least 1 night in this hostel and the day of your stay the storage is free. So I only paid 3$ and was rid of all my ... read more

As I dive into this March and April blog entry, let me start by saying "It feels so wonderful to be fully healthy again!!" A full month of challenges to heal after the stubborn kidney stone was removed from my body. I was supposed to need an internal catheter for just 2 weeks, but during the 2nd week a blood clot formed and I finally understood the extreme pain that everyone kept talking about. Sharp, severe pains began about 9:30 pm. I took a hot shower, then a cold one but by midnight the agony was so intense that I called Jean (who had driven down from Quito with me in case I needed help) and asked her to drive me to the hospital. I spent about 2 hours in the emergency room with IV painkillers, ... read more