Blogs from Ecuador, South America - page 662

After the Encounter overland trip finished in Caracas, I was convinced by Brian to join him in the Galapagos . He, along with others left for Quito on a different flight pre booked by Drago as they continue their trip from Ecuador, meanwhile I was booked on another flight. I asked Wilma or Brian if they can buy me Colombian coffee when they make a stop over in Bogota, which they did thanks so much, meanwhile my flight left Caracas and then turned back due to mechanical problems and we were so delayed I didn't get to Quito til midnight, by chance a Danish couple is staying at the Secret Garden like me so we carpooled and hire a taxi together. Got a dorm room and slept, next morning met up with the guys in their ... read more

My new assignment t the Sanctuario was coming along swimmingingly through the first week until Monday night (4/19) when I decided to bike into town after dinner because I needed to make a call and the phone line at the Sanctuario was dead. I hadn't used the bicycle there before and, evidentky, the breaks hadn't been properly reattached when someone fixed the tire the day before. I started down the hill toward town and noticed the lack of working breaks in seconds....fell within a minute. I'm not sure if the breaks finally kicked in and that threw me off, or if I just hit a pothole or patch of gravel. I got up and realized something was very wrong with my arm, but figured I'd probably just dislocated my shoulder, which would be easy enough to ... read more

well it´s been an eventful week and a half for all in ecuador and quito especially so why not discuss it in blog form I thought. There were sporadic demonstrations in the streets of quito the past few months, but it all started to heat up a week and a half ago whilst I was asleep early ready to get up and go to visit the valley of the volcanoes (as it is known) 2 hours to the south of quito. Whilst I was asleep a state of emergency was temporarily called by young lucio guittirez (the president of ecuador) until the US stepped in and said dont be silly, and then it stopped again. Meanwhile I was soon off on my way to see quilatoa a volcano that has a lake inside it, which was ... read more

Hi! Don't have a lot of time right now and haven't really thought this through, but given the current state of affairs in Ecuador thought I'd better write a few lines to let you know I'm safe! Got back from the Galapagos on Sunday (more on that later!) to read in the paper that Ecuador was under a State of Emergency. Then an hour later to read in a different newspaper that it had been called off. Either way there had apparently been riots in the streets, calling for the President to step down due to corruption scandals, etc, the usual South American political shenanigans. Didn't notice anything other than a lot of cars horns all night, but nothing unusual there. Either way decided to leave Quito asap and next morning came down to the relative ... read more

I left Quito in a hurry on Tuesday night to beat a bus strike and get Mariana back to Quito by Friday. We had to leave a lot faster than I expected and I forgot a few things in the rush....my guitar, my aloe, my guidebook. I barely caught the night bus to Puerto Lopez, followed by a another bus to the Sanctuario Santa Maria Del Fiat, which is where I'll be living for the next two months. The Sanctuario sits on a cliff above the pacific ocean (in sight of Montañita) and provides a school, home or both for 800 children. The yougest they have now is 5 weeks old, and was found abondoned in the street on the day he was born. Because he's so young, finding him a home is easy (14 families ... read more