2017: Ecuador (Highly Recommended!)

Today I revisited this blog to search for photos of our China experience.  A whole calendar year has again slipped by without comment in this space.  The international highlight was our trip to Ecuador.  Although it had been high on our desired destination list for some time, it moved to the top of the list when a family friend asked if we would take her there upon her high school graduation.  Yes! Si!  Ben had taught school there in the late 1990's and had visited again in 2006.  Before we knew it, there were 6 enthusiastic young folks joining this adventure.

The takeaway on Ecuador is simply this: if you have the opportunity to visit, GO!!!  The people are lovely, scenery and climate remarkable and variety impossible to describe.  Food is also delicious, and due to recent governmental stability and other improvements, the roads are superb and transit from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Ocean is quite manageable.

Here is a sampling from July 2017...

Puerto Lopez, Ecuador

el Placer de Toache

River in el Placer de Toache

 Dairy Land in the Andes

 School where Ben taught in 1998

 Blue footed boobies on Isla de la Plata

 Beach in Puerto Lopez

 Crossing the border from Colombia at Ipiales

 Ben's new pan flute from Otovalo craftsman

 Shepherdess in early morning, Otovalo

 Mt. Chimburazo

 Fellow passenger on bus to Cuenca

Incan ruins in Cuenca 

 Hat factory in Cuenca

 Local artist friend in Cuenca

 With friends in Cuenca

 Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World)

 Standing room only bus in Quito

 Bread maker in Quito

 Hosteleria in Banos

 Artists in Otovalo market

 Bus station in Santo Domingo de los Colorados

 Amazing flowers in the tropical area

 Sea turtles in the Pacific near Isla de la Plata

 Bananas everywhere

Lunch of trout, plaintains, yam soup, fresh tree tomato juice, rice in Colombia

Impromptu Sign Language lesson for children in rural school